In a beach village where they previously sought safety, their numbers are falling, but their culture endures.
“Can you tell me how to get to the synagogue?”
In Mattancherry, a neighborhood is known around here as “Jew Town,” a woman walks into a candy-green shop. Outside, tourists and vendors haggle over the price of pashmina scarves and harem trousers on the street. Inside, however, Aviva Kelly, an Israeli-American woman visiting from Washington, D.C., removes her glasses to admire the brightly colored objects for sale, which include glittering kippahs, multi-hued challah coverings, and gold menorahs. She appears to forget she’s going to Paradesi Synagogue once she’s inside. “Who looks after this shop?” she inquires.
The clerk guides her into a nearby room with fading yellow walls and ancient black-and-white images. Sarah Cohen, 95, is seated with her prayer book open and her late husband’s hot-pink kippah atop her head. The women exchange greetings before deciding to sing a Hebrew prayer together.
Source: https://www.psmag.com/social-justice/last-jews-of-cochin
