Download or read book The Last Jews of Cochin written by Nathan Katz and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For two thousand years, a small colony of Jews in Cochin, South India, enjoyed security and prosperity, fully accepted by their Hindu, Muslim, and Christian neighbors. In this most exotic corner of the Diaspora, Jews flourished in the spice trade, agriculture, the professions, government, and military service. India's tolerant, nurturing atmosphere produced a Jewish prime minister to a Hindu maharaja; an autonomous Jewish principality; Hebrew and Malayalam-language poets; powerful, well-educated women; and Qabbalists revered by Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike. Cochin's Jews were so well-integrated into Hindu society that they evolved an identity which was both fully Indian and fully Jewish. This book analyzes the strategies by which this dual identity was established. The Cochin Jews have narrated a historical legend which emphasizes their longstanding residence in India, the site of Jewish autonomy under Hindu patronage, and their attestable origin in ancient Israel, the center of the Jewish universe. Although the Cochin Jews remained faithful to Jewish law and custom, Hindu symbols of nobility and purity were adopted into their religious observances, resulting in some of the most exotic religious practices in the Jewish world. The Jews of Cochin mirrored Hindu social structure and became a caste, well-positioned in India's hierarchy. Yet in emulating caste behavior, Jews came to discriminate against one another, in a breach of Jewish law, giving rise to a controversy which lasted five hundred years. Despite millennia of security, when their two beloved homelands, India and Israel, attained independence in the late 1940s, virtually all of the Jews living in Cochin opted for the more precarious life in Israel. This book concludes with an exploration of their reasons for leaving India and an appraisal of their adaptation to Israeli life.
Download or read book The Last Jews of Kerala written by Edna Fernandes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two thousand years ago, trade routes and the fall of Jerusalem took Jewish settlers seeking sanctuary across Europe and Asia. One little-known group settled in Kerala, in tropical southwestern India. Eventually numbering in the thousands, with eight synagogues, they prospered. Some came to possess vast estates and plantations, and many enjoyed economic privilege and political influence. Their comfortable lives, however, were haunted by a feud between the Black Jews of Ernakulam and the White Jews of Mattancherry. Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp and the color of their skin, they locked in a rancorous feud for centuries, divided by racism and claims and counterclaims over who arrived first in their adopted land. Today, this once-illustrious people is in its dying days. Centuries of interbreeding and a latter-day Exodus from Kerala after Israel's creation in 1948 have shrunk the population. The Black and White Jews combined now number less than fifty, and only one synagogue remains. On the threshold of extinction, the two remaining Jewish communities of Kerala have come to realize that their destiny, and their undoing, is the same. The Last Jews of Kerala narrates the rise and fall of the Black Jews and the White Jews over the centuries and within the context of the grand history of the Jewish people. It is the story of the twilight days of a people whose community will, within the next generation, cease to exist. Yet it is also a rich tale of weddings and funerals, of loyalty to family and fierce individualism, of desperation and hope.
Download or read book Who Are the Jews of India written by Nathan Katz and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000-11-18 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the Diaspora communities, the Jews of India are among the least known and most interesting. This readable study, full of vivid details of everyday life, looks in depth at the religious life of the Jewish community in Cochin, the Bene Israel from the remote Konkan coast near Bombay, and the Baghdadi Jews, who migrated to Indian port cities and flourished under the British Raj. Who Are the Jews of India? is the first integrated, comprehensive work available on all three of India's Jewish communities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Nathan Katz brings together methods and insights from religious studies, ritual studies, anthropology, history, linguistics, and folklore, as he discusses the strategies each community developed to maintain its Jewish identity. Based on extensive fieldwork throughout India, as well as close reading of historical documents, this study provides a striking new understanding of the Jewish Diaspora and of Hindu civilization as a whole.
Download or read book Spice Kosher Exotic Cuisine of the Cochin Jews written by Essie Sassoon and published by . This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exotic Sephardi/Mizrahi cuisine from the Malabar coast of India, as developed or adapted by an ancient community of Jews who landed there 2000 years ago. These Jews are called Cochinis and most of them live today in Israel. Spices, especially the 3 Cs - cardamom, cinnamon and cumin - along with coconut, coriander and pepper dominate their cooking. The book contains plenty of fascinating historical notes along with the recipes. This book on Cochini Jewish cooking is the first of its kind in the world.
Download or read book A History of the Jews of Cochin written by J. B. Segal and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the Jews living in the vicinity of Cochin, southern India. From the beginning of the 16th century until 1662 the Portuguese ruled a part of this area. Pp. 32-36 describe their attempts to prevent the entry of Jews and Conversos from the Iberian peninsula to their Indian domains. In 1560 the Inquisition was instituted in Goa, which operated in Portuguese southern India and cruelly persecuted the Conversos who had settled there.
