Beit Ha Haim

Beit Ha Haim cemetery in Chennai

      Before the late 19th century, Madras was home to a Jewish community of several thousand; many of them coral and diamond merchants and their families. Today, descendents of the original Jewish population total 10 or less. This is the entrance to the city’s Jewish cemetery, twice removed from its original site and greatly diminished. A trust founded by a local Jewish family maintains the site in honor of ancestors murdered in the Holocaust. Beit Ha Haim (House of Life) sits in a largely Muslim neighborhood, close by a fish market and the Bay of Bengal.     

My ACJ colleague Andrew at the grave of Bagdhadi-born Toya, whose brief, tragic life he researched and chronicled in his blog. Toya’s half brother and his family in Canada were grateful to finally learn what became of her.  

 

 

Another grave