Shalom Obadiah Cohen

Shalom Aaron Obadiah Cohen (1762–1836) was a Jewish jeweler, merchant, and community leader known for founding the Jewish community in Kolkata.

Life and career Early life

Shalom Aaron Obadiah Cohen was born in Aleppo in 1762 to Aaron Obadiah Cohen and Chana Dayan. Much of what is known about his early life originates from his diary, spanning from 1789 to 1834. The manuscript was written in Judeo-Arabic.

First journey to India Cohen traveled to India in 1789 via Baghdad, Hillah, and Basra. From Basra, at the time an important port for merchants, he embarked on a six-week voyage on a British ship heading to Mumbai.

Surat Cohen returned to India on a more permanent basis in April 1792, bringing a cook and servant and buying a house from an Armenian merchant. However, when he sent for his wife Seti Duek Cohen and daughter Rebecca to join him in India, his father-in-law responded that they would not be coming "even if the entire distance from Aleppo to Surat were paved in jewels." His trade consisted mainly of diamonds, indigo, Dacca cloth, and silk. At one point he had a conflict with Samuel Guise-Moores, who was then acting as his private physician. In a letter to John Griffin, the head of the East India Company in Surat, Cohen demanded that he reprimand Guise-Moores. Soon after he settled there, he was joined by other Jewish merchants from Aleppo and Baghdad, including his brother Abraham.

By 1806, as evidenced by a letter to Thomas Brown, then acting Chief Secretary of the British Government in India, Cohen requested British protection as he closed his businesses in Aleppo, Baghdad, Bushehr, and Basra. Cohen decided to settle in India instead of returning to the Middle East.

In May 1811, he purchased a home in Kolkata, which also served as the prayer hall for the growing local Jewish community, that still lacked a synagogue.

Court jeweller in Lucknow Having become particularly well known as an expert in the jewelry trade, he moved to Lucknow as the court jeweler for the Nawab Wazir Ghazi ad-Din Haidar and his son in 1816. In Lucknow, the Nawab granted him a "Robe of Honor" and he was given the distinction of riding with the Nawab on his elephant. His monthly salary in this period was around 2,000 rupees.

Later life After a three-year stay as the court jeweler, Cohen left Lucknow with a group of more than one hundred people who were employed by him. In 1828, he had an audience with the Governor General of India, Lord William Cavendish Bentinck.

Legacy

Cohen and his son-in-law Moses Duek were two of the founders of Kolkata's first synagogue, Neveh Shalome, in 1831.