Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Last Jews of Kerala

A relative of ours lived in Mattancheri, in Kerala. Yes, we tamils had relatives scattered all over India! Well, for the longest time the small town where my grandmothers hailed from, Sengottai, was in the Travancore Kingdom, which for the most part is modern day Kerala.
The strangest thing is that until the I came to the US, I had no idea that the oldest synagog was right in Mattancheri; the provincial lives we lead!

The Economist has a review of a new book on the Kerala Jews. Excerpt:

YAHEH HALLEGUA is the last Jewish woman of child-bearing age in Mattancheri. Her cousins Keith and Len are the last eligible bachelors. But she is not keen on either of them. So within a few decades the extinction of the 400-year-old Jewish community in the port-village in India’s southern state of Kerala is assured.

Mattancheri is Indian Jewry’s most famous settlement. Its pretty streets of pastel-coloured houses, connected by first-floor passages and home to the last 12 sari- and sarong-wearing, white-skinned Indian Jews, are visited by thousands of tourists each year. Its synagogue, built in 1568, with a floor of blue-and-white Chinese tiles, a carpet given by Haile Selassie and the frosty Yaheh selling tickets at the door, stands as an image of religious tolerance.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is shocking.. may be because you are tamil - we malayalees take great pride in our Jewish story. The Jews don't look any different than a regular malayalee. They also have a great cuisine - Indian spices + Kosher principle=great taste!
Jews are there in many Indian states including the North East and recently discovered group in rural Andhra.

-Sudhir