The Jews of India
The Cochin Jews:
|The Jews of India consist of 3 distinct groups:
by Nissim Moses
For more information about the Indian-Jewish
Community please click HERE.
- The Cochin Jews or Cochinis
- The Baghdadis
- The Bene Israel
These Jews originated by settling in Cranganore and around in Malabar.
They lived there for centuries. In the 15th Century C.E. they took
shelter in Cochin further south after being attacked by the Moors
and later by the Portuguese. They never numbered more than 2500.
Today there are not more than 17 in Cochin, mainly elderly men and
This sect consists of Jews from West Asia, mainly from Baghdad
and Syria who came in the 19th century as traders and refugees.
They settled in Bombay, Calcutta and Pune. They first arrived in
Surat which was the most important port on the West Coast. They
spoke Arabic or Persian and English. At one time, there were about
5000 of them, today less than 200, most of them having emigrated
to U.K., Australia and Canada.
The Bene Israel:
At the present moment it is the Bene Israel
who predominate the Jewish presence in India. Their story is an
old one. How old? It is and will continue to be a scholarly dispute.
Some say that they came from the ancient kingdom of Israel after
they were defeated by the Assyrian king in 722 B.C.E. Some believe
that when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed and Jerusalem taken
by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., some of the Jews reached the West
Coast of India. Oral tradition and probably the most favored is
that descended from the Jews who fled in 175 B.C.E. from the Syrian-Greek
ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, were ship wrecked at Navgaon near the
port of Cheul on the Konkan Coast, 30 miles South of Bombay. 7 men
and 7 women survived and from there the Bene Israel spread to many
of the surrounding villages in the Konkan. Most of the Bene Israel
have surnames ending wit “kar” identifying the villages where they
resided. There are 142 such surnames.
One, David Rahabi of Cochin is credited with the revival of
Judaism amongst the Bene Israel. Fully convinced that the Bene
Israel were Jews, he retaught them Hebrew and the details of the
Jewish religion. He appointed 3 Kazis from the prominent families
who then became the teachers and preachers of the community. With
Bombay becoming an important port of British India, the Bene Israel
were encouraged to move to Bombay where opportunities were better
Each of the 3 groups maintained its separate identity with
little admixture. The story of the Jews in India has on the whole
been a happy one where Jews dwelt in complete security and have
been accorded an honorable place in the social structure of the
land. India, predominantly a Hindu country of more than a billion
people has approx. 130 million Moslems, 25 million Christians
and less than 5000 Jews. She has been a generous mother but the
pull of Israel besides economic factors prompted the Jews to emigrate.
However with 14 synagogues and 2 Jewish schools still functioning,
the fear of extinction has been kept at bay. But for how long?
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Jews of India Useful Links Page