The geography of Kerala, which is a small strip of land between the Western Ghats to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west, not only kept the region politically and culturally separate from the rest of the world but also made it ideal for growing spices, which were in high demand in the…
Samuel Hallegua, 79, died in his Fort Kochi home. The Hindu, which reported Mr. Hallegua’s death yesterday, described him as a ‘community leader’ and, more poignantly, as someone who resented, not without reason, Cochin’s once-thriving Jewish community’s transformation into a tourist attraction. Mr. Hallegua’s family is said to have been in Cochin since 1592, and…
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…
New Delhi: Jews used to be prominent members of Indian society, serving as prominent business owners, government officials, physicians, lawyers, and academics. They now make up a tiny percentage of the population. When it comes to the Jewish community in Delhi, there are only about ten households. Even though they have a great deal of…
Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, Baghdadi Jews, Bnei Menashe, and Bene Ephraim are among India’s five different Jewish communities. The Cochin Jews claim to be India’s oldest Jewish community, having arrived around the time of King Solomon in Cochin, now part of the South Indian state of Kerala. Following the fall of the Second Temple in…
“Can you hear it?” Sarah Cohen whispers upstairs in the Paradesi Synagogue during Jewish prayers. Something is happening next door at the Hindu temple.” Indeed, the strange liturgy fusion between this congregation and the one neighboring is difficult to overlook. “We often hear their music and prayers,” she says, a Star of David pendant dangling…
Cochin Jews are India’s oldest Jewish community, with millennia of history in Kerala. Jews have lived in Kerala, on India’s southwestern Malabar coast, for at least a thousand years, and maybe much more. Though the majority have subsequently relocated to Israel, a small number have remained, living in peace and harmony with the region’s numerous…
Last month, “The New York Times” published a story by special correspondent Michael T. Kaufman about the plight of the few remaining Jews in Cochin, India. The article “In Malabar, a Vivid Tapestry of the World’s Faiths” (Dec. 19, 1980) reminded me of a trip I took to Cochin seven years ago. The early entrance…
COCHIN, INDIA (Reuters) – After each civilization has found paradise in this beach village, it has placed its flag and then vanished. The Jews of Cochin, the only survivors of a historic spice-trading colony on India’s southwest coast, are dwindling. Their forefathers began arriving in the 1300s, many after arduous journeys from Europe and…
Did you know that the first migrating Jew to the Indian subcontinent came in Cochin (now Kochi) some 1,500 years ago? Furthermore, the Indian Jewish population is a unique mix of Indian and West Asian genetic origin, with South Asian forebears accounting for the majority of its genes. These findings were published in Nature’s online…