File:Shaare Rason Synagogue, Mumbai, Info 1.jpg

Heritage Building
Shaar Rason Synagogue
In 1839 Samuel Jacob Divekar, Haeem Isaji (Isaac) Garsulkar, with other Bene Israel Jews in Mumbai who have formed the new Shaar Rason congregation, subsribed a sum of Rs. 2725 for the purchase of land for this synagogue site. The acquisition of the property took place on the 22nd of December 1840. During the period the synagogue was being planned and built, the membership rented a room in a building owned by Daniel Kehimkar Maistry. On the 4th of June 1843 Shaar Rason Synagogue was constructed.
For their first decades in Mumbai, the Bene Isrrael Jews conducted their prayer service in private houses or borrowed facilities. By the closing years of the eighteen century, the growing community needed proper synagogues as religious, educational and social centres of Jewish life. Shaar Rason, Hebrew for Gateway of Desire, was the second Bene Isreal Synagogue to be built in Mumbai. It was located at 90, Tantapur Street in the congested Isreal Mohalla, Khadhk area of the city,within easy walking distance form the first Bene Isreal Synagogue Shaar Ha - Rahamim (Gate of Mercy) at 245, Samuel Street. Shaar Ha - Rahamim became known as the "Old Synagogue," and Shaar Rason as the "New Synagogue." The New Synagogue was constructed by voluntary contribution raised by a group formerly affiliated with the Old Synagogue who have become dissatisfied with its management. This group is set out to establish their own, independent congregation.
Shaar Rason is surrounded by a thick wall interrupted by a couple of openings. The main gateway is detailed with a pediment with an inscription and a pair of wooden doors opening into the synagogue compound. The property wall, built of simple structural brick veneered in chunam (polished lime shale and sand) , is connected to a gabled roof of the breezeway that abuts the synagogue. The architecture of the synagogue is solid in appearance, with few doors and windows. The building's ornamentation includes simple modeling, unardoned pilasters, and recessed paneled roof parapet crowned by a swooping feature that reflects the one atop the gate pediment. The projection includes a Hebrew verse, the name of the synagogue in Hebrew and a Magen David (Star of David). Like other buildings, the sloped roof of the breezeway and the synagogue are framed in wood and covered with flat ceramic tiles. The roof overhangs are deep, in response to Mumbai's annual monsoon and hot climate.
The covered breezeway with buid - in benches leads to the entry doors of the sanctuary, and a covered stair connected to the far (north) end of the building leads up to the women sitting gallery. In contrast to the synagogue's reserved and weathered exterior, the interior is more lively and orderly. One enters the synagogue by passing under the women's gallery in a low area that serves as an anteroom and then passing by a pair of columns into the sanctuary. This columns are inspired by the Boaz and Jachim pillars of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The thick chunam walls of the sanctuary are painted a pale yellow, and the room is lined with casement windows and transoms above. The sanctuary's opening ceiling, a hip gable shape, provides volume to the space. Common to many buildings of this region and vintage,the roof framing, in painted wood, is exposed. The result is an intimate, human - scaled space.
The rectangular sanctuary follows the spatial planning of other Bene Isreal Synagogue with their centrally positioned raised tebah (bimah, or readre's platform from wheree the Torah is read) and, to the far wall heckal (ark). The tebah's design includes raised wooden panels at its base, turned intricately - carved newly posts and brass balusters, and a shaped handrail. As is traditional, the teak reading desck is covered with special fabric. Shaar Eason's heckal, a cabinet against the wall that is used for storing the torah scroll, is constructed also out of teak and beautifully crafted. It is notable for its carved details and divided - lite glass doors. The heckal is drapped in traditional cloth called the parachetand raised of the floor by few steps. Small bulbs surround the heckal, dramatizing the central feature.
Shaar Rason's interior includes light grey stone floor pavers, Hebrew "Tree of Life" framing displayed around the room, florescent tube scones, and fan hung from the walls. A variety of ceiling fans, glass lanterns, and lighting fixtures hang from the sloped ceiling. Other architectural and liturgical design features are the free standing wooden benches placed around the sanctuary and the drapped chairs flanking the heckal. This chairs are dedicated to the prophet Elijah and the brit mila, or circumcision ceremony. Shaar Rason's compound includes a small outdoor space, used over the years for religious and social celebrations as well as former mikveh (ritual bath) that is now used as an office. The synagogue still serves a small, active congregation and has a full time hazzan (cantor). Prayer services are held daily here.
According to oral history, the Bene Isreal Jews came to India in ancient time as traders from the Middle East. Perhaps as long as two thosand years ago, they settled in small towns and villages in the Raigad District within the Kolkan Region of coastal Maharashtra. The lived there for centuries, following various Jewish customs and practices while coexisting among greater Indian population. Many years later, begining in the late eighteen century and continuing into the next century some of the Bene Israel reclocate to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Karachi, when these then British cities were expanding and offering employment and other opportunities.
Now more than a century and three quarters old , Shaar Rason is a testament to Mumbai's noble tradition of diversity and tolerance. Here Jewish and Muslim neighbors have coexisted in the trust Indian spirit of communal harmony and respect.
The plaque was installed by
FRIENDS OF INDIAN SYNAGOGUES
January 2015