Ezekiel Judah: Difference between revisions

Ezekiel Judah was the scioncame offrom a nobleprominent Jewish family of Jewishin Baghdad, known as the Judah family in English, the Yehuda family in Hebrew, or originally as the Ma'tuk family.

The Ma’tuk family of Baghdad were descended from Rabbi Ma’tuk, the last Nasi or Prince of the Jewish community of [[Anah]], on the [[Euphrates]],. whoRabbi Ma'tuk fled to Baghdad with his family in the first quarter of the 17th century following the threats of a tyrannical governor who had persecuted the community.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ma'tuk, Sulayman ben David|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ma-x0027-tuk-sulayman-ben-david|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> Rabbi Ma’tuk, as was the custom for leaders of leading Jewish communities in [[Iraq]] at the time, had been the Saraf-Bashi, or Treasurertreasurer, of the governor.<ref>{{Cite web|title={{title}}|url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/ana|access-date=28 August 2020-08-28|website={{(lang=='en')?'Museum of The Jewish People -– Beit Hatfutsot':'בית התפוצות -– מוזיאון העם היהודי'|archive-date=23 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823042917/https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/ana|url-status=dead}}</ref> The historian of Baghdad Jewry, Rabbi [[David Solomon Sassoon]], says the Ma’tuk family has been established in Anah for centuries.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sassoon|first=David Solomon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbttAAAAMAAJ|title=A History of the Jews in Baghdad|date=1949|publisher=S.D. Sassoon|language=en}}</ref>

The family’sfamily's flight reflected a shift in the axis of Mesopotamian Jews. The historian of Iraqi Jewry, Zvi Yehuda, says the conflict between [[Ottoman TurkeyEmpire|the Ottoman Empire]] and Persia harmed Anah, and the cessation of the caravan trade between [[Aleppo]] and Baghdad impoverished the Jewish community, seeing many of the wealthiest Jewish families like the Ma’tuks depart for Baghdad.<ref name="yehuda">{{Cite book|last=Yehuda|first=Zvi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSQzDwAAQBAJ|title=The New Babylonian Diaspora: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Community in Iraq, 16th-20th16th–20th Centuries C.E.|date=2017-08-28 August 2017|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-35401-2|language=en}}</ref> Anah, which hashad previously been a prosperous Jewish centrecenter, fell into sharp decline, with a Portuguese travellertraveler in 1663 even observing therethat werethe only Jews who lived there who made their livelihoods out ofby making clothecloth out of camel hair.<ref name="yehuda"/>

Despite this, origins in Anah, were in fact seen as a sign of family’sthe family's antiquity amongst Iraqi Jews at the time. This was due to the ancient Iraqi Jewish belief that Anah was the site of [[Nehardea Academy|Nehardea]], which features prominently in the [[Talmud]], including as the first seat of the [[Exilarch|Exhilarch]] and his [[Beth Dindin]].<ref>{{Cite web|title={{title}}|url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/ana|access-date=27 August 2020-08-27|website={{(lang=='en')?'Museum of The Jewish People -– Beit Hatfutsot':'בית התפוצות -– מוזיאון העם היהודי'}}|archive-date=23 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823042917/https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/ana|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Jews of Anah maintained a belief they were descended from the [[Babylonian captivity|Babylonian Exile]] and never subsequently returned to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bataween|date=2006-04-11 April 2006|title=Passover pilgrimage to Ezekiel's tomb in Iraq|url=http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2006/04/passover-pilgrimage-to-ezekiels-tomb.html|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=Point of No Return}}</ref><ref name="granta">{{Cite web|date=1 March 1983-03-01|title=Extracts From The Journal Of Flying Officer J|url=https://granta.com/extracts-from-the-journal-of-flying-officer-j/|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=Granta|language=en-US}}</ref> The descendants of the Ma'tuk family from Anah, known as the Judah family since the late 18th century, maintain this tradition to this day.<ref name="granta"/> That this belief was native to this time is corroborated by ChristiansChristian missionnairesmissionaries in Anah in the Nineteenth19th Centurycentury, who reported “thesethat "these Jews maintained their forefathers were of the first captivity, and had never returned to Palestine.”"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CkWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA67&dqq=jewish+missionary+intelligence+these+jews+maintained+palestine+anah#v&pg=onepagePA67|title=Jewish Missionary Intelligence|date=1893|publisher=London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews|language=en}}</ref>

