A 19th century sketch put up online by an Israeli academician has renewed interest about the dying community of the Cochin Jews

Published in English Mathrubhumi

https://english.mathrubhumi.com/.../19th-century-sketch...

By Shevlin Sebastian

Professor Shalva Weil, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, saw a black-and-white image in the ‘Bygone Cochin Days’ Facebook group. She posted the original sketch, which is in colour, on her timeline.

The drawing immediately drew attention to the dying Cochin (White) Jews community. They follow the rites of the Sephardi Jews.

Shalva’s first-cousin Dr Wendy Baron is an art historian and a former Director of the Government Art Collection. It was she who had given Shalva this A-4 size drawing as a birthday present.

Shalva felt joyful when she saw the drawing. “This is a valuable sketch for the Cochin Jews,” she said. “It was the perfect birthday gift.”

The drawing had appeared in the British newspaper, ‘The Graphic’. Its title, ‘Sketches of India’. The date: February 5, 1876. At the bottom was the caption: ‘In the Synagogue of The White Jews in Cochin.’

Shalva, who has studied about Indian Jews for the past fifty years, said, “I realised this is the Paradesi Synagogue in Jew Town, Cochin. I have been to this synagogue many times. That seat by the window still exists. The shutters are the same. Nothing has changed.”

The man on the left, with a flowing beard, seemed to be a scribe. Shalva came to this conclusion because he was holding a pen in his hand. Scribes are called Sofer Stam in Judaism. They made copies of manuscripts and holy texts. They were well regarded before the advent of the printing press.

Asked about his identity, Shalva said, “He could belong to the Hallegua clan, one of the more prominent families in Cochin. He is wearing glasses, which is a very Western thing.”

Asked what the two people were doing, Shalva said, “Maybe the boy was reading from the text placed on his lap. The scribe, who looked to be in his seventies, was noting it down. He could have been writing the next page of the Torah.” But it seemed to Shalva that the Torah Scroll looked as if it had already been written. So, maybe, the scribe was teaching a lesson, and the boy was listening intently. “So, the boy could be a pupil,” she said.

As for their bare feet, Shalva said they were following local traditions. In Cochin, people kept their footwear outside before they entered a temple or a mosque. The Cochin Jews adapted this custom, said Shalva. Nowhere in the world do Jews enter the synagogue on their bare feet.

Even today, if foreign Jews have to enter the synagogue in Cochin, they will have to leave their footwear outside. “It is a good idea because it preserves the beautiful Chinese tiles on the floor,” said Shalva.

The costume that the scribe is wearing is again a local dress. It seemed like a gown. “I am sure it is not a Western dress,” said Shalva.

As for the time of day, it seemed to be in the daytime, because the light can be seen streaming in through the window.

The Cochin Jews were multilingual. Shalva said they knew the local language Malayalam, English, Hebrew and other Indian languages. Even the women were literate. “This was unusual in the Cochin of that period,” she said.

As for the Torah Scroll, there are two types in Judaism. “What we see in the image is the round one,” said Shalva. The ancestors of the Cochin Jews, who came from Spain and Portugal, used this. The other one is the Ashkenazi Torah Scroll. According to Wikipedia, the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews were in the Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium.

The ancestors of the Cochin Jews migrated to India from Spain following the announcement of the Alhambra Decree in 1472. This decree asked the Jews to leave Spain or convert to Catholicism. The Catholic Monarchs Isabella 1 of Castile and Ferdinand 11 of Aragon had issued it. Many Jews opted for exile.

As for the identity of the person who did the sketch, it was not clear. The bottom of the sketch said, ‘By our Special Artist.’ But one thing is clear. The artist had travelled from London to Cochin and spent time in the synagogue.

The newspaper, ‘The Graphic’, in which the sketch appeared, was a well-respected illustrated weekly. It first appeared in 1869. After 3266 issues, it ceased publication in 1932. “The influence of ‘The Graphic’ on the art world was immense,” said Shalva. “Among its many admirers was the legendary Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh. Some writers included the icons of English literature like George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Anthony Trollope.”

Shalva’s interest in Indian Jews stemmed from her fieldwork, as a youth, among the Bene Israel (Children of Israel) Jews living in the town of Lod, in Israel. They had largely migrated from the state of Maharashtra. It sparked her interest in them. Her doctoral thesis in social anthropology at the University of Sussex was titled, ‘The persistence of ethnicity and ethnic identity among the Bene Israel Indian Jews in Israel’.

“I have remained in contact with Indian Jews ever since,” she said.

Shalva is painfully aware that there are only two Paradesi Jews left in Cochin. One is the matriarch, Queenie Hallegua. Her two children live in America. And there is Keith Hallegua, a cousin of Queenie’s late husband, Sammy, who is a bachelor.

Queenie and Sammy had hosted Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, when they came to the Paradesi Synagogue in October 1997.

As for the origins of the community in India, academician PN Jussay in his book, ‘The Jews of Kerala’ said there was a Jewish presence in Cochin since the 10th century BC.

King Solomon engaged in trade with India for its flora and fauna. Many sailors spent time in Cochin. The generous kings might have provided them with slave girls. ‘The offspring of these romantic interludes might have become the nucleus of the Jewish community in Kerala,’ wrote Jussay.

Over the next two thousand years, there were Jewish communities in Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai and Cochin. Once Israel came into existence on May 14, 1948, many of them left. During their peak period, in 1948, the Paradesi Jews numbered around 600.

But Shalva is happy that all the Indian Jews who migrated to Israel are flourishing there.

Asked about anti-Semitism in India, Shalva said, “The Jews in Cochin had always been happy. They lived in peace and harmony with their Hindu, Muslim and Christian neighbours.”

The only time the Cochin Jews suffered from Anti Semitism was when the Portuguese invaded India. Shalva said they set up an Inquisition in Cochin in the manner of the Inquisition in Goa in 1560.

“The Jews never suffered at the hands of Indians,” said Shalva. “India is the only country in the world which has never persecuted Jews.”