Ezekiel Judah, (Hebrew: יחזקאל יהודה) or Yehezkel Yehuda or Yahuda or Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sliman (1800 – 22 April 1860) was a Jewish communal leader, indigo, muslin and silk trader, philanthropist and talmudist of Baghdad, who migrated to India, leading the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata in his lifetime and establishing the city's first synagogues. Origins Ezekiel Judah was the scion of a noble Jewish family of Baghdad, known as the Judah family in English, 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, who 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. Rabbi Ma’tuk, as was the custom for leaders of leading Jewish communities in Iraq at the time, had been the Saraf-Bashi or Treasurer of the governor. The historian of Baghdad Jewry Rabbi David Solomon Sassoon says the Ma’tuk family has been established in Anah for centuries. The family's flight reflected a shift in the axis of Mesopotamian Jews. The historian of Iraqi Jewry Zvi Yehuda says the conflict between 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. Anah, which has previously been a prosperous Jewish centre fell into sharp decline with a Portuguese traveller in 1663 even observing there were only Jews who lived there who made their livelihoods out of making clothe out of camel hair. Despite this, origins in Anah, were in fact seen as a sign of family's antiquity amongst Iraqi Jews at the time. This was due to the ancient Iraqi Jewish belief Anah was the site of Nehardea, which features prominently in the Talmud, including as the first seat of the Exhilarch and his Beth din. The Jews of Anah maintained a belief they were descended from the Babylonian Exile and never subsequently returned to Palestine. 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. That this belief was native to this time is corroborated by Christians missionnaires in Anah in the 19th century who reported "these