Baghdadi Jews

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with History of the Jews in Baghdad.
Baghdadi Jews
Calcutta
)
Arabic, Persian, Judeo-Urdu and Bengali
. Now mostly English and Hebrew
Religion
Judaism

The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Beginning under the

Judeo-Arabic speaking Jewish communities in India, then in a trading network across Asia, following Jewish customs.[2] These flourished under the British Empire in the 19th century, growing to be English-speaking and British oriented.[2]

These grew into a tight trading and kinship network across Asia with smaller Baghdadi communities being established beyond India in the mid-nineteenth century in

Second World War, these communities attracted a modest flow of Jewish emigrants from Iraq, with smaller numbers hailing from Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iran, and Turkey.[6]

The

Burma by postcolonial nationalizations and trade restrictions, the Baghdadi Jews had emigrated almost in their entirety by the 1970s.[7] Families of Baghdadi Jewish descent continue to play a major role in Jewish life, especially in Great Britain where families such as the Sassoons and Reubens have enjoyed great prominence in business and politics.[8][9]

Precolonial origins

Though Jewish traders from the Middle East had crossed the Indian Ocean since ancient Rome, sources from the Mughal Empire first mention Jewish merchants from Baghdad trading with India in the 17th century.[10]

Map of the Malabar Coast, circa 1672.

India was far from unknown to the Jewish merchants of the Middle East. Since ancient Rome the caravan route from India had ended in Aleppo and the spice trade had tied Basra, Yemen and Cairo to the Malabar Coast.[11] However, it was Persian-speaking Jewish merchants, close trading allies of the Jews of Baghdad, Basra and Aleppo Jews who first struck into the Indian heartland.[12]

As adventurers, mystics and merchants, they had been venturing to India since the Middle Ages on the back of invasions of the subcontinent launched by Persian speaking rulers from what is now Iran and Afghanistan. Both Persian and Mughal sources record Jewish traders following the 16th century Mughal invasion of India launched by Emperor Babur.[12]

They rose to be traders and courtiers of the Mughals. Jewish advisors at the Court of Akbar the Great in Agra played a significant role in Akbar's liberal religious policies.[13] In Delhi, the syncretic Jewish mystic Sarmad Khasani was tutor to the Crown Prince Dara Shikoh before both were executed by Aurangzeb.[14] There were sufficient Jews in Mughal lands for British travelers to report that synagogues had been established there, but of which no trace or Jewish record remains.[12] These handful of Jews never established a permanent community but left legends and pathways for future settlers from Arabic speaking lands.[15]

Records of Jewish tradesmen traveling from Baghdad can be found from the early 17th century. These trading outposts and emerging migrant communities also saw Jews become courtiers to

Calcutta community would later recall, was even given the honour of riding with the Nawab of Awadh in his personal elephant.[17]

A Baghdadi Jewish grave in Surat, Gujarat

The first permanent Baghdadi merchant colony in

Bombay to Kobe be established in Asia
.

But it was around the early 19th century, in response to the tyrannical rule of Dawud Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Baghdad, who persecuted, extorted and imprisoned the leading Jewish families of the city, that whole clans started crossing the Indian Ocean to seek safety and fortune in Asia.[21] Dawud Pasha's misrule was when Baghdadi immigration towards Bombay and Calcutta became strong with the leading Sassoon, Ezra and Judah families departing for India.[5] This episode of persecution was the beginning of the Baghdadi Jewish diaspora with records of whole clans departing the city for Bombay, Calcutta, Aleppo, Alexandria and Sydney.[5]

Jewish life in the ancient communities of the

blood libels in Aleppo between 1841 and 1860, and the outbreak of plague, first striking Baghdad in 1831, then returning with vengeance to Basra and Baghdad in 1841, encouraged Jewish clans in the declining Ottoman Empire to seek their fortunes elsewhere.[23][24][25][26]

Colonial Asia

As Jews, primarily from Baghdad, Basra and Aleppo came to India as traders in the wake of the Portuguese, Dutch and British what became known as the Baghdadi communities grew fast. By the middle of the 19th century trade between Baghdad and India was said to be entirely in Jewish hands.[27] Within a generation Baghdadi Jews had established manufacturing and commercial houses of fabulous wealth, most notably the Sassoon, Ezra, Elias, Belilios, Judah and Meyer families.[28]

David Sassoon, 1792–1864.

