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Flyer announcing a series of lectures in “First Aid to the injured” under the auspices of the Jewish Division of St. John’s Ambulance Association. The flyer informs that the lectures will commence on 15 April 1934, and will be delivered by Dr. O. David, M.B., B.S. at the Jacob Sassoon High School. The course will consist of about eight lectures, fully illustrated, on Human Anatomy and Physiology, Circulatory, Respiratory, Digestive and Nervous Systems, Fractures, and Drowning and Poisoning. The courses, for which no fee is to be charged, will take place on Sundays commencing at 10:00 A.M. The flyer also announces a junior class and a Home Hygiene class. It is noted that ladies of the Moslem community, having taken these courses, formed a Nursing Division. The flyer then comments that “It is therefore high time that the Jewish Community avail themselves of these courses.” If sufficient applications are received from ladies, of any age, a lady doctor will offer the class. It is noted that his Excellency the Governor appreciates the work of the brigade and gives awards to the deserving. The flyer is printed over the name of Samuel Judah, Honorary Secretary, Jewish Centre, Bombay.
The Jewish community of Bombay traces its origins to the mid-sixteenth century, and the foundation of a permanent Jewish settlement in Bombay to the second half of the eighteenth century by the Bene Israel who gradually moved from their villages in the Konkan region to Bombay. Cochin Jews strengthened the Bene Israel in their religious revival. The next largest wave of immigrants to Bombay consisted of Jewish merchants from Syria and Mesopotamia. The Arabic-speaking Jewish colony in Bombay was increased by the influx of other Arabian Jew from Surat, who, in consequence of economic changes there, turned their eyes to India. The prosperity of Bombay attracted a new wave of Jewish immigrants from Cochin, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bukhara, and Persia. With immigration to Israel the community has declined in numbers.
This flyer is important, representing a little known and unrecorded sidelight of the daily life of Indian Jewish history.
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