Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Lawmaker Asks Pakistan To Protect Jewish Cemetery

A Jewish congressman wrote Pakistan’s ambassador asking for assurances that no harm would come to Karachi’s Jewish cemetery.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) in his letter sent this week referred to a December report in The Guardian that described efforts by some groups to take over the land, encompassing some 300 graves.

“It is my hope that the Jewish graves within the cemetery are not disturbed and that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan recognizes the importance of honoring the deceased regardless of religion or ethnicity,” Zeldin wrote to Jalil Abbas Jilani, the Pakistani envoy to Washington.

Karachi’s Jewish community disappeared in the wake of anti-Jewish sentiment following the 1947 partition of the British colonies in the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and Israel’s establishment in 1948. The community had peaked at about 1,000 at the turn of the 20th century.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.