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http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=130&letter=I&search=Goa
INDIA: (print this article)
By : Gustav Oppert Joseph Ezekiel Joseph Jacobs
An extensive region of southern Asia, comprising many countries,
races, and sects. Including about 2,800 in the settlement of Aden,
which is administered by the presidency of Bombay, there are at
present about 21,000 Jews in the whole of India. This number is an
insignificant fraction of a population amounting to more than
280,000,000. According to the census of 1901, the following are the
official numbers of Jews residing in the various states of India in
that year:
see table
From very early times India has been accessible to the West. The
navies of Kings Hiram and Solomon possibly visited India; for it is
stated that they brought back gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks
(I Kings x. 22). These are all Indian products, especially peacocks;
and it is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for "peacock,"
"tukkiyyim," is of Dravidian origin. Caravans of Indian wares passed
over the Palestinian frontier in ancient times. The Midianite
merchants who purchased Joseph were importing spices, balm, and
myrrh.The Jews of India comprise both Whites and Blacks: the former
being racially pure; the latter, of mixed descent. To the White Jews
belong the so-called "Jerusalem Jews" of Cochin, who have been
reenforced by coreligionists from Europe, and a part of the
Beni-Israel of Bombay. The Black Jews are descended from converts from
the Hindu- race, or are the offspring of marriages between Jews and
natives. Just as the Eurasian descendants of the Portuguese of Goa
resemble the natives in the color of their skin, so do the Jewish
offspring of mixed unions.
The Cochin Jews claim to have come to Malabar from Jerusalem after its
destruction, and to have settled at Cranganore, a few miles north of
their present location. There they acquired, about 750, a feudal
property, sometimes dignified as a "state" (see, however, Cochin). In
1523 the Portuguese seized Cranganore and fortified it. According to
Zain al-Din al-Ma'bari, the Mohammedans in the following year attacked
the Jews near Cranganore, and, after killing many of them and
destroying their synagogues, drove them with the Portuguese out of the
town. The ruin of the Jewish fief, after its existence for a thousand
years, was brought about by strife between the White and the Black
Jews. One tradition states that there arose dissensions between the
brothers of the ruler's household, and one of them sought the aid of a
powerful raja, who drove out the Jews or enslaved them. Neither Zain
al-Din nor Moens (the latter was the Dutch governor of Cochin from
1771 to 1782) mentions this fraternal struggle. Whichever story is
correct, it seems that Joseph Azar, the seventy-second and last feudal
ruler, fled with a few faithful followers to Nabo and thence to
Cochin. Their flourishing city, which, according to Alexander
Hamilton's account, had contained 80,000 families, was ruined, and the
survivors went to Cochin. Even to-day the site of Cranganore is
avoided by the Jews. Joan Hugo von Lindschotten, a Dutchman, visited
Cochin at the end of the seventeenth century. He says: "In Cochin the
Jews have fine stone houses; they are first-rate merchants, and are
advisers to the king. They possess a synagogue."
In 1662 the Portuguese killed many of the Cochin Jews on account of
the sympathy with the Dutch which they had shown when the Dutch
ineffectually attacked the city. The following year Cochin was taken
by the Dutch, and the Jews received religious liberty. In 1685 the
Dutch Jews sent a commission from Amsterdam to investigate the
condition of the Jews of Cochin. The report appeared in 1697 under the
title "Notisias dos Judeos de Cochin Mandadas por Mosseh Pereyra de
Paiva." In I795 the English became possessors of Cochin. For further
particulars of the Cochin Jews and for an account of the Beni-Israel,
see Beni-Israel; Cochin.
Benjamin of Tudela's itinerary contains one of the earliest
descriptions of the Black Jews of India. According to him, about 1,000
families lived "in the land of pepper, cinnamon, and ginger." He
describes them as honest people who follow the Ten Commandments and
the Mosaic code, who read the Prophets, and are good Talmudists and
strict observers. Benjamin made his journey between the years 1160 and
1174. Many merchants, sailors, and travelers must have visited India.
The Jew Gaspar de las Indias became admiral to Sabayo, the Moorish
ruler of Goa, in the fifteenth century. More than one Jew sailed with
the flotillas of the Portuguese. Hucefe was the most intimate friend
of Alfonso d'Albuquerque. A recent traveler was Rabbi David di-Bet
Hillel of Safed, whose travels were published in English at Madras in
1832. G. O.
The first foreign Jew to settle in India was Jacob Semah of Bagdad. He
settled at Surat about 1680, where the first English factory was
built, and was followed by several more from the same region. Others
came from Persia and southern Arabia. A small synagogue was erected
and a cemetery acquired. Seeing Bombay growing in commercial
importance, Semah removed the seat of his business thither. The
synagogue at Surat is now demolished, but the cemetery remains. The
new settlers in Bombay were very hospitably received by the
Beni-Israel.
An early settler was David Sassoon of Bagdad. Compelled to flee from
his native place on account of persecution, he sought refuge in Bombay
under British rule. Beginning with little capital, he built up a
world-wide business, and almost held the monopoly of the opium trade
with China. About fifty years ago nearly all the Jews of Bombay were
dependent upon the Sassoon family for their livelihood; but their
position is now considerably improved, and they are a body of great
commercial importance. There are a few petty merchants and hawkers
among them. There are only two Jews in the employ of the government:
one in the customs, the other in the engineering department of the
municipality.
In Bombay there is a ḥebra ḳaddisha, of which Jacob Elias David
Sassoon is the president. Though its chief object is the assistance of
the poor Jews of Palestine and Bombay, it seems to have given rise to
much the same condition of affairs as the Palestine ḥaluḳḳah. The
Sassoon family and others regularly distribute aid to the Jewish poor
of the city, and Jacob Elias David Sassoon has bestowed the sum of
75,000 rupees for the erection of a building, the income of which is
to be used exclusively in the aid of poor Jews. The Beni-Israel poor
are totally excluded from any share in these charities.
The members of the community have no competent rabbis for their
religious guides; there are a few, however, who are acquainted with
the Gemara and the Shulḥan 'Aruk. Their views are strictly Orthodox.
Most of them are from Bagdad. On account of their poverty the poor are
sometimes led to change their faith and to accept Christianity, which
they abjure as soon as they find some better means of support. They
are careful for the Hebrew education of their children. Toward the end
of the year 1855 David Sassoon opened a school in which English,
Hebrew, and Arabic were taught. In 1860 it was removed to a spacious
building with large classrooms, built by David Sassoon in the compound
of the Magen David Synagogue at Byculla.
The vernacular of the Beni-Israel is Mahrati; that of the Cochin Jews,
Malayalam. The Jews from Bagdad, Syria, and southern Arabia use
Arabic; and there are Jews from Persia who speak Persian.There are
also small communities of German, Austrian, and Rumanian Jews who
employ the languages of their respective countries. Most of the
Arabic-speaking portion of the community is now adopting the use of
English. The European Jews holding high government and mercantile
offices do not associate much with the others. See Beni-Israel;
Calcutta. J. E.
--
FN: Frederick Noronha
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