Origins
The Jews of India waited centuries to build their first synagogues, praying in temporary structures or private houses. The buildings that were eventually built vary greatly in their scale, style, and visual orientation. Some, particularly those belonging to the Baghdadi Jews based in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Pune, are grand and built in various Western styles using fine materials and elaborate detail. Constructed by the Baghdadi Jewish community who first came from Iraq, Iran, and a handful of other Near Eastern countries and settled in India permanently beginning in the 18th century is a Neo-Baroque synagogue in the Fort section of Mumbai, a Renaissance revival one in central Kolkata and, in English tradition, a neo-Gothic structure in fine condition sitting within an open site in the Camp area of Pune. The largest synagogue in Asia outside Israel is considered to be in Pune (Ohel David Synagogue).
Read more about this topic: Synagogues In India
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
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—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)