Real History of the Cochin Jews of India
– Thapan (Dubayehudi) Santhosh (based on the accounts of Elias Josephai and the recipes by Ofera Elias)
This is the true story of the Jews of Cochin (Kochi) in Kerala, India. From the unknown and deliberately side-lined history to the richness of our traditions, folksongs, cuisine and our language, Judeo-Malayalam. Let’s examine the unique and hidden history.
Right from the dawn of history, there were trade relations between India and the Middle East; it mainly concentrated on spices, especially pepper; which was appropriately called as ‘black gold’ due to its commercial value at the time. This trade was prominently carried out to and from the Malabar region (modern day State of Kerala) of India (known as Hodu in Hebrew, for ‘Hindu Rajya’). This colourful land was fascinating and attractive to countless Western and Middle Eastern civilizations at the time due to the unique lifestyle, unique traditions and its unique and diverse peoples. The reason why Malabar became so popular is that pepper, being an essential part of European cuisine and medicine, was found in rich quality and quantity in Malabar. Apart from the Europeans, other communities sought after this black gold as well; for instance, within the coffins of countless Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, one can find fillings of pepper-ears imported from Malabar. Even today, the best pepper in the world can be found in this narrow strip of land called Kerala (erstwhile Malabar).
Meanwhile, in those days, around 4000 – 5000 years ago, the language in Malabar was not Malayalam like today, but rather Tamil (the oldest language in the world, it is now spoken in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu and is an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore); one can also see in the historical copper plate inscriptions of the Jews of Malabar, wherein God is addressed as Aadiperiyone (the First Grand One) in old Tamil. However, an even more interesting linguistic connection can be found between language of Malabar at the time and the ‘first Jew in history’, Avraham Avinu. Avraham (Abraham the Patriarch) was born in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. The noun ‘Ur’ came to Malabar and found its way into the Tamil language, with the meaning ‘homeland/native place’; it is still used in Modern Tamil; moreover, many place names in south India, mainly Kerala and Tamil Nadu, end in the suffix ‘ur’ or ‘oor’ (eg: Parur, Thanur, Coimbatur, Kaloor, Kodungalur etc). Furthermore, many words in old Tamil+Malayalam and Hebrew were very similar. In old Tamil, Kapyam meant ‘monkey’, in Hebrew it is Kophim. Tuki meant ‘peacock’ and it is Tukyam in Hebrew. Parapar still means ‘butterfly’ in the Malayalam which is spoken in the district of Kottayam; it is also so in Hebrew and similar to the words in many Romance languages of Europe. Meta is ‘bed’ in Malayalam and Mita means the same in Hebrew. The colloquial Malayalam word Chikli means ‘money’ and it comes from the Hebrew ‘Shekel’.
How can this be explained? The logical explanation is the linguistic exchange between the Malabaris and Middle Easterners (especially Jews) due to their extensive trade relations at the time; and the trade wasn’t only about spices and pepper, but also precious and semi-precious stones, along with human and animal resources. When the First Temple was constructed by King Solomon in the 950s BCE, elephants and mahouts were taken from Malabar to Jerusalem to aid in the construction by pulling timber. Hence the information that elephants are traditionally used to transport timer in Malabar had had reached there. Now fast-forward to the time after the destruction of the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, two Jewish tribes were taken as slaves, Binyamin Tribe and Yehuda Tribe; the former was taken to Nineveh (modern-day northern Iraq) and the latter to Babylonia (modern day Baghdad); history records that the Yehuda tribe escaped from slavery and finally arrived at the Malabar coast in 72 BCE; and thus begins the story of the Malabari Jews.
