Jacob Bapuji Israel

Jacob Bapuji Israel (Wargharkar) was one of eight surviving children born in Ahmednagar, India, to Ezekiel Bapuji Wargharkar, a Bene Israel Subedar in the Bombay Presidency Army and later chief constable who ensured his sons were well educated. Jacob earned a scholarship to Elphinstone College for Persian language, and also knew English, Urdu, Marathi, Gujerati, and some Kannada. He began a career as a government clerk. Bapuji Israel served throughout the country and was honored with the title Khan Bahadur in 1910 for his service in Aundh that brought significant agricultural, educational, medical, and communication improvements to the state. He wrote a number of articles for David Erulkar’s Israelite in Marathi and English, where he worked as an editor, including a translation of Claude Montefiore’s Bible for Home Reading, pieces on Jewish texts and history, and an article in 1923 cautioning against a political Zionism indifferent to the consent of Palestinian Arabs. His older brother Shalom Bapuji Israel was prime minister (kharbari) of Janjira state (today part of Maharashtra) from 1891 to 1896.