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Spiritual
Discovery
In search of the (happy)
Jewish story in India.
Irene Shaland
Special to the Jewish News
I
dreamt of India for years. As my hus-
band, Alex, and I planned our trip, we
both began to see India as the place in
space and time where one comes for self-
discovery and personal growth.
We came to India to see the temples and
palaces. Instead, something unexpected
and wonderful happened. The tiny Jewish
community of India became our most
amazing discovery and transformed our
trip into a spiritual journey.
The story about the Indian Jewish com-
munity is not widely known, even though
they have been living in India for well over
2,500 years. This community consists of
three distinctive groups: the Cochin Jews,
the Bene Israel and the Baghdadi.
The Cochin Jews are considered the old-
est continuously living Jewish community
in the world. They began arriving from
Judea 2,500 years ago on the Malabar Coast
of India and settled as traders near the
town of Cochin in what is now Kerala. The
first wave probably arrived in 562 BC fol-
lowing the destruction of the First Temple.
The second wave likely came in 70 CE
after the destruction of the Second Temple.
The late 15th century saw the arrival of
the third wave: Sephardic Jews expelled
from Spain. The Cochin Jews speak Judeo-
Malayalam, a hybrid of Hebrew and the
language of Kerala.
The Bene Israel Jews arrived 2,100 years
ago from the Kingdom of Judea and settled
in what is now Maharashtra. The original
group — either traders or refugees from
Rome — was shipwrecked, and the survi-
vors were thrown on the Konkan coast, not
far from today's Mumbai (Bombay). With
no possessions and unable to speak the lan-
guage, they joined the cast of oil-pressers.
Once thriving and populous, the Bene Israel
group now numbers 3,500 to 4,000 people.
The Baghdadi Jews arrived in India about
280 years ago. The name is somewhat mis-
leading. Not all were of Iraqi origin; many
came from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen
and other Arab countries. They settled in
Rangoon, Calcutta and Bombay, and being
rich and educated, they quickly became the
wealthiest community. Also called Mizrachi
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(Eastern) Jews, they turned their new home
cities into cosmopolitan, thriving entrepre-
neurial centers. They became prominent
politicians and philanthropists, and built
libraries and hospitals.
None of the languages they speak has a
word for anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, when
India gained independence from Great
Britain and went through partition in 1948,
most of India's Jews left their homeland to
escape violence between conflicting forces
of Hindu nationalism and Muslim separat-
ism. They left behind more than a 2,000-
year history of freedom and prosperity and
began their mass exodus to the new state
of Israel where they now constitute about 1
percent of the total population. Some immi-
grated to the U.K. or the U.S.
Delhi/Agra
In Delhi, most tourists visit the Emperor
Humayan's Tomb, a World Heritage Site and
an architectural precursor to the Taj Mahal.
Nearby is a one-room building that houses
the best-kept secret in India's capital, the
Judah Hyam Synagogue where we meet
with Ezekiel Isaac Malekar.
Malekar is a prominent Delhi attorney,
Jewish community leader, rabbi, cantor,
writer and Hebrew scholar. A Bene Israel
Jew, his native language is Hindi, and in
perfect British English, he told us about
the tiny, closely tied Jewish community of
Delhi. One of the oldest Jewish communi-
ties in the world, it now numbers a little
more than 40 people or 10 families. The
synagogue serves expatriates working in
Delhi, Israeli diplomats and Jewish tour-
ists. When we discussed the complexity of
the Jewish identity in the Hindu-Muslim
culture, he said, "As a Jew, I have Israel in
my heart, but as an Indian – India is in my
blood."
Malekar told us that during the begin-
ning of World War II, a ship with 1,200
Polish Jewish orphans and adult guardians
was prohibited from docking in Britain, but
later ended up in Bombay. There, the British
authorities would not grant them entry, so
the Maharajah (great king) of Jamnagar
in Gujarat accepted them as his personal
guests, where they were well cared for until
the war ended.
In 1989, the surviving members of the
Mumbai: Inside the Kenesseth Eliyahoo Synagogue. The synagogue is located in the
famous Colaba district where many of the wealthiest Jewish families used to live.
group, along with their children and grand-
children, returned to Gujarat from the U.S.
and Israel and dedicated a memorial to
their safe haven. The story of India as a
shelter for Jews during the Holocaust is not
commonly known, but what a very Indian
story it is.
of the richest members of the Baghdadi
community lived, including the Sassons,
whose ancestor David Sasson fled Iran in
the early 1800s. He and his eight sons cre-
ated an international commercial empire
and became one of the wealthiest families
in India. They also created something that
never existed in India before: philanthropy.
The Sassons built synagogues, schools,
hospitals, kosher shops, leper asylums
and important Mumbai
landmarks — the elegant
Flora Fountain and the
Venetian Gothic-style
David Sasson Library.
Mumbai
Jews settled in Mumbai in the 18th century.
Today, Mumbai has the
largest Jewish community
in India: 3,500 to 4,000
people, most of whom are
the Bene Israel.
We visited two of the
Cochin
city's eight synagogues:
The oldest continuously
Kenesseth Eliyahoo
living Jewish community
and Magen David, both
in the world dates back
built by the Sassons, the
2,500 years and consists
wealthiest family of the
now of a few families liv-
Baghdadi Jews.
ing in the Jew Town part
The elegant blue
of the port city of Cochin
structure of the Magen
in the southernmost
David Synagogue was
state of India, Kerala.
erected in 1861. Our
People of Cochin, notwith-
Jew Town now is just one
guide, Hanna Shapurkar, standing their faith, come to
long north-south street
a Bene Israel Jew, and the pray, bring their grievances,
called Synagogue Lane
synagogue's caretaker,
and ask for favors from an
bustling with shops and
Eliyahoo Benjamin, a
ancient Jewish saint buried
boutiques.
Baghdadi Jew, told us
in this grave. They say he has
Here, we met Reema,
about the synagogue's
divine powers.
who looks a lot like my
150-year-old history. At
own mother, tiny and
one time, the congrega-
pale, an elegant lady in her 80s. We talk
tion did not accept the Bene Israel. "They
about Canada, where her children and
were thought to be too dark-skinned, not
grandchildren live, and Cochin, which she
pure Jewish in blood': said Benjamin. Now,
says she would never leave.
when so few are left, the differences are
Next to her house stands the most popu-
forgotten, and they often pray together,
lar site in Cochin, the Paradesi Synagogue
especially during the holidays.
built in 1568. With its red-tiled roof and
We visited the Kenesseth Eliyahoo
whitewashed walls, it resembles Kerala
synagogue located in the famous Colaba
Hindu temples. A plain wooden door leads
district, not far from the Taj Mahal Hotel
to a treeless courtyard used for the Simchat
and the Gates of India. Colaba, an affluent
area in the center of Mumbai, is where most Torah procession. We removed our shoes,