Download or read book The Jews of India written by Orpa Slapak and published by UPNE. This book was released on 1995 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jews of India, one of the lesser-known and perhaps most interesting of the Diaspora, comprise the three geographically and ethnographically distinct communities examined in The Israel Museum's unique and authoritative volume The Jews of India. The Bene Israel, the largest group at approximately 24,000 members, inhabited the Maharashtra State on India's western coast; its ties with mainstream Judaism were reestablished in the nineteenth century. The smallest and oldest of the Indian Jewish communities, the Jews of Cochin have been a presence on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India for at least a thousand years. They numbered about 2,500 in the mid-1950's, just prior to their immigration to Israel. The Baghdadi Jews migrated from Iraq and Syria to large commercial cities in western and eastern India in the late eighteenth century. Numbering about 5,000 at the population's peak, Baghdadi Jews were largely assimilated into British colonial society, did not develop a distinct material culture in India, and so are a relatively minor presence in this book. Esteemed editor Orpa Slapak spearheaded studies of all three Indian Jewish communities in Israel and in India, and has assembled a vivid and powerful portrait of these peoples. The text is profusely illustrated with striking color and black and white photographs of Indian Jews at home, work, prayer, and leisure, as well as a multitude of remarkable Indian Jewish artifacts, including illuminated manuscripts, lamps, clothing, jewelry, and household implements. Several maps, useful glossaries, and a selected bibliography complete the volume.
Download or read book Ruby of Cochin written by Ruby Daniel and published by Jewish Publication Society. This book was released on 2001-10-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Jewish Communities of India written by Joan G. Roland and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1989 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the Bene Israel community of western India, the Baghdadi Jews of Bombay and Calcutta, and the Cochin Jews of the Malabar Coast form a tiny segment of the Indian population, their long-term residence within a vastly different culture has always made them the subject of much curiosity. India is perhaps the one country in the world where Jews have never been exposed to anti-Semitism, but in the last century they have had to struggle to maintain their identity as they encountered two competing nationalisms: Indian nationalism and Zionism. Focusing primarily on the Bene Israel and Baghdadis in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Joan Roland describes how identities begun under the Indian caste system changed with British colonial rule, and then how the struggle for Indian independence and the establishment of a Jewish homeland raised even further questions. She also discuses the experiences of European Jewish refugees who arrived in India after 1933 and remained there until after World War II. To describe what it meant to be a Jew in India, Roland draws on a wealth of materials such as Indian Jewish periodicals, official and private archives, and extensive interviews. Historians, Judaic studies specialist, India area scholars, postcolonialist, and sociologists will all find this book to be an engaging study. A new final chapter discusses the position of the remaining Jews in India as well as the status of Indian Jews in Israel at the end of the twentieth century.
Download or read book Kashrut Caste and Kabbalah written by Nathan Katz and published by Manohar Publishers and Distributors. This book was released on 2005 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For The Cochin Jews, Indianness And Jewishness Are Not Neatly Demarcated Categpries, But Together Form A Seamless Universe Of Meanings, Customs, Aesthetics And Rituals. Their Indian-Jewish Identity Is Expressed As A Whole. The Book Shows Precisely How This Identity Came To Be Established Through Historical Legends, And How It Is Ritually Enacted On A Regular Basis.
Download or read book The Jews of Kerala written by P. M. Jussay and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of the Jews of Kerala written by S. S. Koder and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Jewish Gandhi Of Cochin written by Bala Menon and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A. B. Salem, born into the Paradesi Congregation of Jews in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin (now part of the southern Indian state of Kerala), was a lawyer, labour union organizer, ardent Indian nationalist and political leader, Zionist and the man responsible for the mass aliyah or emigration of the Cochin Jews to Israel in the 1950s. However, he chose to stay back in his beloved state of Kerala. Apart from being a towering leader of the Cochin Jewish community, Salem was a founder-member of the first Legislative Council in the Kingdom of Cochin from 1925 to 1931 and again from 1939 to 1945. A strong follower of the Gandhian principle of non-violent civil disobedience, he was a member of the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress which passed the resolution calling for complete independence from the British. Salem is also remembered for his efforts to achieve ritual equality for a group of Jews who were kept apart from full participation in synagogue affairs for decades - based on their perceived low-born status and which was contrary to Jewish law. His personal diaries about life in Cochin and the aliyah are now with the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Berkeley, California.
Download or read book The Last Jews of Kerala written by Edna Fernandes and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2008-06 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 70 CE, the Roman capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple scattered a wave of Jewish immigrants across the globe. One group--attracted by the tropical environment and a history of lucrative trade--chose to settle in the Kerala region of southwestern India. Feted as foreign kings by Kerala's rajas, and lavished with land, privilege, and autonomy, they enjoyed a harmony that is rare in their history. Despite living in peace with their Hindu, Muslim, and Christian neighbors, they were plagued by division from within. Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp an the color of their skin, the White Jews of Mattancherry and the Black Jews of Ernakulam engaged in centuries of acrimonious dispute over who arrived first in India. The resulting apartheid led to too few marriages, too few children, and an ever-declining population. In this book, journalist Edna Fernandes details the history of Kerala's Jews as chronicled by written records and the personal accounts of its less than 50 remaining Jewish inhabitants. Fernandes's narrative takes us on a voyage from King Solomon's Israel to the West coast of modern-day India, moving between the great intercontinental migrations of early modern history and the tragicomic feud of Jew Town which has brought Kerala's Jewry to its knees.