And thus begins the story of deliberate misinformation as well. Many historians have falsely stated that the Jews first arrived in Malabar in 72 CE and not 72 BCE. Let’s debunk that claim. It is well-known in India’s Christian history that one of Jesus the Nazrene’s disciples, St. Thomas, came to Malabar in 52 CE for the sole purpose converting the Jewish locals and other locals to Christianity. How can he convert the Jews of Malabar if the Jews had only come in 72 CE? Twenty years after his arrival? Only common logic is required to refute that claim. Hence the Jews did indeed come in 72 BCE, and several decades later in 52 CE, St. Thomas did indeed come and converted many Jews and local Brahmins to Christianity, it is doubtlessly proven in several historical accounts. Furthermore, in 3 BCE, an unknown Greek traveller wrote a travelogue called Periplus of the Erythraean Sea in which he mentions the Jews of Malabar in several places of Modern Kerala like Ezhimala, Pandalayini etc. Further still, the first Christian church in India is in Paloor (notice the ‘oor’), in north Kerala. When that church was recently renovated, they discovered a stone inscription that showed the name ‘Rabbi ben Moshe’; afterwards they promptly whitewashed the stones and took it away, perhaps to hide their Jewish roots for some reason. In addition, in the old Malabari Jewish folksongs, the lyrics speak of an old, lost synagogue in Paloor; if that church wasn’t a synagogue once which was converted to a church after the congregation converted to Christianity, why would that building be mentioned in the Jewish songs?
The Jews were once called ‘Israelites’, but today the Malayalam word for ‘Jew’ is Yehudan. How did that word come to Malayalam? It came through the Yehuda Tribe that reached here in 72 BCE after escaping slavery in Baghdad, that’s why even today in our Ketubas (marriage contracts) and other documents, the Lion of Judah and the Crown (Keter) are inscribed, as they are the insignias of the Yehuda tribe. Moreover, the Cochini Jews are the only people in India who make Iraqi food such as Khubba, Pasthel, Esbethi etc (recipes in the next section).
THE HISTORY AND SYNAGOGUES
After the initial arrival of the Jews in 72 BCE, they settled in several places like Ezhimala, Pandalayini, Kollam etc, but the most prominent Jewish settlement was in the port city of Muziris, in modern day Kodungalur in central Kerala. After the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, another batch of Jews had come in 72 CE, they were Moroccan and Yemenite in nature, and they all settled in the port city of Muziris. The proof of such a Moroccan influence can be seen in the tunes of the prayer songs the Cochini Jews, especially Yigdal Elohim Chai sung on Shabbat, it is the exact same tune of the Moroccan Jews, originally composed by Rambam. Another proof is the world-famous travelogue of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, in which he emphasizes the presence of the Jewish communities in Malabar at the time.
Now the first batch that came in 72 BCE had a lighter skin tone and the second batch (Yemenite and Moroccan) had relatively darker skin tones; hence in Muziris there were two synagogues for these two communities, the Kadavumbagam Synagogue (lit: ‘river-side’ synagogue) and the Thekumbagam Synagogue (lit: ‘south-side Synagogue). The disparity didn’t end with separate synagogues, but went further with a ban on marriages between these communities till the 10th century CE and there was even a riot regarding it.
Later in the 11th century CE, the king of the Muziris region, the Cranganore King, found himself fighting a war with the Maharaja of the Chola dynasty; this war lasted one year, during which the Jewish leader, Yosef Rabban, decided to fight alongside the Cranganore King for his homeland Muziris. After Cranganore and Yosef Raban emerged victorious, the King gifted his compatriot Yosef Raban 72 square miles of land called Anjuvannamand ordained him as the king of that territory. Anjuvannam, being a Jewish exclave, came to be known as the ‘Jerusalem of the East’.
