Cochin Jew

Cochin Jew

ETHNONYMS: Cochinis, Malabar ("Black") Jews, Paradesi ("Foreign" or "White") Jews

Orientation

Identification.

The Cochin Jews are one of the smallest Jewish communities in the world. They hail from the Malabar Coast in India and traditionally were divided into two castelike subgroups: "White" and "Black" Jews. Today only thirty Cochin Jews remain in Cochin. The community has mostly been transplanted to Israel, where they continue to retain unique religious customs derived from their origins in Cochin while having integrated successfully into Israeli society.

Location. In India the Cochin Jews lived in several towns along the Malabar Coast in Kerala: Attencammonal, Chenotta, Ernakulam, Mallah, Parur, Chenemangalam, and Cochin. Today some Cochin individuals remain in Parur and Chenemangalam, and a small community of thirty people live in "Jews Town" in Cochin. In Israel the Cochin Jews live Primarily in agricultural settlements such as Nevatim and Mesillat Zion. A minority also live in the towns with small concentrations in Ramat Eliahu, Ashdod, and Jerusalem.

Demography. When the traveler Benjamin of Tudela visited India in about 1170, he reported there were about 1,000 Jews in the south. In 1686 Moses Pereira de Paiva listed 465 Malabar Jews. In 1781 the Dutch governor A. Moens Recorded 422 families or about 2,000 persons. In 1948, 2,500 Jews were living on the Malabar coast. In 1953, 2,400 emigrated to Israel, leaving behind only about 100 "White" Jews on the Malabar Coast. Today, there are only about 250 "White" Jews in existence and as a result of exogamy they are becoming extinct; conversely, the "Black" Jews in Israel are increasing in numbers.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Cochin Jews, like their Neighbors, speak Malayalam, a Dravidian language. In Israel they also speak modern Hebrew.

History and Cultural Relations

The settlement of Jews on the Malabar Coast is ancient. One theory holds that the ancestors of today's Cochin Jews arrived in south India among King Solomon's merchants who brought back ivory, monkeys, and parrots for his temple; Sanskrit- and Tamil-derived words appear in 1 Kings. Another theory suggests that Cochin Jews are descendants of captives taken to Assyria in the eighth century b.c. The most popular and likely supposition, however, is that Jews came to south India some time in the first century C.E., after the destruction of Solomon's second temple. This theory is confirmed by local South Indian Christian legends.

Documentary evidence of Jewish settlement on the southern Indian coast can be found in the famous Cochin Jewish copperplates in the ancient Tamil script (vattezuthu ). These copperplates are the source of numerous arguments, both among scholars as to their date and meaning and among the Cochin Jews themselves as to which particular castelike subgroup of Cochin Jews are their true owners. Until recently, the Jewish copperplates were dated 345 a.d., but Contemporary scholars agree upon the date 1000 a.d. In that year, during the reign of Bhaskara Ravi Varman (962-1020 C.E.), the Jews were granted seventy-two privileges. Among these were: the right to use a day lamp; the right to use a decorative cloth to walk on; the right to erect a palanquin; the right to blow a trumpet; and the right to be exempt from and to collect particular taxes. The privileges were bestowed upon the Cochin Jewish leader Joseph Rabban, "proprietor of the 'Anjuvannam,' his male and female issues, nephews and sons-in-law."

The meaning of the word "Anjuvannam" is also the subject of controversy. The theory that the word refers to a Kingdom or a place has been superseded by newer theories that it was an artisan class, a trade center, or a specifically Jewish guild.

From the eighteenth century on, emissaries from the Holy Land began to visit their Cochin Jewish brethren. Indirectly, they helped Cochin Jewry to align with world Jewry and finally, as part of the "ingathering of the exiles," to request a return to Zion.

