Now Reading: Kochi’s Last Cochin Jews Preserve a Vanishing Heritage
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Kochi’s Last Cochin Jews Preserve a Vanishing Heritage
Keith Hallegua is the only Jew left in Kochi’s historic Jew Town and often prays alone at the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue. Elias “Babu” Josephai maintains the city’s last functioning Malabari synagogue, where…
The Story in Brief
Keith Hallegua is the only Jew left in Kochi’s historic Jew Town and often prays alone at the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue. Elias “Babu” Josephai maintains the city’s last functioning Malabari synagogue, where services are now rare. Much of Kochi’s Jewish community moved to Israel in the 1950s. Fewer than 5,000 Jews remain across India.
The community’s history includes centuries of religious freedom alongside divisions over class and colour. Hindu trustee M.C. Praveen and others are helping preserve its legacy. Synagogue leaders opened a museum earlier this year, displaying a copper-plate charter from 1000 CE that granted the Jewish settlement religious freedom. Tourists now fill streets once home to Jewish families and spice traders.
The Indian Opinion
The easy story is that Kochi’s Jewish heritage vanished simply because its people left. That ignores the community’s internal discrimination, as well as the local Hindu and Muslim residents now protecting its memory. The opposite romantic version, which presents centuries of harmony without conflict, is just as incomplete. Preservation should mean more than turning synagogues into photo stops. Will the museum, archives and living custodians still be supported when visitor numbers fall?
Source: newindianexpress.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