At the time, apart from Muziris in Central Kerala (Malabar), there were three major regions/princely states in Kerala. The most powerful 1) Kingdom of Travancore, 2) the Kingdom of Kochi and finally the 3) Kingdom of Samoothiri/Zamorin to the north, the weakest of the lot. As stated earlier, there were Jewish settlements in Ezhimala and Pandalayini (they were in Samoothiri’s territories in the north, modern day Kozhikode district of Kerala). Samoothiri however had an affinity to Arab traders and Islam. He encouraged Arab and Muslim businessmen and aided them with less taxes and sanctions, while pushing the Jews out from his territories. Samoothiri also had his navy headed by a prominent Muslim family, the Marakars; and according to law, at least one member of every non-Muslim family living in their territories had to convert to Islam and join the Marakar family. Due to these factors, the Jews of Ezhimala and the port city of Pandalayini likely emigrated down south to Muziris, leaving behind a ‘Jew street’ in Kozhikode today and a ‘Jewish pond’ and few Jewish tombstones within what is now the Naval Academy in Ezhimala.
ANTISEMITISM AND MASSACRE IN MUZIRIS
In the 11th century, a Jewish man named Kadavathachan in Muziris had a beautiful daughter. One day, the last Raja of the Cheraman dynasty was travelling through the Anjuvannamas he saw this beautiful girl; overcome with lust at the sight of her, he ordered his henchmen to fetch the Jewish girl for him to ‘enjoy’ for a night. As the henchmen arrived at Kadavathachan’s house, the Jewish men rounded them up and lynched them after hearing their revulsive demand. Angered by this, the last Raja of Cheraman, with the help of his Moorish (Muslim) allies, attacked Anjuvannamon the eve of a Shabbat, the resultant massacre and genocide had a death toll of around 40,000 Jewish people. This shocking piece of history was deliberately hidden and side-lined for a couple of reasons, more on that later.
After this massacre, only less than 1000 Jews escaped including Yosef Rabban and his family; their first asylum was Chennamangalam; it was reported that one could see the flames of the massacre and destruction taking place in Anjuvannamwhen observed from Chennamangalam. 3 days later, someone travelled back to Anjuvannam to see if anything remained; all he could gather was a tombstone of a Sarah bat Israel who died a few days prior to this genocide. This tombstone is India’s oldest Jewish tombstone today, and is therefore an extremely valuable and tangible piece of evidence. The same people who side-lined a lot of the real history, wanted to lay their hands on this particular tombstone years later for the obvious reasons of wiping out evidence, but more on that later. Coming back to the refugees who escaped Anjuvannam, they brought back this tombstone, placed it in Chennamangalam and built a synagogue next to it in 1166 CE; that synagogue, the Chennamangalam Synagogue, is the oldest synagogue in all of the commonwealth countries today. A few years later however, Yosef Raban and his companions travelled to the nearby town of Parur and established a ‘Jew town’, a synagogue and a market there which still exists there today. Thereby Parur became the centre of the Jewish people of Malabar; Muziris had lost that place.
Before we continue with the story, a short look at those two synagogues:
CHENNAMANGALAM SYNAGOGUE
In Chennamangalam the Jews’ Street led to the synagogue, similarly, the Christian Street, Muslim Street and Hindu Street led to a church, mosque and temple respectively. There was no religious friction between the communities in Chennamangalam, the Jews were even granted special permission to slaughter cattle and similar animals, considered sacred by the Hindus.
PARUR SYNAGOGUE
On the front wall of the synagogue, one can find a hymn engraved in Hebrew, written by a Rabbi Eliyahu Adani. It translates to:
For Him, who dwelt within a slender bush,
Doth this house (of prayer) stand.
May there be light in the House of Jacob,
Banners of Kastiel*
A sacred retreat at its time of completion
May it be His will that the Messiah cometh.
* Kastiel was a Paradesi Jew who had split from his community and helped to renovate the Malabari Synagogues, Kastiel must have contributed to the renovation of the Parur Synagogue as well at some point. Kastiel refers to ‘Castillia’ (Spain).
This hymn was customarily recited in the Parur Synagogue on holidays before the Aleinu prayer.