In 1949, the first Cochin Jews—seventeen families in all—sold their property. Urged on by religious fervor and deteriorating economic conditions in postindependence India, community elders wrote to David Ben-Gurion, prime minister of the newly established State of Israel, requesting that the whole community emigrate to Israel. In 1953-1954, 2,400 Cochin Jews, the vast majority of whom were "Black" or Malabar Jews, went to Israel. A small number stayed behind on the Malabar Coast; and today only a handful remain.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. In India the Cochin Jews mainly engaged in petty trading in the towns in which they lived on the Malabar Coast. In general, the "White" Jews enjoyed a higher standard of living and included among their ranks several merchants, including international spice merchants, and professionals (lawyers, engineers, teachers, and physicians).

In Israel, the Cochin Jews are largely employed in agriculture. The first groups of these Jews to arrive in Israel were herded from place to place; in an early attempt to isolate them (from fear of contagious diseases) they were taken to outlying moshavim (agricultural settlements) such as Nevatim in the south. Their attempts to make a success out of Nevatim failed. By 1962, when a Jewish Agency Settlement Studies Centre sociologist conducted a survey of the moshav, he described the situation as one of "failure" and "economic and social crisis" expressing itself in declining output and emigration from the moshav.

Trade. In the 1970s, however, Nevatim turned into a thriving moshav, producing avocados, olives, citrus fruits, pecans, cotton, potatoes, flowers, and chickens. Today, Nevatim (with 571 Cochinis in 1982) is only one of fifteen successful Cochini moshavim. Some of these, such as Mesillat Zion near Beit Shemesh (174 Cochin Jews), are populated by a majority of Cochin Jews; while others, such as Fedia (27 Cochin Jews) and Tarom (23), are heterogeneous.

Division of Labor. In Cochin men usually had small shops selling sundry goods. These were located on the verandas of their houses. The women were engaged in domestic pursuits. In Israel men have now adopted many professional or clerical jobs.

Land Tenure. Due to lack of land on the moshav and new aspirations on the part of the younger generation, an expanding urban sector of Cochin Jews is increasingly making itself felt. "Pockets" of Cochin Jews can be found in the Ramat Eliahu neighborhood of Rishon Lezion and in Jerusalem, Ashdod, and other towns, where they are employed in white-collar and skilled occupations.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Cochin Jews observed strict caste endogamy, only marrying other Jews. However, there was no intermarriage between "White" and "Black" Jews. Even within the "White" Jewish subgroup, the "White" meyuhasim (privileged), who claimed direct descent from ancient Israel, did not accept their meshurarim, or manumitted slaves, as marriage partners. Similarly, the "Black" meyuhasim did not marry their freed slaves or proselytes. Today in Israel, more than one in every two Cochini marriages is contracted between Cochin Jews and other Israeli Jews.

Kinship Terminology. Cochin Jews in general tend to encourage cross-cousin marriage. Kinship terminology reflects local Malayalam terminology, while in Israel dod (uncle) and doda (aunt) refer to one's mother's and father's siblings without specification.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage is the most important Cochini social occasion, celebrated in India for a complete week. In Israel, celebrations are shorter due to demands of the working week. Domestic Unit and Socialization. The young couple set up a new household and in Israel aim to socialize their Children to become Israelis who are proud of their Cochini heritage. The average number of people in a family of Cochini origin in Israel was 5.7 in 1972 and 5.2 in 1982. Today the trend is toward smaller families.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. The "Black" Jews claim that they were the original recipients of the copperplates, thereby proving their high status in the South Indian context. However, the copperplates are today in the hands of the "White" Jews in the Paradesi synagogue. The term paradesi means "foreigner," and the "White" Jews are the descendants of Spanish, Portuguese, Iraqi, and other Jews who arrived on the Malabar Coast from the sixteenth century on, later than the first appearance of the copperplates.

After the "White" Jews built the Paradesi synagogue in 1568, no "Black" Jews were qualified to pray there. The "Black" Jews, for their part, had several synagogues that no "White" Jew would enter. To complicate matters, both "White" and "Black" Jews were internally divided into meyuhasim and nonmeyuhasim (privileged and nonprivileged).

