“Some say that the first Jews sailed here on King Solomon’s ships”: Kavita Puri on India's long Jewish history

Kavita Puri explores lesser-known stories from our past. This month she explores the long-standing but now dwindling Jewish community of Kochi

Published: April 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM

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In the warm winter sun of Mattancherry, a district of Kochi in Kerala, I wandered the labyrinthine streets of Jew Town. The main thoroughfare, Synagogue Lane, is lined with shops sporting names such as Shalom, some displaying the Star of David in their windows, and selling Kashmiri shawls, spices and handicrafts. This is the historical heart of India’s Jewish community – though today there are hardly any Jews living here.

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Kochi (formerly Cochin) has a centuries-long Jewish presence. The date of the earliest arrivals is debated; some say that the first Jews sailed to south India on the ships of King Solomon some 30 centuries ago. Certainly, references to Jewish traders in India have been found in documents dating back to the eighth and ninth centuries AD, kept in a synagogue genizah (storage area) in Cairo.

A number of Jews settled in the ancient trading port of Kodungallur (formerly Cranganore) and, from the 14th century, dispersed; many moved to Kochi, around 20 miles to the south. Over the following centuries, European Jews, known in the local Malayalam language as Paredesi (literally, ‘foreigners’), began to arrive in India. Many of them were refugees fleeing the Iberian peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition and following the expulsion of Jews in 1492.

Over later centuries, more Jews came from western Europe, as well as from north Africa and the Middle East. At its height, Kochi’s Jewish community numbered around 2,000 members. In the 19th century, though, some began leaving to pursue opportunities in Bombay (now Mumbai), and Calcutta (now Kolkata), and then, from 1948, to live permanently in the newly created state of Israel.

The Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568 by Sephardic Jews, still stands next to Mattancherry Palace. As you enter the courtyard today, you can see that it shares a wall with a Hindu temple. The synagogue remains open for visitors and for worship, and is cared for by the local Indian community. The small but colourful interior features hand-painted 18th-century Chinese floor tiles and grand Belgian chandeliers. It also preserves engraved copper plates from the Hindu ruler of Kodungallur, given to a Jewish leader in around AD 1000.

The last major celebration held here was in 2018, when the synagogue marked its 450th anniversary. Some 150 émigré members of the Paradesi Jewish community arrived from their homes across the world to mark the occasion. Generations of family members who had only heard stories of the synagogue came to visit, and to walk the same streets that their ancestors had strolled decades and centuries earlier.

The oldest member of India’s Paradesi Jewish community, Sarah Cohen, died a year later, a few days short of her 97th birthday. Her embroidery shop still stands in Mattancherry, and still bears her name. It’s now looked after by Thaha Ibrahim, a Muslim who had known Sarah and her husband for decades. He looked after her in her old age, and was treated by the couple as their son. He carries on her legacy today in the same place she lived, making embroidery following her patterns.

The Paradesi Synagogue is the only one out of eight in Kerala that is regularly active. I was told that the current rabbi is from overseas, and that the congregation for the Friday night service is typically made up of émigré Jewish visitors. A portion of the Torah scrolls is read every Shabbat and during religious holidays, retrieved from the silver cases in which the synagogue’s texts are kept. These cases are topped with gold crowns, some of which were gifts from local maharajas. Though Kochi’s long-standing Jewish community has largely gone, their memories and ancient traditions are kept alive still.

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This column was first published in the April 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine

Authors

Kavita Puri

Kavita Puri is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A new edition of her book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, marking the 75th anniversary of partition, is out now, published by Bloomsbury

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