Most notably, this synagogue was bombarded by the Portuguese armed forces in 1635 CE during prayers, in 1972, it had closed down and its Torah Ark is now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
THE “NEW” SYNAGOGUES AND COCHIN
After the death of Yosef Rabban in Parur, his two sons quarrelled and the community took sides; however, one group of people who didn’t want to get involved in the clashes, decided to break off and go to a nearby place called Malha (which now became Mala), the Cochin Maharaja aided them and gave them land for a synagogue and cemetery; and permission to cut timber from the woods for constructing the synagogue. The Mala Jewish community’s cemetery is the largest Jewish cemetery in India today, spanning around 4 acres, why was it that big? Because there were that many Jews in the community at the time.
Meanwhile, the two sons of Yosef Rabban quarrelled so much that they split ways and the older son travelled down south to Ernakulam which was a marshy land back then, but he saw the potential in the inner water streams and on the highest point in Ernakulam, in 1200 CE, he built the Kadavumbagam Synagogue of Ernakulam, today it is the oldest active synagogue in all of the Commonwealth countries. The younger brother on the other hand, went to the Maharaja of Cochin and asked for a cherri (strip of land) to live in, hence the Maharaja gave him a cherri near his palace and since it was received as Matana (‘gift’ in Hebrew), it became known as Matanacherriand is today’s Mattancherry in Kochi. Thereafter, in both Ernakulam and Mattancherry (only a few kilometres from each other) a Kadavumbagam Synagogue and a Thekumbagam Synagogue were constructed. The reader will do well to remember that back in Muziris, there were two synagogues with the same names as well; meaning ‘river-side’ (Kadavumbagam) and ‘south-side’ (Thekumbagam) synagogues. However, the funny thing is that in both Ernakulam and Mattancherry, the Thekumbagam synagogues aren’t located to the south, but rather to the north side of the Kadavumbagam synagogues; therefore, we can conclude that these (relatively) new synagogues were replicas of the original ones in Muziris.
ARRIVAL OF EUROPEAN JEWS TO COCHIN, INJUSTICE & ALIYAH
Later in the 16th century, another character arrived on scene. During the reign of Queen Isabella of Spain, after the Spanish Inquisition, a group of Jews escaped persecution and came through Portugal, Turkey, Baghdad and finally reached Cochin/Kochi; they met with the Maharaja of Cochin, and after meeting the white skinned Europeans who stood before him, they became his favorite people; they were also wealthy and were good for business and trade. Therefore, the Maharaja gave them land near the early settlers (Malabari Jews of Thekumbagam and Kadavumbagam of Mattancherry) and the foundation stone for their synagogue, the Paradesi Synagogue (lit: Foreigners’ Synagogue) was laid in 1568 by the Maharaja himself.
Soon afterwards, the Paradesi Jews started encroaching into the business domains of the locals and slowly consolidated business control in the region in the coming centuries, the Maharaja having a soft spot for them definitely helped as they were aided with business permissions and sanctions in their quest for monopoly in Mattancherry and greater Cochin. The local Malabari Jews too didn’t escape their sphere of dominance and supremacy. It can be seen in the absence of the Thekumbagam Synagogue of Mattancherry today, it was destroyed by a member of the Paradesi Synagogue, Mr. Satu Koder to be exact, in 1961, well into the 20th century.
In order to understand those events of 1961, we must go back to 1956 when the entire Malabari Jewish congregations of the Kadavumbagam and Thekumbagam synagogues of Mattancherry made Aliyah and left for Israel en masse; the congregants entrusted Mr. Koder under a government approved registered agreement that stated “Mr. Satu Koder will undertake the repairs and maintain both the synagogues and the cemetery like his Paradesi Synagogue”. However, one year later in 1957, the first elected communist government in the world came to power in Kerala and E.M.S Namboothiripad became the Chief Minister, that’s when the people carried out what’s called ‘Surplus Land Strike’, in which they encroached upon land that they deemed as ‘surplus’ or ‘unclaimed’. They eventually encroached upon the Jewish cemetery handed over to Koder the previous year and claimed it as their own; and Koder promptly did absolutely nothing to prevent this invasion; instead he tactfully removed the centuries old tombstones of the Malabari Jews and placed them in their own cemetery and said they were the ancestors of the Paradesis – the people who had absolutely no relation with them suddenly became their ‘forefathers’.
