From Baghdad to Kolkata:
Ritual Objects, Vessels of Memory
All Baghdadi-Indian event photos courtesy of Maegan Gindi
Beginning in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Jewish families from Baghdad, seeking economic opportunity and greater stability, migrated to India, where they built synagogues and communal institutions that became central to Jewish life across the subcontinent.
This exhibition traces the history of the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata (Calcutta), one of the principal centers of Jewish life in India, through the heirlooms and ritual objects preserved by Rahel Musleah and her family. A seventh-generation member of Kolkata’s Jewish community, Rahel traces her family’s lineage to Baghdad.
The objects displayed here — embroidered textiles, sacred scrolls, ritual silver, mezuzot and protective amulets, manuscripts and prayer books — were not collected as museum pieces, but preserved and used across generations within a living family and communal tradition. Together, they offer a window into the religious and domestic life of Kolkata’s Jewish community and the traditions carried between Baghdad and India.
Textiles
Many of these works reflect the distinctive culture that emerged as Baghdadi Jewish traditions encountered the artistic and material worlds of the Indian subcontinent. Ritual objects crafted in Kolkata reveal influences from Iraqi, Indian, and broader colonial trade networks, while manuscripts and liturgical texts preserve the customs and melodies of the Baghdadi rite as practiced in the synagogues and homes of Jewish India.
Rahel’s father, Rabbi Ezra Musleah, served at Kolkata’s historic Maghen David Synagogue, linking the family’s personal history to the wider communal life of the city.
The exhibition’s subtitle, Vessels of Memory, speaks both to the ritual function of these objects and to their role as carriers of family history, migration, and identity. Though only a small Jewish population remains in Kolkata today, the memories, traditions, and material culture preserved by families like the Musleahs continue to safeguard the enduring legacy of Jewish India.
Select a collection below to explore the objects and stories within:
Metalwork & Ceramics
Sacred Texts & Documents
See the map and graphics below for an overview of Jewish Life in India:
