Fishel Khaled in an exclusive interview with "Israel Today" to mark Rosh Hashanah: "Israel and Pakistan are sister states" • On local anti-Semitism: "I cover the dome with a baseball cap" • And on the Sindh district where he lives: In Pakistan "
Fishel Khaled
The Jewish community in the Indian subcontinent began to exist many years ago, long before the Muslims in the British colony of India aspired to independence.
Of that very culturally rich Jewish community, a relatively small portion lived in the five provinces that eventually became Pakistan on August 14, 1947: Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sindh, and Balochistan.
There were less than 3,000 people - most of them living in Karachi, and a few dozen in Peshawar.
With the establishment of the State of Israel, many members of the community left the second largest Muslim state in the world, which has since become an impressive nuclear capability.
Despite the growing anti-Semitism throughout Pakistan, there are still some 300-200 Jews living in Karachi and Lahore in this large and powerful country.
Throughout its years of existence, local Jews, some of whom have been converted, such as Muhammad Assad - the deputy head of the Pakistan delegation to the UN in the 1950s, have managed to secure senior positions. However, the country's Jews have to deal with their religious needs without an active synagogue. Khaled (32) of Karachi - a city where the government demolished the Magen Shalom synagogue in 1988 for a shopping center.
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In a celebratory interview with Israel Today to mark Rosh Hashanah, Khaled talks about the personal and community challenges, about local anti-Semitism, as well as about the history he made during his visit to Israel as a Pakistani Jew.
"In my profession, I am a civil engineer," Khaled notes in a call from Karachi, "I work as a kosher supervisor for food producers and exporters in Pakistan."
Are you afraid to live in Pakistan?
"There is anti-Semitism in Pakistan, so I do not reveal my identity to 99% of the people I am in contact with," says Fischel. "When I wear a kippah - I hide it with a baseball cap. As a rule, I'm not so afraid - as long as they do not know I Jewish".
The city of Karachi is the capital of Sindh province which is considered, in Pakistani terms, to be the most demographically diverse province.
About 94.8% of the population are Muslims, 5% are Hindus (the highest rate in the country), and about 0.2% are members of other religions - including Jews.
“The residents of Sindh province are much more inclusive than those of other provinces in Pakistan,” Khaled says.
Demonstration in the city of Karachi, where Khaled lives, against the normalization with Israel / Photo: AP
In January 2019, the whole of Pakistan heard about the story of Fischel - the son of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, and the brother of four Muslims.
The reason for this was very interesting: the local government approved him, in public, to leave the country for a visit to Israel.
This is not a trivial event, as the Pakistani passport has an inscription: "Valid for all countries of the world, except Israel."
On his way to Judaism, he says that "it was complicated, there was something that made it happen, I wanted spirituality and found it in Judaism. I take care to thank God for good things that happen to me, and try to be as strong as possible."
Khaled is an extraordinary figure in being a pro-Israel Pakistani citizen, for all intents and purposes.
"There are all kinds of anti-Semitism in Pakistan," he explains, but he emphasizes: "I openly support Israel, but above all I love Pakistan."
Fischel describes himself as "a Pakistani Zionist," concluding that "I want the two sister states - Pakistan and Israel - to have a good relationship."