Now that we know what happened in 1956, we’ll go further back before returning to 1961. Remember that tombstone which was brought back after the massacre in Muziris centuries ago and placed in front of the Chennamangalam synagogue? In the early 20th century, Satu Koder’s father, Shabtai Koder of the Paradesi synagogue, tried to acquire that tombstone from the Chennamangalam synagogue, because it is the oldest Jewish tombstone in India and whoever possess it would greatly benefit from owning it and can potentially ‘rewrite’ history and manipulate or delete a piece of Malabari Jewish history. So he, with the help of the Maharaja of Cochin, tried to obtain the tombstone from the Chennamangalam synagogue. At the time, a Malabari Jew, Yoshua, who was the grandfather of Elias Josephai’s brother-in-law, opposed this plan of Shabtai Koder; but he had no means to oppose such a move endorsed by the Cochin Maharaja, so he carried out a brilliant plan. Luckily, the Chennamangalam synagogue was located on the border between the Cochin Kingdom and the Travancore Kingdom, hence Yoshua approached the Maharaja of Travancore and narrated a slightly exaggerated account which included “agents of the Cochin Maharaja are trying to invade into your territory and steal an important tombstone from the Chennamangalam synagogue”; infuriated, the Maharaja of Travancore sent a message to the Maharaja of Cochin stating that if the latter invaded Travancore, he would declare war against Cochin. Once he received this, he promptly dropped the plan and Shabtai Koder couldn’t acquire the tombstone and delete that piece of vital historical evidence pertaining to the age of the Malabari Jewish community.
After this incident, the Chennamangalam synagogue burnt, or rather, was set on fire; one needn’t look far to deduce who the culprits were. Subsequently the Chennamangalam synagogue was rebuilt and the Maharaja of Travancore himself was invited for the re-inauguration; for which he gifted the synagogue a gold Sefer Torah cover and a gold Keter (crown), weighing a total of 210 sovereigns of gold, studded with rubies and diamonds; this was probably the only time in history that a non-Jewish king presented such a gift for the glory of the Jewish people. The Chennamangalam synagogue later sold it to Parur synagogue when they needed money, and it was subsequently sold to the Kadavumbagam synagogue of Ernakulam from where it was finally taken to Israel in the 70s.
So, when that plan failed in the early 20th century, the Paradesis tried another method, a false historical narrative that claimed that the Malabari Jews reached Cochin only after the Great Periyar Flood of 1435 CE was spread around to undermine the rich heritage of the Malabaris; but if that were true, how could the Kadavumbagam and Thekumbagam synagogues of Ernakulam and Mattancherry be built in 1200 CE? Hence continued the centuries long persecution and racial discrimination of the Malabari Jews at the hands of the Paradesi Jews.
Perhaps the most shocking of many such incidents of discrimination is the story of a man called Ava in the early 20th century in Kochi. Ava belonged to the Meshurarim, the so-called “black Jews”, these people were originally brought as slaves when the European Jews came, and were settled nearby the Paradesis in Mattancherry, but no marriages between the two communities were allowed and they weren’t even allowed inside the Paradesi synagogue. Ava, being a revolutionary, protested against this discrimination by banding with a few other Meshurarim and established a prayer hall for themselves in Fort Kochi. Infuriated by this, the Paradesis sent their henchmen and massacred these rebellious Meshurarim, the Jew killed another Jew! Ava was also subsequently beaten to death on the streets of Jew-Town, Mattancherry.
