The Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue, Mumbai, India

We try to visit as many different places of worship as we can during our travels.  Some of it is just for our own curiosity, but also, because I think others may also want to see them, too.  It seems that a lot of the noise coming out of the televisions in all countries, is trying to program us to hate other cultures, instead of educating us about them.  Aren’t we all the same, deep inside, and aren’t most religions centered around us living with hope, and in harmony?

There are many religious holidays around springtime, and in our last post I mentioned that it’s Holy Week on the Christian calendar.  A friend reminded me that it’s Passover, which commemorates the time that the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, on the Jewish calendar.  This, in turn, reminded me of a very beautiful synagogue that we visited in Mumbai, India.

This particular trip to Mumbai was during the rainy season, and I was trying to get our tour guide to think outside the box of usual tourist sites and WoW me with something different.  Tour guides are a mixed lot and I sensed our current one was hoping to take us to the black hole of a museum, where he’d kill two or three hours rattling off facts to make us sleepy and ready to head back to the hotel for a nap.  Well, the Giuncas don’t swing that way, and after three loud “NOs!” to every museum and (gasp!) shopping mall that he mentioned, he came up with a real gem: The Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue.

“The synagogue is not really a tourist site and I doubt that they’ll let you take pictures, but I’ll try to get permission,” he said.  ~Humm, I was starting to like him better already!  We turned down a narrow street, which was full of activity, despite the pouring rain, and parked the car in the middle of a huge puddle of ankle-deep water.  We received a warm, but puzzled greeting, but soon we were being led around the synagogue, by a most gracious host.  The Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue is an orthodox synagogue that was built in 1884 by Sir Jacob Elias Sassoon, in memory of their father, the 1st Baronet of Bombay, Elias David Sassoon, we learned.

After walking up a wooden stairway, we arrived at the balcony, where I made the photo above.  Is it what you readers expected?  I really had no idea what to expect, as the building’s exterior had been pretty much nondescript, and was somewhat dazzled by this beautiful view of the interior.  We spent more time photographing different areas and chatting with our host, and then headed off again on our rainy day tour of Mumbai.

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