The family’sfamily's arrival in Baghdad reflected a revival of that city’scity's fortunes. Baghdad, having been extinguished as a Jewish centre following its capture by [[Timur]] in the Fourteenth14th Centurycentury, was re-emerging as a major Jewish centre when the family arrived in the early 17th century.<ref name="yehuda"/> According to historian Zvi Yehuda, the fifteenth15th century sees no reports on Jews in Baghdad or in its surroundings, in [[Basra]], [[Hillah|Hilla]], Kifil, Anah, Kurdistan, or even in Persia and the [[Persian Gulf]].<ref name="yehuda"/> The migration of the Ma’tuk family to Baghdad was one part of Baghdad’sthe city's incipient Jewish revival.<ref name="yehuda"/> According to the historian and Rabbi [[David Solomon Sassoon]], the family werewas one of the oldest Jewish families ofin Baghdad.<ref name="sassoon">{{Cite book|last=Sassoon|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kjnkAAAACAAJ|title=History of the Jews in Baghdad|date=November 2006|publisher=Simon Wallenberg Press|isbn=978-1-84356-002-9|language=en}}</ref> The Nineteenth Century19th-century German ethnographer H. Peterman corroborated, writing that the oldest Jewish families of Baghdad came from Anah, amongstamong them the Ma’tuk.<ref>{{Cite web|title=BAGDAD - JewishEncyclopedia.com|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2348-bagdad|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref> Historians of Iraqi Jewry recount that the Ma’tukMa'tuk, or later Yehuda or Judah, family achieved great renown as scholars, rabbis, merchants, and communal leaders, in Baghdad in the eighteenth18th and nineteenth19th century includingcenturies, most prominently through the communal leader, poet and astronomer Sliman Ben David Ma’tuk, who is also known to historians under the AnglicisedAnglicized name as [[Solomon Ma'tuk|Solomon Ma’tuk]].<ref name="sassoon"/>

Ezekiel Judah, born in 1799 or 1800, is referred to by historians or on monuments in the Calcutta synagogues he erected alternately as Ezekiel Judah, Yehezkel Yehuda or Yahuda, or Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sliman or Sulliman. These three different names reflectsreflect a moment in time where the emerging [[Baghdadi Jews|Baghdadi Jewish]] [[trading diaspora]] in Asia still used the traditional Jewish naming system of listing a name simply as the first name of a son, father, and grandfather for religious and communal purposes but was slowly evolving towards using the Western custom of surnames as families began to travel internationally. and engage with the British Empire.

However, Iraqi Jewish historians cite the Ma’tuk clan, descended from Rabbi Ma’tuk of Anah, as having adopted his name as athe name of their clan or a form of surname at least by the 18thmid-17th century, if not earlier. According to the chronicler of Iraqi Jewish history, Efrayim Haddad, Rabbi Judah Jacob Ma’tuk was the father of Ezekiel Judah.<ref name="makhon">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVw9xgEACAAJ|title=Bavel ve-ḥakhmehah: toldot rabane bavel ba-tekufah ha-aḥronah|date=1946|publisher=Makhon ha-ketav|language=iwhe}}</ref> In his lifetime, the family name was changed to the Yehuda or Judah family, as it was later AnglicisedAnglicized in [[British Raj|British India]].<ref name="makhon"/> The name Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sulliman, as appears on Neveh Shalom synagogue in Calcutta, is his first name coupled with that of his father and grandfather, without a surname.