A few decades later, Ava’s grandson, the famous Abraham Barak Salem (A.B. Salem), a disciple of India’s ‘father of the nation’ Mahatma Gandhi, was still not allowed in the Paradesi synagogue as he was part of the Meshurarim’; his classmate however, was C. Rajagopalachari, India’s first Indian Governor General. Being a VIP, when he visited Mattancherry, A.B. Salem accompanied him into the Paradesi synagogue, and following the cue, the rest of the “black Jews” followed suit (yet they weren’t given any other privileges like reading the Sefer etc). Meanwhile, A.B. Salem’s older son, Balfour Salem, an engineer, fell in love with a girl from the Koder family named Ruby. When news spread, the Paradesi Koders decided to kill Balfour, upon hearing this, Balfour and Ruby eloped to Mumbai and got married at the Magen David synagogue there; a year later when they had a baby boy named Leslie, they returned to Kochi; and for the Brit Mila (circumcision), no permission was given from the Paradesi synagogue for it to be conducted there. They then brought the baby to the Kadavumbagam synagogue of Ernakulam, the early settlers’ synagogue, for the Brit Mila where they received permission. A few years later, A.B. Salem’s younger son Gamliel Salem also married a Paradesi Jewish girl, they also had a baby boy but by this time, the Paradesis’ policy had become slightly more liberal and they allowed the Brit Mila not inside the synagogue itself, but rather in the oil room of the synagogue.
Even today, when these “black Jews” (Meshurarim) pass away, they are buried in a corner of the Paradesi cemetery called “rogues’ pit”. The last to be buried there was Gamliel Salem a few years ago, his Paradesi wife was also buried there because she’d married a “black Jew”. However, the Paradesis didn’t stop there, instead of limiting the slur “black Jew” to the Meshurarim, they branded it upon the early settlers’ (the local Jews of Kadavumbagam and Thekumbagam) as well; in effect indirectly referring to them as the Paradesis’ former slaves (which is utterly false); they went insofar as to publish in government records the Kadavumbagam synagogue of Mattancherry as the “black Jews’ synagogue’). Such was the twisting and manipulation of the Cochin Jewish history.
Now let’s return to 1956-1961, the Aliyah and to Satu Koder being entrusted with the Kadavumbagam and Thekumbagam synagogues and the cemetery. We already know what he did with the cemetery, it was encroached upon by the communists during the “Surplus Land Strike”; now let’s see what he did with the synagogues. When the congregation of Kadavumbagam synagogue of Mattancherry left, they had taken their Aaron Chodesh with them to Israel. It was shipped to the Haifa port where it was detained as the newly arrived congregation had no money to pay the fees; they couldn’t even speak Hebrew at the time. So, an Ashkenazi Rabbi used to teach the community Hebrew in order to help them adapt and integrate to their ancestral homeland; when he heard of the stranded Aaron Chodesh at the Haifa port, his community went there and brought it in an auction; today that Aaron Chodesh of the Kadavumbagam synagogue of Mattancherry is in the Ashkenazi Moshav Nachalim near the Lod airport in Israel. But back in Mattancherry, the synagogue now devoid of its Aaron Chodesh, had its exotic tiles also ripped out and sold by Satu Koder to antique dealers; the ceiling, Bima and upper Bima were sold to an Englishman, who in turn took it to the Israel National Museum. (this was a violation of the registered agreement). Later he (Koder) rented out the empty synagogue as a coir warehouse! Later the property passed through many hands and whoever owned it had become bankrupt over the years.
So what happened to the Thekumbagam synagogue of Mattancherry? In 1961, Koder sold its Aaron Chodesh to the Magnus Museum in Berkley, California (another violation of the registered agreement). All the antiques inside the synagogue was sold to various antique dealers as well. The two lamps one would find today on either side of the Aaron Chodesh of the Paradesi synagogue were stolen from the Thekumbagam synagogue. Satu Koder then demolished that synagogue and sold the property to his brother Elias Koder for 15,500 Indian rupees, he built a house there but nobody could live in it. Later this property too passed through many hands and whoever owned it had become bankrupt over the years.