With the rise of British power in

Calcutta Jewish cemetery, which was opened in 1812.[29][unreliable source?
]

Spurred by the immigration of some the leading Jewish families of Baghdad fleeing the persecution of

Chinsura and Chandernagore outside Calcutta.[5]

The rise in prominence of

Parsee merchants for the trade.[31] The Sassoon family eventually controlled 70 percent of the opium trade from India.[26] Great fortunes were also made in the indigo, silk and muslin trade with Dhaka where Baghdadi Jews partnered with Bengali Muslim merchants.[31]

Around these booming concerns, the Baghdadi Jewish communities of

Calcutta. This fortunes of the community were reversed when David Sassoon and his family arrived in 1833.[32]

Sponsored by the

Bombay drew significant Jewish immigration from Persian-speaking communities in Afghanistan, Bukhara and Iran as well Jewish families from Yemen. Jewish migrant were attracted from across the Middle East to work in the factories and business concerns of the Sassoon family.[32] Outside Bombay a Baghdadi community was established in Poona where a synagogue, a school and hospital was established by David Sassoon and a Hebrew printing press was in operation.[5] A Baghdadi presence is also recorded in Madras.[5]

Animated map showing the movement of Baghdadi Jews across South and East Asia

From

Rangoon and Pathein.[36]

Following the ban on the opium trade in the early twentieth century Baghdadi Jewish merchants invested in cotton and jute products as staple exports.[31] The sudden spike in demand for jute sandbags, building blocks for the trenches on the Western Front (World War I), made great fortunes amongst the Jewish merchants of Calcutta.[37]

At their heights, the communities of

Calcutta were at the heart of a communal kinship network linked by the ports of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. One observer described the Baghdadi Jews communities as being "almost as familiar with each other as the Jews of Manchester are with Liverpool."[38] The engines of the Baghdadi Jewish trading network were tightly knit family firms such as David Sassoon and Co or the Meyer Brothers, founded by Sir Manasseh Meyer, with offices and agents established by family members in the each port of the network.[38]

Before

Judeo-Arabic speaking community in Sydney established by families fleeing Dawud Pasha disbanding its congregation in the 1890s.[5]

Ohel Leah Synagogue, an originally Baghdadi synagogue in Hong Kong

Those communities established beyond

Second World War.[40] The Singapore community flourished under the leadership of Sir Menasseh Meyer and the Hong Kong community under the influence of E. R. Belilios.[5] Both were opium merchants who engaged in significant philanthropic efforts establishing schools and synagogues. Baghdadi outposts are also recorded as having been established in Canton and Tientsin.[5]

Whilst

Burma, Singapore and China.[41]

On the route between India and Singapore, a tiny Baghdadi community was in Penang, with a synagogue and Jewish cemetery, was established in the 1870s, but for most of its history never exceeded 50 families.[42] Further south from Singapore, in Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, a tiny Baghdadi community of spice merchants was established in Surabaya in Java in the 1880s.[43]

David Joseph Ezra, Baghdadi Jewish merchant and community leader of Calcutta, late 19th century.

