August 24 1690 – 29 Elul 5450
The city of Kolkata (Calcutta) was founded by the British East India Company. The first Jew to settle there was Shalom Aharon Obadiah Hacohen, who was born in Aleppo, Syria. Arriving in 1798, Cohen was the driving force behind the establishment of Calcutta’s Jewish community. India’s oldest Jewish community, the Malabar Jews, have a tradition dating their arrival to the second century BCE.