Today, the Kadavumbagam Synagogue of Ernakulam remains in its full glory, as the oldest active synagogue in all of the Commonwealth, with Elias Josephai (affectionately known as Babu) as its caretaker and manager; he aspires to convert the nursery business room and the Azara room into a Jewish library and a Jewish museum respectively in the future. The restoration works of the Kadavumbagam Synagogue of Ernakulam has had the contributions of Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus, and countless people from all over the world, Elias Josephai opines that the gentiles have helped the Synagogue to reach its current glory more than the Jews ourselves, thus making it a melting pot transcending culture and religion.
The other synagogues including the Paradesi, Chennamangalam, Parur and Mala exist and are maintained to a substantial level.
GROUND-BREAKING VIDEO EVIDENCE
Do you wish to see the racism and manipulation of history first-hand? The video below shows the words publicly spoken by the Paradesi Jews on camera:
Follow the link below:
TRADITIONS OF THE COCHINI JEWS
How did the Jew become ‘immortal’ as Mark Twain put it in his essay? How did this miniscule community stay alive through all these years of countless hurdles? Put simply, the answer is through traditions, kept alive generation after generation. The Cochini Jews too, have their fair share of traditions.
Weddings:
Weddings are always conducted on Tuesday evenings as per Talmudic traditions, and all wedding take place in the synagogue, the bridegroom will wait with two shoshbim, best men, on the Bima, as the bride walks in, face covered with a veil, accompanied by her father. During this time, the groom must recite the Nava Michol. Later the bride and groom are taken to the nuptial chamber, the Manara (from which the Malayalam word ‘Maniyara’ came into being). More on the weddings below on the ‘Hebrew-Malayalam folk songs’ section.
Parochets and Kippot:
Another unique tradition is that of the Parochets of the Cochini synagogues, the ritual curtains that cover the Echal have different colour codes. For instance, on Rosh Hashana, it will be white with red floral pattern; on Yom Kippur, pure white to symbolize purity and holiness; on Sukkot it will be green, as it is the harvest festival; on Simchat Torah it will be purple to signify the day of happiness; on Peseach, blue; on Purim, gold to remind us of the golden era of Queen Ester and on Shauvot it will be red, to signify the light of the Torah; the colours of the Kippot worn on these days also match correspondingly.
Today, the authentic Parochets are custom stitched by a Muslim named Thaha Ibrahim, who, along with his family had taken care of the late Sarah Cohen, the oldest member of the Cochin Jews until her death in 2019. Their heart-warming bond akin to that of a mother and son that transcended the barriers of religion had been immortalized in several programs and a documentary called ‘Sarah, Thaha, Thoufeek’. Sarah Cohen had taught Thaha embroidery and authentic Jewish stitching, he now makes Parochets dedicated to people’s loved ones’ memory for a fee, these Parochets will be hung on the Kadavumbagam Synagogue forever in memorandum.
Hebrew-Malayalam folk songs:
In the old Judeo-Malayalam folk songs, one can find a lot of old Tamil lyrics; these songs were mainly about the synagogues and biblical incidents; and were sung in the Kili Pattu tune, ‘parrot song’ tune and were predominantly sung by women during weddings. As per Talmudic traditions, the groom goes to the bride’s house on the previous day and quite literally ‘purchases’ her, with silver coins. The woman is seen as a ‘treasure’ and the man is ‘buying’ that treasure from her family; during this ritual, the other women sing the folksongs. These songs usually speak of Moshe Rabbeinu, Yitzak Rabbeinu, Yosef Rabbeinu, David Melech, Sholomo Melech etc… Unfortunately, many of these songs are lost in time, but the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has compiled around 44 Judeo-Malayalam folk songs.
Judeo-Malayalam:
While there aren’t many differences from standard Malayalam, Judeo-Malayalam has a few unique words and phrases. For instance, when scolding someone, the words ‘Othinjavane’ (lost-lad), ‘Hamoorim’ or ‘Hamoor Gadda’ (donkeys/donkey fellow) or the phrase ‘Ee Olamilu ninnodu yathoru bendhavum indavila’ (I don’t want anything to do with you again) are commonly used.