The most far flung Baghdadi outposts, never numbering more than fifty families, were established in Japan at the furthest reaches of the opium route. Baghdadi Jews from Iraq, Syria and Egypt, initially drawn to man the concessions of David Sassoon established tiny footholds in Nagasaki, Yokohama and Kobe.[44] The only Baghdadi synagogue in Japan, uniting small prayer groups, was Ohel Shelomoh opened by Jews from Aleppo in 1912.[44] Initially established in Nagasaki and Yokohama, the Baghdadi traders relocated to Kobe, which became its focal point, after an earthquake in 1923.[45]

As imperial jurisdictions consolidated, the Baghdadi Jews found themselves in a liminal situation in colonial Asia. They were considered neither Indian nor Western, Asian nor European and partnered with both Western and Indian interests.[46] Legally they lived in limbo, their citizenship often unclear, having inherited what was an early modern political order.[citation needed]

Prior to the

First World War the Baghdadi Jews were for the most part notionally subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Starting from 1870 the communal leaders began aggressive lobbying with British colonial authorities to registered as European.[citation needed] This was never granted to them.[citation needed] Nor was admittance, with few exceptions, to the European-only clubs that were the center of life in the European colonial societies throughout Asia. Baghdadi Jews were denied access to European electoral rolls in India.[47] Outsiders, and insiders, they clung fiercely to their Jewish identity.[47]

Beyond

British Protected Person in China. With few exceptions for the wealthiest individuals, this was routinely denied by British government officials. Angst over their legal status grew in the run up to World War II.[47]

As a result, the Baghdadi Jews were determined to prove themselves a loyalist community to British authorities throughout the colonial period. Baghdadi Jewish merchants operated as confidential agents of the

God Save The Queen, was sung in the honour of the far off imperial sovereign in the schools founded by David Sassoon, who himself never spoke English.[48][26]

Baghdadi culture

The Baghdadi Jews, whilst spread across continents, operated a network of kinship and trust throughout the trading posts of the

Burma, Singapore, Malaysia and China, were tightly woven into the Baghdadi community.[34]

Rabbi Shlomo Twena of Calcutta, 1885–1913.

The life of the Baghdadi kinship network on the opium route is best seen in the case of

Judeo-Arabic speaking Baghdadi network.[34]

Maggid Mesharim, a Calcutta Judeo-Arabic newspaper, 1890–1901.

Within these Baghdadi communities, the majority were of

Mediterranean into colonial Asia. Within the Middle Eastern Jewish world, the Baghdadi Jews were considered adventurers and entrepreneurs.[39]

Quite unlike

Calcutta in 1825, were seen as the leading Jewish families of Baghdad.[50][51] Ezekiel Judah, who founded two synagogues in Calcutta, was a descendant of Solomon Ma'tuk.[5]

These great Baghdadi Jewish fortunes are deceptive, however, when it comes to what life was like for the overwhelming majority of the community. Far from wealthy, they lived on the edge of poverty, as peddlers, stall holders, mill workers, rickshaw men and other such jobs. The middle class Jews speculated in opium and acted as brokers.[17] Great distance existed between the leading Baghdadi Jewish families, such as the Ezra family and the Sassoon family, who grew ever richer and more British-oriented during this period, and the rest of the community.[52] Politically, the Baghdadi Jewish resembled an oligarchy, with all power and authority to represent the community towards colonial authorities being vested in the leading families, as it had been traditionally in the Middle East.[48]

Initially the Baghdadi Jewish communities that developed in

Calcutta appears to have waned.[55]

Raphael Emanuel Belilios, born in Hong Kong and later established in Britain, 1881–1922.

In the 20th century

Europeans.[55]

Such

Calcutta.[55]

Religiously the Baghdadi Jews did not train their own

Sephardic Chief Rabbi in Britain.[20] Rites concerning circumcision, betrothal, and protections of the newborn preserved Iraqi Jewish customs.[20] Baghdadi Jewish wedding celebrations gradually grew less Middle Eastern and more European in style in the 20th century.[58]

Throughout this period, the leading Baghdadi Jewish families set themselves up as sponsors of Jewish religious life in the

Israeli-Arab conflict brought about the flight and expulsion of these ancient Jewish communities in Arab lands. Today only the Porat Yosef Yeshiva
in Jerusalem, founded by donations from the Baghdadi Jews of Calcutta, survives.

Postcolonial decline

The home of Moise Abraham Sassoon in Calcutta. One of the grand residences of the Baghdadi Jewish merchant elite in the early 20th century.

As the

Second World War
was the beginning of the end for old Baghdadi world.