It is not entirely clear when divisions within the Community came into being. One of the earliest recorded splits was in 1344, when some of the Jews of Cranganore moved to Cochin, three years after the port of Cranganore was silted up and Cochin was founded. But it was only after Vasco da Gama's expedition when the Portuguese ruled Kerala that some European Jews settled in Cochin. They became the first "White" Jews. By the time Pereira de Paiva visited Cochin in 1686 on behalf of Amsterdam Jewry, he could report that "the 'White Jews' and the 'Malabarees' were neither intermarrying nor inter-dining."

One "White" Jew who rose to prominence under the Dutch, who had taken over in 1668, was Ezekiel Rahabi (1694-1771). For forty-eight years he acted as the principal merchant for the Dutch in Cochin. He had contacts all over the East as well as in Europe, and he signed his numerous memorandums in Hebrew.

Political Organization. The Jews' lives on the Malabar Coast were centered on the synagogue, which corporately owned estates in each settlement. The congregation was known as the yogam and it administered communal affairs collectively.

Social Control. The yogam acted as a social control device determining the fate of its members. In extreme cases, where social taboos were ignored, the congregation could excommunicate a member. A famous example was the case of A. B. Salem, a lawyer, who became the leader of the meshurarim in his fight for equal rights for his group. Even as late as 1952, the "White" Jews would not let his son marry a "White" Jew in the Paradesi synagogue. When his son and new daughter-inlaw returned from their marriage in Bombay, all the women in the ladies' gallery of the Paradesi synagogue walked out in protest.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The Cochin Jews believe in one deity. Their religious observances conform in every way with the Jewish norms established by the halacha (Jewish legal code), and they kept contact with mainstream Judaism through many generations. At the same time, since they were fully integrated into Kerala society, they were influenced by many Hindu practices and beliefs (e.g., the emphasis upon purity of descent, the wedding customs and canopy, and the "asceticism" associated with Passover preparations). Reportedly, the Cochin Jews have never suffered from anti-Semitism at the hands of their Hindu neighbors.

Religious Practitioners. The Cochin Jews never had any rabbis, but several men served as shochetim (ritual slaughterers) and hazanim (cantors) both for their own communities and for another community of Indian Jews, the Bene Israel in Bombay.

Ceremonies. Both the "White" and the "Black" Jews perform their ceremonies separately in their own synagogues and homes. However, the ceremonies are similar and distinctly Cochini, reflecting both local Hindu and Christian influences. Both groups build a manara, or aperion, for the wedding, usually at the groom's house. After a ritual bath the bride receives a tali, an Indian pendant, in imitation of local Nayar practice. The groom and bride dress in traditional wedding dress. The groom enters the synagogue on a white carpet—a custom apparently observed by "Black" and not "White" Jews—and sits near the podium until the bride's procession arrives. The groom himself—and not a rabbi, as in other Jewish communities—actually announces his betrothal and marriage to his bride.

Arts. Daily prayers were chanted according to the shingli custom, a unique version of the standard Jewish prayers. In addition, the Cochin Jews have a large number of folksongs that they sing regularly. Some are sung at weddings, some are lullabies, and some specifically recall the return to Zion. In 1984 the Cochin Jews in Israel staged a huge pageant relating in song and dance the story of their emigration from India and their integration into Israeli society.

Death and Afterlife. The Cochin Jews believe in an afterlife, influenced both by Jewish and Hindu beliefs. Their dead are buried in Jewish cemeteries.

See also Bene Israel

Bibliography

Katz, Nathan, and Ellen Goldberg (1989). "Asceticism and Caste in the Passover Observances of the Cochin Jews." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62:53-82.

Mandelbaum, David G. (1975). "Social Stratification among the Jews of Cochin in India and in Israel." Jewish Journal of Sociology 17:165-210.

Velayudhan, P. A., et al. (1971). Commemorative Volume: Cochin Synagogue, Quatercentenary Celebration. Cochin: Kerala Historical Association.

Weil, Shalva J. (1982). "Symmetry between Christian and Jews in India: the Cnanite Christian and the Cochin Jews of Kerala." Contributions to Indian Sociology 16:175-196.

Weil, Shalva J. (1984). From Cochin to Eretz Israel (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Kumu Berina.

SHALVA J. WEIL