Rebecca Reuben Nowgaokar
Rebecca Reuben Nowgaokar (18 September 1889 – 16 November 1957) was a Jewish-Indian writer and educator in Mumbai. She led the Bene Israel School Committee from 1922 to 1950 and was a key public figure in education.
Born in Shimoga, Karnataka, into a Bene Israel family with notable ancestors, she excelled in school and in 1905 became the first woman to score highest on Mumbai University entrance exams, earning a science prize. She studied history in Mumbai and Hebrew, then pedagogy in London and Hebrew and Jewish studies in Cambridge.
After teaching in several schools, she became principal of a teacher-training college in Baroda in 1920. In 1922 she became principal of the Bene Israel High School in Mumbai, which was later renamed after the philanthropist Sir Elly Kadoorie after she persuaded him to donate about 150,000 rupees to the school.
Nowgaokar helped shape education in West India, led community activities, and published widely. She started the Balikardash magazine, wrote a popular series of English textbooks called Ashok used across Maharashtra, and edited the Bene Israel Year Book (1917–1920). She also published papers about the Indian Jewish community in Hebrew and English and translated Indian folk stories into Hebrew.
In 1947 she visited Israel on a Zionist mission and spoke at the first international conference on Hebrew education in Jerusalem. She remained in India after many Bene Israel Jews moved to Israel, continuing her educational and public work until her death in Mumbai in 1957.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:17 (CET).