She came to Cochin in 1976 to film a story about the Jews of Kerala. She was a “tiny lady with gentle eyes, but also with a piercing gaze.”
Dr. Johanna Spector was a well-known ethnomusicologist at the time. She was one of the first people to start studying Jewish Malayalam songs, which were unknown to most people in the West at the time. The documentary “About the Jews of India: Cochin” was made as a result of her trip. It became a big hit in academic circles in North America and sparked a lot of interest in the traditions and lives of people who live in places that aren’t very well known.
Source: http://www.jewsofcochin.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-johanna-spectors-documentary-on-jews.html
