Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai

Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue

The Blue Synagogue of Bombay

In Kala Ghoda — Mumbai's Fort art district, steps from the Taj and the Prince of Wales Museum — a sky-blue neoclassical synagogue gathers one of India's last active Baghdadi-Jewish congregations. Knesset Eliyahoo ("Gathering of Elijah"), completed in 1884, is the story of the Sassoons in stone.

The Sassoon Story

David Sassoon fled Baghdad for Bombay in 1832 and built a cotton-and-opium trading empire; his family — the "Rothschilds of the East" — endowed synagogues, schools, libraries, and hospitals across the city. His grandson Jacob Elias Sassoon raised Knesset Eliyahoo in memory of his father Eliyahoo (Elias) David Sassoon. The Baghdadi community — Arabic-speaking, Sephardic-rite (Nusach Sefard), commercially brilliant — filled it on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, spilling into the neighbouring Cawasjee Jehangir Hall.

Architecture

British architects Gostling & Morris gave Bombay a Victorian synagogue with Indian-Jewish soul: neoclassical exterior, sanctuary facing west toward Jerusalem, imported Victorian stained glass, Minton tile floors, cast-iron columns, a reader's platform before a carved Torah ark — with social hall, classrooms, offices, and mikveh below the double-height sanctuary. The 2018–19 restoration returned the building to white with bright indigo borders.

The Community Today

Most Baghdadi Jews emigrated after 1948, but Knesset Eliyahoo holds regular Shabbat-morning and holiday services under the Jacob Sassoon Trust — the second-oldest Sephardic synagogue in Mumbai still at prayer. Visitors are welcome at posted hours (not early mornings, Friday afternoons, or Saturdays); modest dress, quiet respect, and the custodian's guidance apply.