The Karachi Jews and the history of Pakistani antisemitism

ABSTRACT

With the help of multi-sited ethnography in Israel and Pakistan, this paper looks at the history of antisemitism in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. I show that while antisemitism is widespread in parts of Pakistani society today, it was not the reason why most of Karachi’s Jews left the country in the 1960s or the 1970s. In the paper, I explore possible explanations for the rise of antisemitism in parts of Pakistan’s society.

KEYWORDS:

• Pakistan
• Jews in Pakistan
• oral history
• Bene Israel
• antisemitism
• Karachi

Acknowledgements

This article has been written with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research support in Germany and the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I want to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article who helped me immensely in bringing my argument to light.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Bene Israel’ can be a misleading term, as it pertains to the Jewish community in general (especially in theological works) and to the Bene Israel (as a group originating from Maharashtra) in particular.

2 Nathan Katz called this process their ‘Hebrewization’ in Katz 2000.

3 Nissim Moses, a hobby researcher who himself is a member of the Bene Israel and one of the community's leading historians and genealogists, for example, brought this suspicion about the Bene Israel up in one of our talks. To clear all remaining doubt, he cited a study that tested the Bene Israel for the Cohen Y chromosomes, which appear in high frequency amongst many Jews throughout the world. The study had found a high frequency amongst the Bene Israel, as Nissim Moses pointed out, and thus proves their Jewish roots.

4 Unfortunately, Reuben’s book is riddled with historical inaccuracies and so only partially useful. See, for example, p.78. It was not Bhutto who ordered the synagogue's destruction, as Bhutto had already been killed in 1979 by Zia ul Haq.

5 The trope of outsiders attacking communal harmony is frequently found in Sind’s history and often used to dampen further communal friction. They even appear today (Schaflechner 2017, 305).

6 Magen Shalom was in the hands of a trust. How Rachel became the owner of the Jewish properties is not clear. In Reuben’s book, we find the suggestion that someone forged the papers to prove that she was the property owner so that the property could be stolen from her (Reuben 2010, 185). The book does not explain who could have done this. On another occasion, the book claims that Rachel put an advertisement into the Pakistani newspaper and asked everyone who could lay claim on the plot to come forward (Reuben 2010, 46).

7 This story is contested by their family (whom I met in Lod, Israel), who claims that the siblings were forced into selling the estate.

8 If Israeli sources are right, then this migration process has not stopped till today. Ynet, an Israeli news outlet, writes that 4 Pakistani Jews migrated to Israel in 2012 (Eichner 2019).

9 At first, I considered using pseudonyms. Almost all of my central informants, however, wanted to provide their names. I decided to do so but mainly use their first names. Names that have been changed to protect my informants are marked with an asterisk (*).

10 One of the sefer thoras in the Magen Shalom (apparently there were around a dozen) was also brought to Karachi by Isaak's father from Afghanistan.

11 These accounts are crucial, as they contradict what many in Pakistan believe. Namely, that around 200 Jews live in hiding in Karachi until today. Aside from so called emerging Jewish communities, I was not able to confirm any of these claims. I will talk about this in a future publication.

12 Their families remain in Pakistan until today without, however, widely publicize their Jewish roots. I know at least two Jewish men in Pakistan who come from such backgrounds (one of them being Fishel)

13 Like my other informants in this study, I sent Fishel what I had written about him. I changed many parts according to his wishes. I also left out ethnographic details for keeping him and his family in Karachi safe. Since Fishel is very active on social media and somewhat famous, it was unnecessary to anonymize his account.

14 One example of this is Noor Dahri’s article published in the online version of The Jewish News. He writes: ‘Why did the remaining Jewish people hide their religious affiliation in Pakistan, and why was Fishel Benkhald, a Jewish man (who voluntarily disclosed his Jewish connection), beaten up mercilessly by an Islamic mob, abducted by Police, and tortured by Para Military Force in Pakistan?’ (Dahri 2016). The framing as well as the wording ‘Islamic mob’ are both inaccurate.

15 Such conspiracy theories involving vaccination are not new to the Coronavirus but have already been spread during Pakistan's struggle against polio. Especially amongst the Pashtuns, the state faces stiff resistance against vaccination, as many people believe that the vaccination is a conspiracy to sterilize their offspring (Gillani 2020).

16 This number is compared to 35% of Muslims living in Israel (Fatah 2010, 311).

17 Antisemitic tropes are not only found in Pakistan but are also frequent in the Indian Urdu Press and amongst the teachings of Indian televangelists such as Zakir Naik (Quamar 2016).

18 Blurring the borders between antisemitism, antizionism, and critique of Israeli politics, however, is not only utilized by Israel critics. Right-wing governments in Israel too conflate criticism of Israeli occupational policies—for example in the West bank, Jerusalem, or the Gaza Strip—with antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation of the International Criminal Court's probe into war crimes in the West Bank as being antisemitic is but one example (Heller 2019). Both Israeli and international post-Zionist historians and sociologist, therefore, do not tire of arguing against a simplified equation of these terms (Flapan 1983; Pappe 2017; Shlaim 2009).

19 Ahmed writes in this regard about a secret meeting between Zafrullah Khan and the Israeli ambassador Abba Eban at the United Nations. Khan is quoted saying that Pakistan accepts Israel’s position in the Middle East and would support peace negations with the Arabas. Ahmed assumes that this gesture (even when done in secret) was Pakistan’s way of pleasing the US which was providing military and economic aid (Ahmed 2020).

20 This is also apparent from a study of the Urdu journal Chattan in the 1960s, which I will come back to in a future publication.

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Jürgen Schaflechner

Jürgen Schaflechner is a research group leader at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin. He studies the political and social movements of religious minorities in transnational South Asia in the era of social media and communicative capitalism. His other research interests include the anthropology of conspiracy theories, the politics of emotions (especially of ressentiment), and ethnographic and documentary filmmaking. Some of his books include Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan (OUP 2018), and Pakistan: Alternative Imaginings of the Nation-State (OUP 2020, coedited with Ayesha Asif and Christina Oesterheld). Jürgen‘s writing and filmmaking can be found at: https://www.juergen-schaflechner.com/