According to the historian of Iraqi Jewry, Abraham Ben-Jacob, “amongst"amongst the lords of Baghdad at this time, the Judah family (Ma’tuk) occupied a prominent place.”"<ref name="ben-jacob">{{Cite book|last=Ben-Jacob|first=Abraham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwBXAAAAMAAJ&q=%D7%99%D7%97%D7%96%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%9C+%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%94+%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%94&dq=%D7%99%D7%97%D7%96%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%9C+%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%94+%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%94|title=Yehude Bavel: mi-sof teḳufat ha-geʼonim ʻad yamenu : 1038-19601038–1960|date=1979|publisher=Ḳiryat Sefer|language=iwhe}}</ref> Rabbi Judah Jacob married twice and was the father of eight sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Ezekiel Judah, was “the"the best of his sons”sons" and became the founder of the Judah family of India.<ref name="makhon"/> He was seen as the bearer of anthe aristocratic name of Baghdadi Jews by his contemporaries and was respected by them as a descendant of the renowned [[Solomon Ma'tuk|Sliman ben David Matuk]] of Baghdad.<ref>{{Cite web|title=(higin and. Ca/eu/la. ialopy of Ije. elij8. ISAAC s. ABRAHAM DAVID HOROWITZ. Introduction by -– PDF Free Download|url=https://docplayer.net/59077365-Higin-and-ca-eu-la-ialopy-of-ije-elij8-isaac-s-abraham-david-horowitz-introduction-by.html|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=docplayer.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pC1AAAAIAAJ&q=yosef+yehuda+calcutta+opium&dq=yosef+yehuda+calcutta+opium|title=Bengal, Past & Present: Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society|date=1974|publisher=The Society|language=en}}</ref> He was also a relative of the chief of the powerful merchants and unofficial leader of the Baghdadi Jewish trading diaspora, [[David Sassoon (treasurer)|David Sassoon]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Yehuda|first=Zvi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C90sAQAAIAAJ&q=yehezkel+yehuda+sassoon+relative&dq=yehezkel+yehuda+sassoon+relative|title=Tombs of Saints and Synagogues in Babylonia: Studies and Documentation|date=2006|publisher=Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, Research Institute of Babylonian Jewry|language=en}}</ref> Historian Abraham Ben-Jacob and the [[Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel]] refers to Ezekiel Judah as a rabbi.<ref name="ben-jacob"/>

Ezekiel Judah married twice. His first wife was Rachel Haim, the daughter of Rabbi Moshe Haim, who renewed Torah scholarship in Baghdad.<ref name="benyamin">{{Cite web|title=Benyamin Yehezkal Yehuda|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Benyamin-Yehuda/6000000007207768316|access-date=2020-08-28 August 2020|website=geni_family_tree|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Tidhar|first=David|url=https://books.google.decom/books?id=nXbiAAAAMAAJ|title=Entsiklopediyah le-halutse ha-yishuv u-vonav|date=1947|publisher=Safrit Rashunim (David Tidhar)|language=iwhe}}</ref> Rabbi Moshe Haim was both the father -in -law ofto both David Sassoon and Ezekiel Judah, creating a family bond between the Judahs and the Sassoons.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Benyamin Yehezkal Yehuda|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Benyamin-Yehuda/6000000007207768316|access-date=2020-08-28|website=geni_family_tree|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="benyamin"/> HisJudah's second wife was Khatoon Gubbay, the daughter of Rabbi Aaron Saleh Gubbay, or Hakham, as the title was referred amongst Mizrahi Jews at the time, the Av Beth Din, or deputy head of the supreme Jewish religious court of Baghdad.<ref name="musleah">{{Cite book|last=Musleah|first=Ezekiel N.|url=https://books.google.decom/books?id=TaZtAAAAMAAJ|title=On the Banks of the Ganga: The Sojourn of Jews in Calcutta|date=1975|publisher=Christopher Publishing House|isbn=978-0-8158-0313-3|language=en}}</ref>

