It’s the month of March 1984. When Sarah Cohen and Ellen S Goldberg were at the Cochin Paradesi Synagogue, Cohen overheard temple prayers next door. “We can hear their prayers, and they can hear us,” adds Cohen, who is now known as Kochi’s “grand dame of the Jews.” In his book Who Are The Jews of India? (2000), Nathan Katz, an expert on Indian Jewish communities, uses this story to illustrate the lives of Cochin Jews in their new hometown. “They were entirely Indian and fully Jewish at the same time. They were able to strike a delicate balance between their own identity and their neighbors’ Hindu, Christian, and Muslim cultures,” says Katz.
The stories of a community that came on Kerala coastlines around 1000 CE are told in the book One Heart. Two Worlds: The Story of the Jews of Kochi (Stark World, Rs 2,500). The experiences are told through “handwritten song journals, memoirs, kosher recipes, Hebrew plays, and synagogue rituals,” according to KS Mathew, a scholar, and historian, and Yamini Nair, a creative director, and writer.
They arrived as traders with diamonds and wealth, which helped them earn favor with the rulers of the period, and their knowledge of European languages aided them in war and trade. Persecution in other nations drove the Jews to seek a haven in Kerala, where they could work and follow their religion without fear of persecution.
