Joseph Seemah from Baghdad opened the Surat synagogue and cemetery in 1730.[19] The Baghdadi community in Surat grew and by the end of the 18th century, as many as 100 Jews from Baghdad, Aleppo and Basra made up the Judeo-Arabic speaking merchant colony of Surat.[20] This was to become the first of a string of Baghdadi communities stretching from Bombay to Kobe be established in Asia.