The [[Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel|Encyclopaedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel]], compiled and published by [[David Tidhar]], cites that Ezekiel Judah was himself a great Torah scholar, held a yeshiva, and educated the poor, with one of his students being the renowned Eliyahu Mani, later to be the Rabbi of Hebron.<ref>{{Cite web|last=David Tidhar|title=630 {{!}} Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel|url=http://www.tidhar.tourolib.org/tidhar/view/2/630|access-date=2020-08-28 August 2020|website=www.tidhar.tourolib.org}}</ref> Accounts vary as to the year Ezekiel Judah established his family permanently in Calcutta. The date of his first arrival in the city is 1820, but according to Rabbi Ezekiel N. Musleah, the last Rabbi of the Jewish community of Calcutta, the year he moved definitively to Bengal was 1838.<ref name="musleah"/> Ezekiel Judah and members of the Judah family migrated to India in the context of the persecution of the Jews and misrule of [[Dawud Pasha of Baghdad]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=|url=http://www.dangoor.com/TheScribe61.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=}}</ref>

Iraqi Jewish historian Abraham Ben-Jacob says the flight of David Sassoon from Baghdad prompted his friend Ezekiel Judah to do the same, travelling with his son Sassoon Judah to India.<ref name="y1985">{{Cite book|last=Ben-Jacob|first=Abraham|url=https://books.google.decom/books?id=PFUNAAAAIAAJ|title=יהודי בבל בתפוצות|date=1985|publisher=ר. מס|isbn=978-965-09-0039-7|language=iwhe}}</ref> At first, he lived in Bombay and later migrated to Calcutta.<ref name="y1985"/> His wife subsequently joined him two years later with their son Nissim travelling the long journey to India by donkey.<ref name="y1985"/>

Ezekiel Judah appears to have by trade been a leading indigo, silk, and muslin trader.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Timberg|first=Thomas A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juQUAQAAIAAJ&dq=ezekiel+judah+aleppo+baghdad+jerusalem&q=Ezekiel+Yehudah+appears+to+have+.|title=Jews in India|date=1986|publisher=Advent Books|isbn=978-0-89891-009-4|language=en}}</ref> On the back of this fortune as a philanthropist, Ezekiel Judah established the first synagogue in Calcutta, known as Neveh Shalom in Hebrew, which translates as the Abode of Peace, in 1825.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F3ZDAAAAYAAJ&q=ezekiel+judah+1825+India+neveh+shalom&dq=ezekiel+judah+1825+India+neveh+shalom|title=Journal of Indian History|date=1992|publisher=Department of Modern Indian History|language=en}}</ref> He co-founded the second synagogue Beth-El, in 1856 with [[David Joseph Ezra]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Abraham|first=Isaac S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SqAaAAAAIAAJ&q=ezekiel+judah+beth+el+calcutta&dq=ezekiel+judah+beth+el+calcutta|title=The Origin and History of the Calcutta Jews|date=1969|publisher=Daw Sen|language=en}}</ref>

Ezekiel Judah and the Judah family are described in the epic travelogue of the Ashkenazi Jewish writer [[J. J. Benjamin]]. Describing the community of Calcutta, using the term then in use amongst Mizrahi Jews to refer to a rabbi, he wrote, “they"They are all well educated, but have no appointed Chachamim; one of the richest commercial men of the town, Ezekiel Jehuda Jacob Sliman, a very enlightened man and an excellent talmudist, performs the duties of the Chacham.”"<ref name="issuu">{{Cite web|title=מסעי ישראל-בלשון אנגלית|url=https://issuu.com/dsegal2k/docs/hebrewbooks_org_38964/4|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=issuu|date=5 September 2011 }}</ref> J. J. Benjamin described his visit to Singapore that the elders of the small community there were the sons of Ezekiel Judah.<ref name="issuu"/>

Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's enlightened views can be seen in his view towards the [[Bene Israel]], whom many other Baghdadi Jews sought to separate from and exclude from their synagogues on account of their darker skin and being native to India. In 1843, Ezekiel Judah wrote to the Rabbis of Baghdad concerning the Bene Israel. He wrote, “they"They give birth to sons and circumcise them as we do,; they teach them Talmud-Torah with our children. They are exactly as we are, without any difference, and we always callrefer to them toas the Sefer Torah in accordance with the custom of the Jewish people. May we give them our daughters and may we take their daughters?”"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hodes|first=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70-hAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT89&dqq=rabbis+judah+calcutta+ezekiel#v&pg=onepagePT89|title=From India to Israel: Identity, Immigration, and the Struggle for Religious Equality|date=1 April 2014-04-01|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press -– MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-9051-9|language=en}}</ref> Sadly noNo record of thetheir response to Ezekiel Judah survives.

