Jews: Vanishing Colony

Last week, in the sleepy port city of Cochin (pop. 35,076) on India’s Malabar coast, glittering strips of tinsel and Stars of David were strung over a narrow two-mile street known locally as “Jew Town.” Nearly 200 religious scholars, archaeologists and historians from Asia, Europe and the U.S. were in town, along with a delegation of Indian leaders led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The guests had gathered to commemorate the 1900th anniversary of one of the smallest (100 people) but most resilient communities in the Dias pora: the Jews of Cochin.

According to legend, the Cochin Jews arrived on the Malabar coast around 70 A.D., fleeing from Roman persecution in the Holy Land. By the end of the 1st century there was a thriving Jewish community in Cranganore, 20 miles north of Cochin.

Princely Parasol. In A.D. 379, Hindu King Sri Parkaran Iravi Vanmar granted the village of Anjuvannam to an Indian Jewish leader named Joseph Rabban. Rabban was also given the title of prince, along with 72 proprietary rights including the privilege of levying taxes and such royal honors as “a cloth spread in front to walk on, a parasol, a drum, a trumpet and a garland.” In 1524, jealous Arab merchants, accusing the Jews of trying to take over the pepper trade, stirred up a holy war against the community by Indian natives. Cranganore was sacked, its homes and synagogue burned. Most of the survivors fled to Cochin and sought the protection of its maharajah. Although a Hindu, he treated them kindly, and in 1568 permitted them to rebuild their synagogue next door to his palace.

White Against Black. Through the centuries, Cochin’s Jews have adopted many Indian religious traditions. Mortar for the walls of their synagogue was mixed with coconut water, which Hindus use for sacred occasions. The ceremonial dress of a Cochin Jewish woman is a heavy gold brocade sarong and blouse, worn by Malabar Indian women at weddings. But the Cochin Jews have stoutly preserved their religious Orthodoxy, even though the community so far as it is known has never had a rabbi. (Many isolated Jewish colonies in India get along without rabbis.)

Despite its ability to survive against non-Jewish foes, the Cochin community has dwindled alarmingly in recent years. One problem is that many young Cochinese have emigrated to Israel. Another is that the colony is divided by an internecine feud between “white Jews,” who are descendants of traders, and “black Jews,” who the “whites” say are the descendants of converted slaves. The white Jews, whose ancestors came from Europe and Baghdad, tend to be fair-skinned, while the black Jews are darker-complexioned. White families will not allow their daughters to marry into black families. Today, few Cochin Jews believe their community can last more than several decades. “This is our last blaze of light before we vanish,” said one male leader of the colony.

In another footnote to Jewish his tory, the Spanish government last week issued a decree under which Madrid’s Jewish community was officially registered under Spain’s religious-liberty law. Passed two years ago, it allowed the public practice of non-Catholic religions. To all intents and purposes, Jews have enjoyed tolerance in Spain under the constitution of 1869, which proclaimed limited religious freedom, and under the 1966 law. All the same, last week’s decree marked the first time since Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, during the Inquisition, that they had been officially and formally granted the right to religious freedom by the Spanish state.