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Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews are the ancient Jews and their descendants of the South Indian erstwhile state of Kingdom of Cochin which includes the present day port city of Kochi. They traditionally spoke Judeo-Malayalam, a form of the Malayalam tongue, native to the state of Kerala, in India. Several rounds of immigration of the Jewish diaspora into Kerala led to a diversity amongst the Cochin Jews.
History
Some sources say that the earliest Jews were those who settled in the Malabar coast during the times of King Solomon of Israel, and after the Kingdom of Israel split into two (David de Beth Hillel, 1832; Lord, James Henry 1977). They are sometimes referred to as the "black Jews". The Paradesi Jews, also called "White Jews", settled later, coming to India from European and Middle Eastern nations such as Holland and Spain, and bringing with them the Ladino language. Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Sephardim) settled in Goa in the 15th century, but this settlement eventually disappeared. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Cochin had an influx of Jewish settlers from the Middle East, North Africa and Spain.
Jews came to Kerala and settled as early as 700 BC for trade. An old, but not particularly reliable, tradition says that Jews of Cochin came in mass to Cranganore (an ancient port, near Cochin) after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. A chieftain by the name of Joseph Rabban, according to local tradition, was granted a principality over the Jews of Cochin by the Chera Emperor of Kerala, Bhaskara Ravivarman II. His descendents had, in effect, their own principality (called Anjuvannam in Indian sources) for many centuries until a chieftainship dispute broke out between two brothers (one of them named Joseph Azar) in the 15th century. The dispute led neighboring princes to dispossess them. In 1524, the Muslims, backed by the ruler of Calicut (today called Kozhikode), attacked the Jews of Cranganore on the pretext that they were tampering with the pepper trade. Most Jews fled to Cochin and went under the protection of the Hindu Raja there. He granted them a site for their own town that later acquired the name "Jew Town" (by which it is still known). Unfortunately for the Jews of Cochin, the Portuguese occupied Cochin in this same period and indulged in persecution of the Jews until the Dutch displaced them in 1660. The Dutch Protestants were tolerant, and the Jews prospered. In 1795 Cochin passed into the British sphere of influence. In the 19th century, Cochin Jews lived in the towns of Cochin, Ernakulam, Aluva and Parur.
Cochin Jews today
Today most of Cochin's Jews have emigrated (principally to Israel). Large groups have settled in the village of Nevatim in the Negev (southern Israel) and in the neighborhood of Katamon in Jerusalem. In both places there are Cochin Jewish synagogues. In Kerala there are still three synagogues; the one at Mattancherry, Cochin is still functioning.
Another reason why there was a reduction in Jewish population in old times was conversion to Christianity. Both during the time of St. Thomas in Kerala and later, many Jews joined the Nasrani people in Kerala. They intermingled especially with the Knanaya Christian-Jews within the Nasrani community of Kerala.
Ruby of Cochin
Ruby Daniel emigrated to Israel from Cochin in 1951. Her 1995 memoir, Ruby of Cochin lists a fourth method for marriage among the Jews of Cochin: that of witness by the entire congregation to a marriage. The memoir includes her experience in the Armed Forces of India as a Jewish woman among Hindu and Muslim men.
See also
References
- Ruby Daniel & B. Johnson. (1995). Ruby of Cochin: An Indian Jewish Woman Remembers. Philadelphia and Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society.
- Koder S. 'History of the Jews of Kerala".The St.Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India,Ed. G. Menachery,1973.
- David de Beth Hillel (1832) "travels"; madras publication.
- Lord, James Henry (1977) "The Jews in India and the Far East"; Hardback 120 pages; Greenwood Press Reprint; ISBN 0-837-12615-0
Further reading
- Indian Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle Dr. Shalva Weil (ed). Mumbai: Marg Publications
External links
"Cochin Jews"