The Japanese occupation of

Burma, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia saw much of the Baghdadi community interned by the Japanese army.[59] As the war ended, it was miraculously revealed to the rest of the Baghdadi world that in Japan itself, Rahmo Sassoon, leader of the tiny Baghdadi Jewish community of Kobe, had skillfully negotiated with Japanese authorities to ensure no Jews were harmed during World War II.[60] Despite this, the one Baghdadi synagogue of Japan, in Kobe was burnt down during an American air raid.[44]

At the heart of the Baghdadi world, in India, the end of the war ushered in the implosion of the old order. At this point, ethnic strife, political violence and fear of civil war were widespread in India on the eve of

Iraqi Jewish community had left for Israel by 1950.[50]

David Sassoon tomb in Pune, India.

First the leading families, then the rest of the community began to emigrate on mass. This began a continuous exodus from

Calcutta
were the heart of the Baghdadi world, the centers of trade, culture and communal life. Once these had fallen into decline, the outlying communities followed.

Postwar the imperial system and open borders that had made the transnational Baghdadi world possible disappeared. In Shanghai, communist victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949 closed the trading links community depended upon. Those that has fled the Japanese occupation chose not to return. By 1950, the community had all but vanished. Meanwhile, In Hong Kong, despite the benign conditions of British rule, emigration saw Baghdadi Jewish numbers fall to less than 70 by the 1960s.

In

Burma
blocked, and the Jewish community had shrunk to as low as 180 by the 1960s.

A final wave of emigration, pushing the much reduced communities in

nationalizations in Burma the 1960s saw the closing of synagogues and the last Rabbi leaving the country in 1969.[63]

Despite this precipitous decline and dispersal of the Baghdadi Jewish communities, a handful of individual Baghdadi Jews would play pivotal roles in Asia's newly independent states. The first

First Minister of Singapore David Marshall was a Baghdadi Jew.[64] In India, Lieutenant General J. F. R. Jacob, a Baghdadi Jew from Calcutta, won national fame as Major General and chief of staff of the Indian army that defeated the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, later serving as governor of the Indian states of Goa and Punjab.[65]

The Baghdadi community, however, never saw their exodus as a tragedy. Memoirs written by Baghdadi Jewish authors spoke fondly

Burma, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong and of the fact in India they had never experienced antisemitism, which was viewed as a unique treasure.[2] The network of Baghdadi Jewish schools, both English, Jewish and aspirational in orientation had primed them for life in Britain or Israel, not in post-colonial Asia. Rather that focus on what pushed, these memoirs focus on what pulled the Baghdadi Jews to leave Asia, chiefly a sense that the opportunities that had drawn their ancestors there had dried up, and new glittering prizes lay in the West.[2]

In the early twenty first century the Baghdadi communities of

Burma are at the point of disappearing completely. However small Baghdadi communities of Hong Kong and Singapore have endured and Baghdadi synagogues still operate in both cities, though now greatly outnumbered in both by Jews from especially the United States, Israel, France and the United Kingdom draw to business in contemporary Asia
.

Today synagogues and associations upholding Baghdadi Jewish traditions exist in Britain, Israel, Australia and the United States. But in the historic Baghdadi communities in Asia only the synagogues originally founded by Baghdadi Jews in both Hong Kong and Singapore continue to operate regular services.[66][67]

A Baghdadi Jewish man in Calcutta contemplates his heritage. Late Twentieth Century.

Families of Baghdadi Jewish descent continue to play a major role in Jewish life particularly in Great Britain, to which the leading families were drawn after the Second World War. Established in London, the Sassoon family enjoyed the friendship of Edward VII, established a baronetcy and saw Philip Sasson became a minister.[8] Meanwhile, other Baghdadi families such as the Reubens have played major role in the British economy whilst others have gained notable prominence in arts and journalism, such as Gerry Judah and Tim Judah.[68]

Cuisine

Traditional Baghdadi Jewish cuisine is a hybrid cuisine, with many

Persian and Indian influences.[69] Famous Baghdadi dishes include beef curry, Baghdadi biryani and Baghdadi Jewish parathas. A Baghdadi version of tandoori chicken
is also popular (using lemon juice to cook the chicken instead of the cream used in the usual Indian recipe). Other Baghdadi Jewish communities in Southeast Asia mixed their original Iraqi Jewish dishes with influences from the local cuisine.

