during the british rule in india, kolkata was a thriving metropolis, the capital of british india and the commercial hub of india. it attracted numerous trading communities including the jews. the first recorded jewish immigrant to kolkata was shalom aharon obadiah cohen, who arrived in kolkata in 1798. cohen was born in aleppo in present-day syria in 1762. he arrived in surat in the year 1792 and established himself as a trader before moving to kolkata. in 1805, his nephew moses simon duek ha cohen arrived in kolkata. he married his eldest daughter lunah. in the early nineteenth century the baghdadi jews began to settle in large numbers in kolkata, thus outnumbering the jews from aleppo.