WHO WAS ISAAC THE JEW OF CALICUT AND COCHIN OF LATE 18TH CENTURY ?

 While looking for evidence of some jewish connection to Tipu Sultan of Mysore, I came across the name of Isaac the Jew.

His name appears in multiple documents, in Dutch and Portuguese and Hebrew.

Who was this Jew, Isaac ? In the 18th century he was a merchant prince and diplomat who maintained residence in both Calicut and Cochin 

Like many of the Paradesi jews of Cochin, he seems to have arrived in the Malabar coast in the 18th century. He was a very successful merchant and shipbuilder who maintained residences in both Calicut and Cochin.

This article by WJ Fischel is so well research and drips of academic clarity and certainty. 

A famed merchant of Leghorn, a jew by the name of Franco of Leghorn, had mentioned that he had met Isaac in Constantinople many decades earlier.  Like Paradesi, the turkish name carried by him, Surgun, means, exiled or foreigner.

He had friendly relationship with Hayder Ali Khan, the father of Tipu Sulan and his emissary in Calicut. so, Isaac the Jew or Joodische Koopman the jewish merchant as the Dutch referred to him, was a diplomat in addition to his wealth which might have brought him status and influence

The Danish missionary report of Tranquebar dated 1754 refers to him as Isaac Suriano, 

For students of Sephardic Jewish history, Soriano is a name very familiar. Like the name Hallegua, it has both spanish and Turkish connection. I have met Halleguas in Cochin, Havana, Uruguay and Miami, almost all of them an indirect Turkish connection. Cochin Halleguas claim their origin from Spain, from a town called Haleva, but then again all sephardi jews have a connection with Spain. Sepharad is Hebrew for Spain (Sarfat for French). As a high school student, I visited the island of Rhodes in Greece where I spent a Pesach/Seder at the home of a family Soriano (they were the first ever soriano i met, since then many Sorianos, mainly migrants to South America have crossed my path, from Panama, Uruguay, Miami etc).

So a Paradesi of Constantinople becomes a Paradesi of Cochin!

My mind began racing, connecting the various dots in the wide jewish world that I have inhabited ever since I became aware of it.

The synagogue in Rhodos which had 4000 jews before the war, dispersion and murder at the hands of Italian fascists, is right in the centre of the Juderia, the old Jewish Quarter.

I remember going there for services during my stay.

I vaguely remember sand floors, but here the floor seems to be covered with a mosaic that one sees in Rhodos.

My mind raced to the question? where are the sand covered floors in synagogues? All of them are Sephardic.

I had been a member of one, prayed in another (Jom Kipur) and visited the first ever Synagogue with sand floor , Snoga, in Amsterdam. Two more to go

Amsterdam

St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Kingston, Jamaica 

Curacao, Dutch West Indies (the oldest synagogue in the Western hemisphere). The oldest synagogue in Asia is now claimed by the Paradesi Synagogue , but certainly would be one of the synagogues in Cochin.

The fifth synagogue with a wooden roof and sand floor is in Paramaribo, Suriname in the former Dutch West Indies, in the mainland South America, used to be called Dutch Guyana.

This synagogue in Kingston, Jamaica, designed by the jamaican jewish architect, Cohen Henriques, has sand on the floor.

As we are a dispersed people, there are beautiful synagogues, some of which are only with memories of a congregation, around the world.

The most remote jewish community that I have visited would be that of Iquitos in Peruvian Amazon. Easter Island is even more isolated but there are no Jews in the island.

you see, how thinking about Isaac the Jew of Calicut and Cochin in the 18th Century took me all around the world. I am very conscious of this and it is this connection to the past with a firm view of the future that makes the Jewish people unique, not just the religion.

I dedicate this blog to the fine contemporary historian of Jewish history of Cochin, Mr. Biju Thomas.