Synagogues

Pre-World War Two Baghdadi Communities in Asia

City Synagogue Year Opened
Mumbai Knesset Eliyahoo 1884
Mumbai Magen David 1864
Kolkata Magen David 1884
Hong Kong Ohel Leah 1902
Penang Penang Synagogue[70] 1926; Closed 1976
Pune Ohel David 1867
Shanghai Ohel Rachel 1921
Singapore Maghain Aboth 1878
Singapore Chesed El 1905
Yangon (Rangoon) Musmeah Yeshua 1896
Yangon (Rangoon) Beth El 1932; closed by the end of WWII

Post-World War Two wider Baghdadi and Iraqi Jewish Diaspora.

City Synagogue Year Opened
London Ohel David Eastern Synagogue 1959
Los Angeles Kahal Joseph Congregation 1959
New York Congregation Bene Naharayim 1983
New York Babylonian Jewish Center 1997
Sydney Beth Yisrael Synagogue 1962

Notable Baghdadi Jews

See also

References

  1. ^ Cuinet, Vital (1894). La Turquie d'Asie (in French). Vol. 3. Paris. p. 66. Retrieved Jul 11, 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780815803133
    – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Calcutta", Jewish Virtual Library
  4. ISBN 965-278-179-7
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84356-002-9
    .
  6. ^ "India virtual Jewish tour". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  7. ^ "The Rise and Fall of Calcutta Jews", The Forward
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-00-812761-9
    .
  9. ^ "Rabbi's Message" (PDF). www.kahaljoseph.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2018.
  10. ^ "Jewish Merchants in the Mughal Empire", Ishrat Ilam, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress Vol. 65 (2004), pp. 267–276
  11. ^ In Antique Land, Amitav Ghosh, 1992, p.19.
  12. ^
    ISBN 9781108139069
    – via Google Books.
  13. JSTOR 3622197
    .
  14. ^ "Sarmad the Magnificently Naked 17th-Century Jewish Mystic – Tablet Magazine". tabletmag.com. 2016-12-16.
  15. ^ a b ""The Last Jews in India and Burma" by Nathan Katz and Ellen S. Goldberg". Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  16. ^ "Recalling Jewish Calcutta | Shalome Aaron Cohen, Founding family member · 03 Notable Members of and from the Community". Archived from the original on 2018-07-08. Retrieved 2018-07-08.
  17. ^ a b Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus (1916). The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Funk and Wagnalls.
  18. ISBN 9789004354012
    .
  19. ISBN 9781851098736
    .
  20. ^ a b c d e f "The Baghdadi Jews of India".
  21. ^ Abraham, Isaac Silas (21 July 1969). "The Origin and History of the Calcutta Jews". Daw Sen – via Google Books.
  22. ^ "Passover in Baghdad". 1 July 2003.
  23. ^ "Aleppo". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  24. ^ "The Jewish Community of Mashhad". Museum of The Jewish People – Beit Hatfutsot':'בית התפוצות - מוזיאון העם היהודי'. Archived from the original on 2020-09-20. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  25. ^ "מסעי ישראל-בלשון אנגלית". issuu. 5 September 2011.
  26. ^
    ISBN 978-0300095470
    – via Google Books.
  27. ^ Benjamin, J. (1859). Eight Years in Asia and Africa: From 1846 to 1855. Published by the Author. p.118.
  28. ^ ""The Last Jews in India and Burma" by Nathan Katz and Ellen S. Goldberg". www.jcpa.org.
  29. ^ "Jewish Cemetery in Kolkata/Calcutta", Rangandatta blog
  30. ^ a b c "Calcutta". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  31. ^ a b c d "Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET" (PDF).
