Magain Shalome Synagogue

The Magain Shalome Synagogue (Hebrew: בית הכנסת מגן שלום‎) (Urdu: امن کنیسہ کے سٹار‎) was the cornerstone of a former Jewish community in Karachi, Pakistan. The Synagogue was built by Soloman David Umerdekar in 1893. The synagogue was extended in 1912 by Umerdekar’s two sons, Gershon Solomon Umerdekar and Rahamim Solomon Umerdekar. A community hall named “Shegulbai Hall” was built by Abraham Reuben Kamerlekar in memory of Shegulabai Solomon Umerdekar. In 1916-18 the Karachi Jewish community opened a Hebrew school on the synagogue premises and in 1918 constructed the Nathan Abraham Hall. There was a signboard on the synagogue, reading as “Pakistan Bene Israel Association”, “Bani Israel Masjid” and also something like, “Only Jewish people are allowed to enter this place”.

The synagogue soon became the center of a small but vibrant Jewish community, one of whose leaders, Abraham Reuben, became a councilor on the city corporation in 1936. On July 17, 1988, the Magen Shalom synagogue was destroyed to make way for a shopping plaza (Madiha Square)in the Ranchore Lines neighborhood of Karachi.

In 1989, the original Ark and podium were stored by a non-Jew in Karachi; a Torah scroll case was taken by an American Jewess to the US. In 2004 she donated synagogue registers covering the period 1961-1976 to the Ben-Zvi Institute Library in Jerusalem. In these ledgers, a circumcision was recorded in 1963 and several weddings in 1963-64. In 1973 only 15 names were written down, of whom nine were listed as “left Karachi”.