Fading Jewish heritage of Cochin
The eternal flame ‘Menorah’, the chanting from the Torah and the prayers of people from thousands of years are still reverberating in the long-dead Paradesi Synagogue at Mattancherry, the south Indian city of cochin. This Jewish heritage site is closely knitted with the history of the Jewish diaspora of Kerala and is one of the fewer remnants left.
The lives and the arrival of Jews in Cochin are uncertain due to the lack of records and the only history is dependent on the chronicles of the few members of the community in Cochin. Cochin Jews also called Malabar Jews are the oldest Jewish group in India. In 2019 Mattancherry witnessed the demise of Sara Cohen, the oldest member of the Jewish community in India. Her death recalls the dwindling number of Jews in Mattanchery Jew town which is soon going to be a misnomer.
Remnants of Jewish history in the city are fewer apart from the Paradesi Synagogue at Mattancherry. During the 1950s there were 250 who lived in the city and later only six Paradesi Jews remained here while many immigrated to the newly found Israel. The diaspora from Cochin is a community with more than 4000 members in Israel today. The history of Cochin Jews dates back to circa 970 to 931 BC when they first arrived as traders at present-day Kodungallur during the reign of King Solomon. They became a powerful trading community of Kerala.
Later, the then Chera dynasty ruler Bhaskara Ravi Varma honored the community by giving them a copper plate and granted them 72 privileges that assures the freedom to practice their religion, tax exemptions and many more. During the 14th Century, they moved south to Cochin due to the great flood of Periyar in north Kerala and in 1344 they built Kochangadi Synagogue, which is the first in Cochin. It is believed to have been demolished by Tipu Sultan in 1789.
A group of Sephardic Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula reached Cochin in 1492. During the 16th century, they faced Portuguese oppression and the Rajah of Cochin gave them refuge. They constructed the Paradesi Synagogue adjacent to the Mattancherry palace and the Jew Town has been built up around it. In later years, the Paradesi synagogue was primarily used by the Sephardim and their descendants and later by Jews exiled from Europe.
The Mattancherry Synagogue was built in 1568 by Spanish-speaking Jews and is the most prominent one among the synagogues in Kerala. This synagogue is known locally as the Paradesi Synagogue and the areas where Jews settled down came to be known as Jews Street or the Jew town which is still preserved as heritage structures. This Synagogue has been converted into a museum.
The structure of the synagogue was influenced by Kerala’s architectural style with tiled roofs. Italian and Belgian glass chandeliers brightly lit up the interiors and the floors were laid with Chinese Handcrafted tiles each with unique designs. The 18th-century clock tower, brass railed pulpit and a hand-knotted oriental carpet gifted by the last Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie is another antique attraction of this synagogue. The Holy Ark in the synagogue that the Rabban, a Jewish leader built with the aid of the regional ruler contains the Pentateuch, the first five books of Jewish scripture called Torah inscribed in rolls of goatskin and its 100 to 300 years old. It still preserves the 10th-century copperplate privileges given to Joseph Rabban by the Chera ruler.
Gradually Jewish community became divided into black Jews and white Jews or the Paradesi who are of pure European blood claiming superiority based on skin colour and ethnicity. Black Jews or the Malabari Jews are born out of European Jews and the natives. Later they refused to intermingle and built different synagogues and this racial polarization was one of the factors that contributed to the diminishing Jewish population in the city. There are eight synagogues in Kerala out of which seven were used by Black Malabari Jews while the Paradesi synagogue was patronized by white Paradesi Jews.
The Paradesi Synagogue had three classes of people which include the white Jews who are the descendants of Sephardim, black Jews or the Cochin Jews who are the oldest group in India and the Meshuchrarim, the slaves brought by the Sephardim, who were not given any communal rights.
Jews considered Kerala as a temporary place of refuge and they always wanted to return to their promised land Israel. In 1942, after the creation of the nation of Israel, many of them started the Aliyah or the Jewish migration and only a few families remained in the city. By1972 the synagogue was empty due to the lack of Minyan (quorum needed for the prayer). The lack of financial support for security and upkeep made the synagogue lose its charm and prominence. The space that cradles the stories of the past eventually went silent.