  32. ^ a b "The Jewish Community of Mumbai-Bombay". Museum of The Jewish People – Beit Hatfutsot':'בית התפוצות - מוזיאון העם היהודי'. Archived from the original on 2018-07-08. Retrieved 2018-07-08.
  33. ^ "Mumbai". Jewish Virtual Library.
  34. ^
    ISBN 9780739116470
    – via Google Books.
  35. ^ "EIGHT YEARSI NASIA AND AFRICAFROM 1846 TO 1855". issuu. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  36. ^
    ISBN 9780739116470
    .
  37. ISBN 9788174786852
    – via Google Books.
  38. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84980-632-9
    .
  39. ^
    ISBN 9780739116470
    – via Google Books.
  40. ^ a b c Marks, Zach (2013-10-24). "The Last Jews of Kolkata". New York Times.
  41. ISBN 9783631575338
    – via Google Books.
  42. ^ "A case study of the Jewish Diaspora in Penang (1830s-1970s)" (PDF).
  43. ISBN 9781482851601
    – via Google Books.
  44. ^ a b c "The Jews of Kobe". xenon.stanford.edu.
  45. ISBN 9781482851601
    – via Google Books.
  46. ISBN 9789385714535
    .
  47. ^
    ISBN 9789385714535
    – via Google Books.
  48. ^
    ISBN 9780739116470
    – via Google Books.
  49. S2CID 145588515
    .
  50. ^
    ISBN 9789004354012
    – via Google Books.
  51. ISBN 9781498551755
    – via Google Books.
  52. S2CID 145597159
    .
  53. ^ Weil, S. 2019 (ed.) The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities, Negotiating Identities and Creating Super-Diversity, London and New York: Routledge.
  54. ^
    ISBN 9789004289109
    – via Google Books.
  55. ^
    ISBN 9789652781796
    – via Google Books.
  56. ^ Levy, Lital (October 2010). "Mevasser (Calcutta)". Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World.
  57. ^ a b "Recalling Jewish Calcutta | Hacham Twena · 03 Notable Members of the Community". Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  58. ^ "A Note on Jewish Weddings" Archived 2018-07-30 at the Wayback Machine, Jewish Calcutta
  59. ISBN 9781851098736
    – via Google Books.
  60. ^ "Rahmo_Sassoon – Jewish Community of Kansai (Kobe City, Japan)". jcckobe.org.
  61. ^ Kamin, Debra (2012-04-03). "A Childhood Passage to Israel for Baghdadi Jews of India" (Blog).
  62. ^ "Recalling Jewish Calcutta". jewishcalcutta.in.
  63. Rangoon and Pathein both elected Baghdadi Jewish mayors and the population peaked at 2500 Jews in the 1930s. https://books.google.com/books?id=PVCzxtaSCXAC&pg=PR8
  64. ^ Green, David B. (12 March 2015). "This Day in Jewish History 1908: The Iraqi Jew Who Would Lead Singapore Is Born". Haaretz.
  65. ^ "The Sum of His Many Parts". OPEN Magazine. June 2012.
  66. ^ "About Our History" Archived 2018-01-04 at the Wayback Machine, Ohealleah
  67. ^ "HOME". singaporejews.com.
  68. ^ "Jewish artist Gerry Judah and the St Paul's crucifix". thejc.com. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  69. ^ Cooper, Judy and John Cooper. "The Life-Cycle of Baghdadi Jews of India", in India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle, (ed) Shalva Weil, Mumbai: Marg Publications [first published in 2002; 3rd edn.], 2009. pp. 100–109.
  70. ^ "The Jews of Penang". Penang Story. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  71. ^ Johari, Aarefa (26 April 2016). "In photos: The Mumbai Baghdadi Jewish community that produced the brothers who topped UK's rich list".
  72. ^ Weil, S. 2022b. “Siegfried Sassoon and the Sassoons”.Clare Hall Review, pp. 52-3.
  73. JSTOR 44144740
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baghdadi_Jews&oldid=1224825154"