Download or read book Holy Warriors written by Edna Fernandes and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2007 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Excellent Detailing Of The Complex Web Of India S Cultural And Religious Bigotry Business World No Other Nation Has Witnessed As Much Proselytizaton Or Heard As Many War Cries In The Name Of God As Has India. Here, There Is Evidence That Every Religion Can Be Hijacked By The Forces Of Fundamentalism. Edna Fernandes Travels To The Country S Recent And Past Theatres Of Fundamentalism From Kashmir And Gujarat To Punjab And Goa To Meet The Generals And Foot Soldiers Of Communal Wars, And Lets Their Rage And Rhetoric Speak For Them. The Result Is An Important And Utterly Absorbing Book About The Consequences Of Prejudice, Insecurity And Hate. A Powerful Book . . . As Fair And Objective An Assessment Of The Perils That Lie Ahead For India As Any That I Have Ever Read Khushwant Singh A Gripping, And Necessary, Book On The Political Issues Facing India Today Mahesh Bhatt This Is A Remarkable, Brave, Moving, Disturbing, Funny And At Times Beautiful Book. It Tackles Head-On The Great Indian Paradox: That India Is A Centre Of Religion And Spirituality, And Hence Of Tolerance . . . Yet It Has Also Been Home To Some Of The Most Terrible Atrocities Committed In The Name Of Religion Simon Long, Asia Editor, The Economist A Reporter With A Gift For Details, Fernandes Weaves Together Voices Of Key Actors As Well As Innocents Caught In The Cleft Of History To Explain The Seductions Of Fundamentalism . . . There Are Genuine Flashes Of Wit And A Talent For Mockery That Make The Book A Racy Read Manish Chand, Hindustantimes.Com Holy Warriors Shows Up, In All Its Ugliness, The Cancer Of Religious Bigotry And Intolerance That Afflicts All Communities . . . It Is A Vivid And Shocking Mosaic That She Puts Together, From Nagaland To Goa And From Amritsar To Ayodhya . . . An Excellent Detailing Of The Complex Web Of India S Cultural And Religious Bigotry Jawed Naqvi, Business World
Download or read book Aliyah written by Sethu and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Next time in Jerusalem' -- uttered every Passover, these words kindle, within the small Jewish community of Kerala, a homesickness for their promised homeland. They must prepare to break all ties with the place they have known and loved for centuries -- all in response to the Zionist call.Salamon, the tongue-tied, day-dreaming firstborn of his family, must decide whether to set sail or stay back as the last Jew in Cochin -- the place where his ancestors had found sanctuary -- for it was here that their roots had struck, amongst those who accepted them as neighbours, classmates, teachers.In this story of cultural and religious identity, told through three generations of a Jewish family in Kerala and their complex interpersonal relationships, Sethu weaves together myth, history and fiction to create a compelling narrative about man's constant search for home and permanence.
Download or read book Bene Appetit written by Esther David and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2021-04-24 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jewish community in India comprises a tiny but important part of the population. There are around five thousand Jews and five Jewish communities in India, but they are fast diminishing in number. Intrigued by the common thread that binds the Indian Jews as a whole despite their living in different parts of the country, Esther David explores the lifestyle and cuisine of the Jews in every region, from the Bene Israelis of western India to the Bene Menashes of the Northeast, the Bene Ephraims of Andhra Pradesh, the Baghdadi Jews of Kolkata and the Kochi Jews. She discovers that while they all follow the strict Jewish dietary laws, they have also adapted to the local cuisine. Some have even turned vegetarian! Extensively researched, with heartwarming anecdotes and mouthwatering recipes, Bene Appetit offers a holistic portrait of a little-known community.
Download or read book The Last Jews of Kerala written by Edna Fernandes and published by . This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Separated By A Narrow Stretch Of Swamp-Like Waters, And Distinguished By The Colour Of Their Skin, The Black Jews And The White Jews Have Been Locked In A Rancorous Feud For Centuries. Only Now, When Their Combined Number Is Less Than Fifty And They Are On The Threshold Of Extinction, Have The Two Last Jewish Communities In Kerala Begun To Realize That Their Destiny, And Their Undoing, Is The Same. Living In Cochin Alongside This Last Generation, Edna Fernandes Tells Their Story From The Illustrious Arrival Of Their Ancestors Through Their Long Heyday Of Tolerance And Privilege To Their Present Twilit Existence, As Synagogues Crumble Into Disuse And Weddings Disappear, Leaving Only Funerals. In The Last Jews Of Kerala, Edna Fernandes Evocatively Captures The Mood Of The Community: &Lsquo;A Kind Of Collective Malaise, A Brooding Fatalism&Rsquo;.