Food Habits
One of the unique and distinct factors of the Cochini Jews is the usage of shallots as opposed to onions during cooking. While onions are more common in traditional Kerala cuisine, the Cochini Jews stuck to shallots. The reason behind this can be traced back to Ashkelon, Israel. During the ancient Canaanite times, mankind first cultivated shallots in Ashkelon and from thence, it spread to the rest of the world. This can also be seen in the botanical name of shallots: Allium Ascalonicum (referring to Ashkelon). This simple fact reaffirms the ancient Israelite origins of the Cochini Jews.
COCHINI JEWISH RECIPIES – by Ofera Elias
KUBBAH
(Baghdadi Jewish Recipe)
For the Kubbah covering:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup water
Salt to taste.
In a vessel take 1 cup water put 1tsp salt and oil and boil the water. When it is boiling put the rice flour and stir it till the rice soaks the water. And keep it aside. After 10 minutes remove it in a bowl and knead it properly and keep it aside.
FOR THE FILLING:
1 cup chicken pieces (boiled and shredded) OR (boiled fish egg known as caviar)
½ cup carrot grated
½ cup cabbage grated
2 medium size onion chopped in small cubes
1 capsicum chopped in small cubes
1 ginger grated
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tablespoon oil
Few leaves of coriander and mint chopped finely
1 tablespoon vinegar
Salt to taste
In a vessel heat the oil, put grated ginger and fry till the raw smell dissipates, then add the shredded chicken, turmeric powder, pepper powder and salt and stir for a while then add ¼ cup of water and vinegar and let it boil till the water evaporates and immediately add the chopped vegetables and keep stirring in between till the vegetables cook. Then add chopped coriander and mint and stir it well for 5 minutes and off the stove and cool it.
Now to make the Kubbah: Take a lemon size rice flour and spread on your fingers like small meatballs and then put the chicken filling in it and close it and make it like a ball. Repeat it with rest of the flour and the filling and keep it aside.
FOR THE SOUP:
10 cups water
3 carrots chopped cube size
½ cabbage chopped cube size
2 onions chopped in cube
3 tomatoes chopped
1 stalk of celery chopped
1 tsp crush black pepper
Salt to taste
Chicken soup or vegetable soup seasoning.
In a vessel take one tablespoon of oil put crushed pepper and onion let it soften then add carrots, cabbage, tomatoes and stir it till it softens. Then add celery stalk and chicken soup seasoning and stir. Then add water and bring to boil. When the soup is boiling slide in the Kubbah balls it will double in size, take it off the stove afterwards and garnish with coriander leaves and have it hot on rainy days.
PASTHEL (another Baghdadi Jewish recipe)
The fillings of the Pasthel is the same as that of the Khubba given above. However, unlike Khubba, Pasthels aren’t balls filled with chicken floating on a soup; but rather an elongated, fried, solid snack. We’ll see how the outer cover of the Pasthel is made:
For the outer covering:
2 eggs
1½ cup refined wheat flour a.k.a Maida
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
In a bowl, take the eggs and beat them till fluffy, then add salt, sugar and oil and mix thoroughly. Afterwards add the refined wheat flour and add water till the consistency is akin to that of a pancake but slightly more watery.
Heat a saucepan and coat it with some oil first. Pour the batter into it and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the edges curl upwards from the pan. Transfer them to a tray, cut into squares and fill each with the chicken filling we’ve made earlier. Then fold them up into small cuboids. Then fry these in slightly heated oil and the Pasthels are ready.
Reviews
The strongest Shekinah I have ever experienced; full of positive energy in this synagogue
Merebeth Switzer
More beautiful and older than the Paradesi Synagogue, must visit!
Michael Cadnum
Listen closely and the whispers of the erstwhile community can heard in this Synagogue, such a profound spiritual experience
Melony Clark
Kadavumbagam Synagogue 