Their 2000 year long stay in India has been as much a story of their deep assimilation as it has been of India’s welcoming, tolerance and total absence of anti-semitism.
Once the hub of India’s Jewry, Cochin Jews today number no more than 4 or 5 from the ten to fifteen thousand once. Most of their synagogues have closed, lacking the ten men required to say the Shabath prayers. When the last man in the neighbourhood leaves for Israel or dies, the synagogues, cemeteries and prayer halls are given to the local municipality. There are three origins of Indian Jews. Baghdadi, Cochini and Bene Israeli. The Baghdadi Jews came for trade and to a lesser extent to flee from the Persian and Muslim persecution in the Middle East of the time. They prospered in India, living mainly in Bombay and Calcutta and were the most wealthy of the three, leaders in philanthropy of whom the most well known were the Sassoons who built various institutions and edifices in these two cities under British rule. The Cochini Jews settled in the Cochin and surrounding Kerala coast area. Some of them came to trade in spices and others to flee from the turmoil of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal and pogroms in other European countries where anti-semitism rolled over the lands in waves. The Raja of Travancore welcomed the Jews, as did his neighbouring kings. Being small principalities rather than kingdoms, their only revenue came from the sea trade and the activities of the incoming Jews vastly contributed to their treasuries. The community consisted of black Jews and white Jews based on their origin countries and each with their own synagogues and neighbourhoods in Cochin. The last and most populous of the three were the Bene Israelis (sons of Israel) who came also for trade and settled on the Konkan and Gujarat shores. From the 25,000 Jews remaining in India today, there are only 5,000 left, most of them in Bombay, Poona and a few interior Maharashtra small towns. Their richer forbears built a synagogue and adjacent hall wherever they clustered - even in the remotest small towns. Some of the buildings have become derelict and their few worshippers have to travel for the shabath prayers to the synagogues in the nearest larger towns. The Bene Israelis took to the Marathi language, the Hindu dress and (non-religious) culture of their village, while still maintaining their religious customs, rituals and feasts. Their surnames were Maharastrian surnames but their first names were always Jewish like David, Sarah, Abraham, Rebecca, Solomon and Ruth. Their traditional occupation in the village was oil-grinding resulting in quite a few of their surnames being Telkar (oilers or oil grinders). In their centuries of existence in India, their held on firmly to their Indianness, thinking of themselves as Indians first and Jews afterwards. Although they were favoured under the British for their commercial acumen and given preferential treatment for jobs like Parsis and Goans and land to build their religious places and schools, the rest of the country was not envious of their circumstances, always treating them as one of their own. The word anti-semitism was completely absent in India’s history. After the state of Israel was formed and the country’s Law of Return for all Jews, no matter where they came from, promulgated, a few young Jews from India emigrated. Those were days of hardship and lack of jobs in their country, but they discovered that the situation in Israel was not much better. The young country was in a hard-scrabble position, living in the kibbutz was not like the comfort and friendliness of home and surrounded by hostile Arab countries, all young and healthy Israelis were drafted in the fighting forces for a minimum two years. Racism was rampant. The richer and more powerful Ashkenazi (European) versus the poorer Sephardic (Asian) Jews. The Indians faced discrimination they had never felt before. Some of them returned to India. Their parents became even more determined to stay put and a wave was halted. However with American aid, development accelerated in Israel. Democracy strengthened, racism ebbed. With hard work and steely determination, the Sabras (those born in Israel) took charge and the country pushed ahead, all throttles open. Wars were won, cities built, deserts turned into lush farmlands, factories built and high-tech and security inventions flowed through speedily like a running brook. The restless Jewish youth in India changed their objectives from mere employment to a pride in a country that was built almost from scratch steeped with their Jewish pride. This time they went in droves and this time family, except for the oldest, followed them. The tide had turned. An exodus begun. Two thousand years of living in freedom among their hosts had come to an end, not out of harassment and persecution but out of a choice, carefully made. Years after being born in their new country Israel, younger children are still told tales of their Indian culture and tradition when fed with plates of Bengali, Maharastrian and Gujarati dishes and delectable desserts when the Bene Israelis gather for a feast after a religious celebration in Haifa, Televiv or Ashdod and even the kibbutzim that surrounds these cities. The parting was of good friends. The Jews of India have reached their destination. Roland Francis 416-453-3371
