David Sassoon
David Sassoon · Economics & Business
Founder of the Sassoon house in Bombay; built the city's synagogues, library, school and hospital and led its Jewish community.
octobre 1792, Bagdad, Empire ottoman — 7 novembre 1864, Pune, Inde britannique
Bagdad, Bouchehr, Bombay
David Sassoon is recognized among Jewish contributors to Economics & Business — Founder of the Sassoon house in Bombay; built the city's synagogues, library, school and hospital and led its Jewish community.
Origins and early life
David Sassoon (1792-1864) was born in Baghdad, where his father was chief treasurer to the pashas and head (nasi) of the Jewish community, and where he himself served as treasurer from 1817 to 1829.
Work and career
Persecuted by Dawud Pasha, the family fled to Bushehr and, after his father's death, to Bombay, arriving in 1832. There he founded David Sassoon & Sons, trading between British textile firms and the merchants of the Persian Gulf, then in China after the Treaty of Nanking; opium played a key part in that success, as it did for his competitors, and it is what made him the 'Merchant Prince of Bombay'. He turned the fortune outward: the Magen David synagogue at Byculla and the Ohel David synagogue at Pune, the David Sassoon Library and Reading Room, a hospital, a school, a Mechanics' Institute and a convalescent home, and the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution, which taught Arabic, Hebrew and bookkeeping to young Jews arriving from Baghdad, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
He became the leader of Bombay's Jews and did much to awaken a sense of shared identity among the Bene Israel and the Jews of Cochin.
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Source: Wikipedia
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Founder of the Sassoon house in Bombay; built the city's synagogues, library, school and hospital and led its Jewish community.
Source: Wikipedia
