Flora Sassoon

Born in Bombay to a Baghdadi Jewish family, she ran the trading house of David Sassoon & Co. after her husband's death in 1894, a rare role for a woman at the time. A learned Hebraist and observant Jew, she later made her London home a center of Jewish scholarship.

Who was Flora Sassoon?

Flora Sassoon was one of the most remarkable Jewish women of her time: the head of a great trading house in Bombay, a learned Hebraist who wrote on Rashi, an observant Jew who carried her traditions wherever she went, and a philanthropist whose London home became a meeting place for scholars and the needy alike. Born into the Baghdadi Jewish community of India, she was a living bridge between the Jewish world of Baghdad and the Jewish life of Britain.

A Baghdadi family in Bombay

Flora Gubbay was born in Bombay in 1856. Her father, Ezekiel Abraham Gubbay, was a merchant who had come to India from Baghdad, and her mother, Aziza, was a granddaughter of David Sassoon, the founder of the great Sassoon trading empire, who had served as treasurer of Baghdad before settling in India. The family belonged to the community of Baghdadi Jews who built synagogues, schools and businesses across India and the Far East in the nineteenth century while keeping the language, customs and prayers of Iraqi Jewry.

She was taught by private tutors, including rabbis from Baghdad, and by the time she was seventeen she spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Hindustani, English, French and German. In 1876 she married her relative Solomon David Sassoon, a son of David Sassoon.

Head of the firm

When her husband died in 1894, Flora Sassoon took over the direction of the Bombay branch of the family firm, David Sassoon & Co., one of the great trading houses of Asia. It was an almost unheard-of position for a woman at the time, and she held it for several years with notable success. In Bombay she also supported public health work, encouraging Hindus and Muslims who were reluctant to accept the cholera vaccine developed by Waldemar Haffkine to take it.

London

Around 1901 she moved to England, where she lived until her death. Her home in London became famous for its hospitality: she entertained scholars, communal leaders and members of society at dinners of Baghdadi and Indian Jewish food, prepared under strict kashrut. She was known for her uncompromising observance; it was said that when she traveled she took with her a shohet, a ritual slaughterer, and enough men to make a minyan, so that she could pray and eat according to Jewish law wherever she went.

She was also a serious scholar. She studied the Bible and its commentators, wrote articles on Rashi, and in 1924 presided over the annual prize day at Jews’ College in London, where she spoke about the importance of Jewish education. She supported the Zionist cause and the Balfour Declaration, and gave generously to Jewish communities and individuals around the world who appealed to her for help.

In 1910 she and her children visited Baghdad for the High Holidays, a journey back to the city of her ancestors, where she was received by the leaders of the community.

Death and legacy

Flora Sassoon died in London on 14 January 1936. Her son, David Solomon Sassoon, became one of the great collectors of Hebrew manuscripts, building a collection that preserved many treasures of Jewish literature.

For Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, Flora Sassoon is a model of a woman who combined business leadership, scholarship and faith at a time when few women could do any of these. She shows the reach of Baghdadi Jewry, from Iraq to India to England, and the strength of a tradition that she carried with her, quite literally, wherever she went.