THE
LAST JEW OF COCHIN
Elias
Josephai
When and if this gentleman goes to Israel to join his children, the last of any Jewish
lived in knowledge and history would end
A
sad personal note for many of us, but in the light of the history of Jews,
another chapter has closed.
I
remember meeting an Israeli lawyer in Fort Cochin during my early visits, and
she asked me, if there are Jews here, what are they doing here? They should be
in Israel.
That
was what happened in 1950 with the mass exodus of the majority of Jews who
inhabited Fort Cochin, Ernakulum, Paroor, Chengamangalam and Mala. Edifices and
cemeteries are now historical monuments and with one exception all in the state
of neglect. Fortunately there are Hindu, Christian scholars who are interested
in the maintenance of the history of Jews in this area. So these ancient
edifices, synagogues of peculiar Kerala architecture, might have a second life
as memorial to the wonderful history of Jewish People in this part of the
world.
I
became interested in isolated Jewish communities and as I became an
Anthropologist, the reasons for them wanting to be there and their reasons for
survival and disappearance. What happened to the Jews of Penang? Rangoon?
Batavia? Calcutta? Surat? All of them trading communities were predominantly of
immigrant Iraqi Jews of recent vintage.
In
my travels, I come across small number of people, claiming their long lost
heritage as Marranos or forgotten Jews, or claiming to be Jews through some DNA
studies or more commonly claiming to be members of the lost tribe. In fact
there are many books written about them. But my interest is historic Jewish
communities which have maintained their contact with the Jewish world
throughout centuries and carried on the traditions.
We
learned a lot about Beta Israel of Ethiopia and the majority of them now live
in Israel. There are five other exotic Jewish communities three of which are on
the brink of extinction.
The
small Jewish community of Indonesia formed during the rule of the Dutch. The
synagogue of Surabaya was destroyed by fanatics in 2013, when a government such
as Indonesia or Malaysia or Brunei, on the basis of their religion, adopts an
antagonistic attitude towards Israel and by its extension to all Jews
everywhere, the chances of survival as a community is dimmed; there is a small Jewish
community in Manado. These are all recent migrations, possibly from 19th
century. In a way this community much resembles the Jewish communities of
Singapore and Hong Kong, where merchants settled down, and now during the time
of liberation and independence, augmented by Jewish businessmen. While
Singapore and Hong Kong lie on the crossroads of world commerce, Surabaya and
Manado are more isolated.
The
truly exotic Jewish communities are the following three:
The
Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan
They
speak JUHURI, a Farsi based language with Hebrew remnants. Azerbaijan is
notable among its Moslem neighbours in that it maintains good relationship with
Israel.
The
Bukharan Jews of the old silk route of Bukhara. They have migrated to Jerusalem
and Bronx in New York but fiercely maintain their style of worship and rituals.
The
Jews of Cochin. Many books have been written about them but the outsiders who
came to study them did excellent studies on their rituals, music but a good
anthropological study was never done and now it is too late.
7
Jews (5 elderly and 2 in their forties) live in Fort Cochin; the community
which was vibrant once upon a time has long ceased to be. The synagogue is
taken over by the Archeological Commission of India and has become a tourist
attraction. A run down skeleton of another synagogue and a cemetery are nearby.
In
Ernakulum, there are individuals but with the exception of Elias Josesphai
there are no practicing Jews. Elias and his wife Ofra, with their two daughters
Avital (Haifa) and Lea (Bombay, hopefully soon Israel) has been the last Jewish
family in Cochin for many years. Elias is the only person who can give a
coherent history of his people. For telling the truth he has gotten into
trouble more than once.
Strangely
enough those who migrated from Cochin to Israel seldom return and certainly
have not cared for the synagogues and cemeteries left behind. The two synagogue
buildings in Ernakulum are in a dilapidated state and we would need the help of
our fellow sympathizers if these buildings are to survive,
A
Jew cannot exist alone; he needs a community to exist as a Jew. While some
individuals of Cochini Jewish origin or Baghdadi Jewish origin may continue
to live in India, the illustrious, long, exotic history of the Jewish Community
of Cochin is at an end,
As
a historical addendum, new research shows that the majority of Jews who settled
in the Malabar Coast originated in the Middle East, in what are now Syria and
Iraq and Yemen. The migration from Spain or Portugal was minimal. The adoption
of Hindu status and caste system as well as European idea of race was
introduced much later into the history of Jews here. This was not a Sephardi
community but a Mizrahi Jewish community.