In Calcutta, Ezekiel Judah, as in Bombay, like his relative [[David Sassoon]], sought to align the [[Baghdadi Jews|Baghdadi Jewish]] community with the British and be seen to publicly support the colonial power, eventually become a naturalised British subject.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ojeda-Mata|first=Maite|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iBBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dqq=abraham+yahuda+calcutta+british+national#v=twopage&qpg=abraham%20yahuda%20calcutta%20british%20national&f=truePA115|title=Modern Spain and the Sephardim: Legitimizing Identities|date=2017-12-20 December 2017|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-1-4985-5175-5|language=en}}</ref>

Ezekiel Judah died on April 22nd22, 1860, in Calcutta, having not reached his sixtiethsixty-first year.<ref>{{Cite book|lastname=Musleah|first=Ezekiel N.|url=https:"musleah"//books.google.de/books?id=TaZtAAAAMAAJ|title=On> the Banks of the Ganga: The Sojourn of Jews in Calcutta|date=1975|publisher=Christopher Publishing House|isbn=978-0-8158-0313-3|language=en}}</ref>He is buried in Calcutta. For a year after Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's death, his sons invited Rabbis from Baghdad, [[Jerusalem]] and [[Syria]] and the poor Jews of Calcutta to study Torah day and night at his former home.<ref name="parasuram">{{Cite book|last=Parasuram|first=T. V.|title=India's Jewish Heritage|year=1982|url=https://books.google.decom/books?id=3LNtAAAAMAAJ|language=en}}</ref>

After the death of Ezekiel Judah two branches of the Judah or Yehuda family developed, a rabbinical one settling in Jerusalem and a mercantile one remaining in Calcutta and eventually migrating to London after the end of British rule.

'''Yehuda Family of Jerusalem'''

One of Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's sons by his first marriage was described as a leader amongst the Jewish community in Baghdad.<ref name="parasuram"/> Another by his first marriage, Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda migrated from Baghdad to Jerusalem. In doing so he founded a rabbinical branch of the family known as the Yehuda family of Jerusalem. Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda was bequeathed by his father Ezekiel Judah a share a share in houses in Calcutta worth £25,000 and was thus able to live a life of great wealth and respectability, thanks to the income derived from their rental, of which he set aside a considerable sum for philanthropy.<ref name="efrati">{{Cite book|last=Efrati|first=Nathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rii_ywEACAAJ|title=Homecoming: The Saga of Immigration to the Holy Land from Biblical Times to the Present Day|date=1982|publisher=Israel Economist Publishing House|language=en}}</ref> His migration to Jerusalem was described by his descendant [[David Yellin]].

{{QuoteBlockquote|“In"In the year 5616 (1856) the outstanding and pious Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel departed from the city of Baghdad in Babylonia, together with his family, in order to dwell in our city.<ref name="efrati"/> He travelled overland for forty days on camelback, paying not only for hiring the camels themselves but also an additional sum of 25 gold keiri (about 140 francs) to the caravan master for each Shabbat, so that the entire caravan would rest. He was a man who ‘dwelled in tents and studied Torah.’”’"<ref name="efrati"/>}}

Upon arriving in Jerusalem Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda set aside one room of his home for ten students to study Torah throughout the day, often studied with them and established a scholarship fund for their welfare.<ref name="efrati"/> Thanks to the fortune of his father Ezekiel Judah, Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda played an important role in building the Sephardic Jewish community and rabbinical infrastructure in Jerusalem. He established the yeshiva Knesset Yehezkel, named in honour of his father, in 1858, which he maintained with a large fortune he inherited from his father in Calcutta.<ref name="ben-arieh">{{Cite book|last=Ben-Arieh|first=Yehoshua|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHHsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA178&dqq=knesset+yehezkel+yeshiva#v&pg=onepagePA178|title=The Making of Eretz Israel in the Modern Era: A Historical-Geographical Study (1799–1949)|date=9 March 2020-03-09|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-062640-7|language=en}}</ref> After the death of Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda the yeshiva was merged with Hesed El yeshiva founded in 1860.<ref name="ben-arieh"/>

Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's grandson and son of Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda was Rabbi Faraj Haim Yehuda, who was born in 1846 in Baghdad.<ref name="hacham">{{Cite web|title=Hacham Faraj Haim Yehuda : HeHaCham HaYomi (The Daily Sage)|url=http://www.hyomi.org.il/eng/page.asp?id=438&saying_id=2143|access-date=2020-08-28 August 2020|website=www.hyomi.org.il}}</ref> Rabbi Faraj Haim Yehuda was one of the main builders of the Sephardi community in Jerusalem in the late nineteenth19th century.<ref name="hacham"/> He was one of the founders of the Shimon HaTzaddik quarter, a Jerusalem neighborhood established in 1875 by the Eidah Sephardit Committee.<ref name="hacham"/> In 1882, Rabbi Faraj Haim Yehuda left youfor India to seeseek funds from wealthy relatives and the Baghdadi Jewish community established there for the Shimon HaTzaddik synagogue, visiting Bombay.<ref name="hacham"/> On his return in 1885 he founded the Adat HaBavlim association for Iraqi Jews in Jerusalem with his brother Rabbi Binyamin Yehuda.<ref name="hacham"/> He was also a known scholar and his book VaTitpallel Hanna was printed in 1889 in Jerusalem and contains prayers, ethics and laws.<ref name="hacham"/> Rabbi Faraj Chaim Yehuda departed again for India in 1893, dying on his return to Jerusalem in his native city of Baghdad.<ref name="hacham"/>

During his lifetime Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda became close with Ashkenazi scholars. Soon after his arrival Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda stunned deeply conservative Jerusalem religious society in 1854 when he married his daughter SarahSerah to Joshua[[Yehoshua Yellin]], an Ashkenazi Jew and the son of Polish immigrants.<ref name="motza">{{Cite web|last=Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am|title=Motza, first agricultural colony in modern Israel|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/motza-first-agricultural-colony-in-modern-israel/|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=www.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref> The marriage occurred about four months after JoshuaYehoshua Yellin’sYellin's [[Bar and bat mitzvah|Bar Mitzvah]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kassan|first=Shalom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OkgMAQAAIAAJ&q=%D7%99%D7%97%D7%96%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%9C+%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%94+%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%94&dq=%D7%99%D7%97%D7%96%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%9C+%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%94+%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%94|title=David Yellin|date=1980|publisher=Hotsaʼat misdar Bene Berit be-Yiśraʼel|language=iwhe}}</ref> Marriages between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews were extremely rare at the time. The Yehuda and Yellin families joined forces to establish the first modern Jewish agricultural colony in Palestine at Motza a few years later.<ref name="motza"/> Members of the Yellin family lived in Motza which is today one of the most sought after locations on the approach to Jerusalem. The family at one point aspired but failed to settle Yemenite Jewish immigrants in Motza. The father of JoshuaYehoshua Yellin, David Tavya Yellin, and his father-in-law Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda, bought the land at Motza in 1860 from the Arabs of Qalunya.<ref name="yellin house">{{Cite web|title=Yellin House at Motza|url=https://shimur.org/sites/yellin-house-at-motza/?lang=en|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=המועצה לשימור אתרי מורשת בישראל|language=en-US}}</ref> The historic Yellin family house was built by JoshuaYehoshua Yellin and his family’sfamily's primary residence in 1890.<ref name="yellin house"/>

[[David Yellin]], the son of JoshuaYehoshua Yellin and SarahSerah Yellin, would become one of the central figures of the revival of the modern Hebrew language and a Hebrew poet. He was founder of the [[Hebrew Language Committee]] in 1890 upon which the modern [[Academy of the Hebrew Language]] is based, taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was a Zionist politician in Ottoman and [[Mandatory Palestine]]. David Yellin was from 1903 to 1912 a member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council and from 1905 to 1920 President of the Jewish National Council and deputy mayor of Jerusalem.<ref name="dead">{{Cite web|date=14 December 1941-12-14|title=David Yellin, Hebrew Writer and Teacher, Dead in Jerusalem|url=https://www.jta.org/1941/12/14/archive/david-yellin-hebrew-writer-and-teacher-dead-in-jerusalem|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|language=en-US}}</ref> The Yellins, as descendants of Ezekiel Judah, were viewed as scions of the Sassoon family by their contemporaries.<ref name="dead"/>

