Trade networks and the destruction of Jerusalem drove Jewish settlers to seek refuge across Europe and Asia two thousand years ago. Kerala, in tropical southwestern India, was home to one of the lesser-known groups. They flourished, eventually reaching in the hundreds and having eight synagogues. Some acquired huge estates and plantations, and many others benefited from economic privilege and political power. A feud between the Black Jews of Ernakulam and the White Jews of Mattancherry, however, haunted their comfortable lives. They were split for generations by bigotry and claims and counterclaims over who arrived first in their adoptive territory, separated by a tiny stretch of swamp and the color of their skin.
These once-proud people are now nearing the end of their lives. The population has diminished due to centuries of interbreeding and a latter-day Exodus from Kerala following Israel’s formation in 1948. There are presently fewer than fifty Black and White Jews, and only one synagogue exists. On the verge of extinction, Kerala’s two last Jewish communities have realized that their fate, as well as their undoing, is the same.
Source: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Last-Jews-of-Kerala/Edna-Fernandes/9781634502719
