YAHEH HALLEGUA is Mattancheri’s last Jewish woman of childbearing age. Keith and Len, her cousins, are the final remaining bachelors. But neither of them appeal to her. As a result, the 400-year-old Jewish community in the port village of Kerala, India’s southern state, would be gone in a few decades.
Mattancheri is the most well-known Jewish settlement in India. Thousands of tourists travel each year to see its lovely alleyways of pastel-colored dwellings connected by first-floor corridors and home to the last 12 sari- and sarong-wearing white-skinned Indian Jews. The synagogue, which was established in 1568 and features a blue-and-white Chinese tile floor, a carpet presented by Haile Selassie, and cold Yaheh selling tickets at the entry, is a symbol of religious tolerance. Except for European colonizers and each other, India’s Jews have nearly never faced discrimination.
Source: https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2008/08/14/living-far-apart