The Yehuda family of Jerusalem continued to actively trade with the Judah family in Calcutta, their wealthy relatives in India throughout the Nineteenth19th Centurycentury.<ref name="tidhar">{{Cite web|title=631 {{!}} Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel|url=http://www.tidhar.tourolib.org/tidhar/view/2/631|access-date=2020-08-28 August 2020|website=www.tidhar.tourolib.org}}</ref> Their trade consisted of Indian products such as tea and indigo. The son of Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda grew close to the [[Chabad]] movement in Jerusalem, was known as the Hassid and received support from wealthy relatives in India to repair the second floor of the [[Chabad]] synagogue in the [[Old City (Jerusalem)|Old City]].<ref name="tidhar"/> The Chabad synagogue of the Old City, known as Tzemach Tzedek, was built in 1858 with the support of David Sassoon, the second story and a yeshiva being added in 1879 with the support of Elias Sassoon.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Chabad's Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue|url=https://www.itraveljerusalem.com/ent/tzemach-tzedek-synagogue/|accessarchive-url=|archive-date=2020-08|access-date=28 August 2020|website=www.itraveljerusalem.com}}</ref>

According to the Encyclopaedia of the Founders and the Builders of Israel, Rabbi Binyamin Yehuda, the son of Rabbi Shlomo Yehezkel Yehuda, died after a collapse in the capital of himself and his brothers meant he was no longer able to distribute alms to the poor as was his custom and “out"out of grief he fell asleep from which he did not arise.”"<ref name="tidhar" /> His sons included the biblical scholar [[Abraham Yahuda|Abraham Shalom Yahuda]].<ref name="tidhar" />

'''Judah Family of Calcutta'''

The mercantile branch of the family remained in India and was known as the Yehuda and subsequently when the name was anglicised during British rule, the Judah family of Calcutta. OneAccording to the historian of the Baghdadi Jewish trading diaspora Ezra Yehzkel-Shaked, one of Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's sons by his second marriage, Yosef Yehuda, who remained in India, was described as the “king"king of the Calcutta opium exchange”exchange" and the owner of a “famed"famed sailing vessel”vessel" which made regular voyages from India to Macao and other destinations in China.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Yehezkel-Shaked|first1=Ezra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8LRtAAAAMAAJ&q=Yosef+Yehuda+Calcutta&dq=Yosef+Yehuda+Calcutta|title=היהודים, האופיום והקימונו: סיפורם של היהודים בארצות המזרח־הרחוק|last2=יחזקאל־שקד|first2=עזרא|date=1995|publisher=ר. מס|isbn=978-965-09-0166-0|language=en}}</ref>

'''Calcutta Synagogues'''

In terms of Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's physical legacy the Calcutta synagogues of Neveh Shalom and Beth El remain standing and maintained in the city, whose Jewish community has dwindled to less than twenty people. Despite this they are regularly visited by tourists descendants of the Baghdadi Jewish community and considered a unique part of the city’scity's heritage. Given the almost complete destruction of Jewish heritage sites in Syria and Iraq, [[Ben Judah]] has noted these age amongst “the"the last or our synagogues”synagogues" built in the traditional Baghdadi style.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thejc.com/comment/columnists/ben-judah-the-last-of-our-synagogues-1.429978|title=The last of our synagogues: Our writer returns to his roots in India|access-date=2020-08-27 August 2020|website=www.thejc.com}}</ref>

'''Descendants'''

Ezekiel Judah’sJudah's descendants included [[Abraham Yahuda]] (1877-19511877–1951) from the Jerusalem branch and [[Tim Judah]] and his son [[Ben Judah]] from the Calcutta branch.