The Jewish Community of Cochin
Cochin
കൊച്ചി / Kochi
A city and former state of the Malabar Coast, latter part of the state of Kerala, India.
The Jews of the area are divided into three groups “White Jews”, “Black Jews” and "Meshuchrarim" (or freedmen). The White Jews (called "Paradesi", foreigners) are a mixture of Jewish exiles from Cranganore and (later) Spain, Aleppo, Holland, and Germany. They follow the Sephardi rite with some Ashkenazi forms.
The Black Jews have separate synagogues from the Whites.
The third group, the Meshuchrarim, were manumitted slaves and their offspring were attached to either of the two communities but had no rights (until 1932) to sit in the synagogue or be called to assist in the services (except on Simchat Torach). Influenced by the Indian caste system, the three groups do not intermarry.
The earliest evidence of the settlement of Jews on the Malabar Coast is given by two copper plates in the possession of the congregation of the White Jews. The text of this inscription can now be definitely established as dating to no earlier than 974 and no later than 1020.
Benjamin of Tudela, in his account of India (c. 1170), apparently states that there were in this region about 1,000 Jews, black like their neighbors, who meticulously observed the Torah and, besides the bible, knew a little of the oral law.
Two waves of Jewish immigration converged on Cochin from Cranganore (Shinkali), the original Jewish settlement on the Malabar Coast, after its destruction by the Portuguese about 1524, and secondly Jews and new Christians, from Spain and Portugal. The Jewish traveler from Yemen, Zechariah Alzahiri (c. 1550) in his Sefer ha-Musar, says that he "met with many Jews in Cushi" (Cochin) where he stayed for three months. In a legal inquiry regarding the status of the Black Jews and Meshuchrarim made to David B. Solomon Ibn Abi Zimra and R. Jacob B. Abraham Castro in Alexandria around 1600, the number of Cochin Jews was given at about 900 householders.
Under the Portuguese rule (1502-1663), the Jews of Cochin could not have survived had it not been for the protection and liberty afforded them by the Rajah of Cochin, who welcomed the new Jewish immigrants, allotted them land to build their homes and synagogues - in the proximity of his own palace in Mattancheri, now known as Jew town - and granted them religious and cultural autonomy. He appointed a hereditary Mudaliar ("chief") from among the Jews as their recognized spokesman and invested him with special privileges and prerogatives and with jurisdiction in all internal matters of the communal organization of the Cochin Jews, though without any political power. This office continued in force under the Rajah and even the Dutch. The first Mudaliar is said to have been Baruch Joseph Levi of Cranganore, who was succeeded by his son, Joseph Levi. The title and position of the Mudaliar was then acquired by the Castiel family. The Jews of Cochin repaid the benevolence of the Rajah by helping him in his military struggles with neighboring enemies, earning a reputation as courageous and loyal fighters. They refused, however, to go to battle on the Sabbath. Most of the Mudaliars became the Rajah's close advisers, and assisted him in diplomatic and economic affairs.
The Dutch period lasted from 1663-1795. That the Dutch forces were able to retreat without loss on the failure of their first attempt to capture Cochin in 1662 was due to the courage of a certain Cochin Jew. The Portuguese forces took revenge by plunder and massacre, burning Jewish books and records, synagogues and homes. The Jewish inhabitants fled to the highlands and returned only after the final conquest of Cochin by the Dutch in the following year.
Dutch rule offered the Jews complete cultural autonomy and religious freedom; it also broke their isolation from the rest of the Jewish world. In 1686 the Portuguese community in Amsterdam dispatched a delegation to Cochin, headed by Moses Pereira de Paiva, to visit the Jewish community and to collect data on its history and way of life. The visitors made a considerable impact on the Jewish community, mainly because of a consignment of Hebrew books that they brought for the community. The 15th of Av, the day of their arrival, was celebrated as a festival in Cochin. The close contact between the Jews of Amsterdam and Cochin lasted throughout the 125 years of Dutch rule over Malabar. Dutch rule also brought unparalleled prosperity to the Jews. The records of the Dutch East India Company of the 18th century in The Hague and in the Indian archives provide abundant documentary evidence on the emergence of a class of Jewish merchants, bankers, leaders in diplomacy, negotiators, and interpreters. Outstanding were the Rahabi, Rotenburg, and Surgun families and Samuel Abraham. In the 17th century Moses de Pereira listed 465 Malabar Jews, and found there nine synagogues, three in Cochin, two in Angicaymal (now Ernakulam), and one each in Parur, Palur, Chenotta (Chennmangalam), and Muttam (Madatankil). Nearly a century later, the Dutch governor A. Moens (1781) mentions 422 families, or about 2,000 persons. The Cochin community maintained close contact with Jewish communities outside India as well as with the Jewish settlements within India. However, the closest contacts were maintained with the Amsterdam Jews, who provided them with books and learning.
Most of the published writings of the Cochin Jews were printed in Amsterdam, e.g., Seder Tefilot (Amsterdam, 1757); this was later republished under the name Chuppat Chattanim (1769, 1842, and 1917). The first Hebrew printing press in India was founded in Calcutta in 1840-41 by a native of Cochin, Eleizer B. Aaron Saadiah Arakiah Ha-Kohen (b. 1800). Between 1841 and 1856 he produced about 28 books of a halakhic, liturgical, and literary nature. Like all oriental Jews, those of Cochin were imbued with a strong messianic spirit. Shabbetai Tzevi, in the 17th century, found an echo even in this remote corner of the diaspora. A close contact between Cochin and the holy land was established from the middle of the 18th century, through emissaries from eretz Israel. The Cochin Jews showed their sympathy with the emerging modern Zionist movement under Theodor Herzl, in a letter wishing Herzl success, written in Cochin in 1901 by Naphtali Eliahu Rahabi (Roby). In 1923 the first Zionist organization was founded in Cochin, and the Jews sent representatives to the Zionist Federation in London and even appointed I. Zangwill as their representative to one of the Zionist Congresses, being themselves unable to send a delegate.
In 1948, most of the 2,500 Jews that lived in Cochin emigrated to eretz Israel leaving less than 100 there. In 1970 the Jews from Cochin in Israel numbered approximately 4,000.
In 1997 there were 6,000 Jews living in India; most of them in and around Mumbai. The magnificent 16th century Paradesi synagogue in Chochin still exists.