A 120-year-old, hand-carved teak sofa from the living room of the man known as the Jewish Gandhi is tucked away in the living room of a suburban house just north of Toronto.
The piece’s creativity is highlighted by the lion’s head on an armrest, a carved peacock, and an elephant’s head, according to that man’s grandson.
“I had it repainted and upholstered here,” says Kenny Salem, a King City resident and Abraham Barak Salem’s grandson. “It’s simply for show,” says the narrator.
But he saves the best for last: India’s late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was among those who sat on it. The event was the Paradesi Synagogue’s 400th-anniversary celebration in Cochin, India, in 1968. The sofa had been transported to the synagogue that had played such an important role in A.B.’s life a year after his grandfather’s death. The story of Salem’s life.
Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2013/09/08/the_jews_of_cochin_and_two_mens_quixotic_quest.html
