Edna Fernandes

A very well written and much readable account of the few remaining members (less than 50) of the Jewish community in Cochin. It chronicles in detail about the feud between the White or Paradesi jews who fled the Inquisition in Iberia in the 16th century and the Black Jews who predated the white jews by several hundred years and traced their ancestory to the era of Solomon.

It is sad to note that the so called white jews who themselves fled persecution chose to impose those same condition on the black jews and usurped their history and ancestory, denying them rights to pray in their synagogue.

The author has also travelled to Israel to interview members of the Cochin Jewish community who migrated to Israel in waves on the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. Of those, there are members who were able to reconcile with the prevailing conditions and live peaceful and integrated lives and those that returned back to Cochin unable to live the violence of two wars (67,73) and the constant fear and threat of suicide bombings, including one who had decided to leave after 30 years.

Overall, the general theme is the extremely peaceful lives that the Jews lived in Kerala amongst members of three other major faiths (Hindu, Muslim, Christian), not knowing what violence is compared to the Jewish diaspora in other countries who were subjected to contant persecution by means of Inquisitions, Holocaust and the unjust taxes levied by the Ottomans. The book also makes brief mention of the much larger Bene Israel community in the Mumbai and the Baghdadi Jewish communities of Mumbai and Calcutta.… (meer)

A very well written and much readable account of the few remaining members (less than 50) of the Jewish community in Cochin. It chronicles in detail about the feud between the White or Paradesi jews who fled the Inquisition in Iberia in the 16th century and the Black Jews who predated the white jews by several hundred years and traced their ancestory to the era of Solomon.

It is sad to note that the so called white jews who themselves fled persecution chose to impose those same condition on the black jews and usurped their history and ancestory, denying them rights to pray in their synagogue.

The author has also travelled to Israel to interview members of the Cochin Jewish community who migrated to Israel in waves on the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. Of those, there are members who were able to reconcile with the prevailing conditions and live peaceful and integrated lives and those that returned back to Cochin unable to live the violence of two wars (67,73) and the constant fear and threat of suicide bombings, including one who had decided to leave after 30 years.

Overall, the general theme is the extremely peaceful lives that the Jews lived in Kerala amongst members of three other major faiths (Hindu, Muslim, Christian), not knowing what violence is compared to the Jewish diaspora in other countries who were subjected to contant persecution by means of Inquisitions, Holocaust and the unjust taxes levied by the Ottomans. The book also makes brief mention of the much larger Bene Israel community in the Mumbai and the Baghdadi Jewish communities of Mumbai and Calcutta.… (meer)

I thought that this subject would have benefited by having a non-Jewish author to document the end of a people who had a much-different world experience than any other of these dispersed people. It didn't and obviously her editor wasn't Jewish either. Silly factual errors really rather do spoil a book that has obviously been quite deeply researched.

The premise of the book is that of the several Jewish communities in India, some of which have been there since the time of King Solomon and are documented in the bible, and who have lived entirely peacefully and as equal Indian citizens for thousands of years, are now disappearing because of the racism by the white Jews towards the older community of black jews in two particular communities - the Jews who live in the state of Kerala.

This part of the book is very interesting. The history of Haile Selassie's visit, the story of the 'kingship' and lands awarded to the Jews, the building of the town by a Rajah, where equidistant from his central palace there were holy buildings of the four religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism and the peace with which all four religions coexisted from time immemorial to this day. Apart, that is, from the hiccup when the Portuguese came and conquered Goa after the Inquisition and foisted their particular anti-semitism on the local Jews (including the ones who had fled from the Inquisition) and then the Moors, whose brand of Islam was not the same as the Indian one, and they too were anti-semitic.

The main part of the book concerns the European Jews who fled the Inquisition and settled in India and then rewrote history declaring themselves the original community and that their whiteness proved their religious purity. Religious purity to Hindu India is the be-all and end-all of mortal and immortal life. These Jews tried for five centuries to get rabbis from different countries to lend their stance legitimacy, but failed but still persisted with their devise and revisionist stance. This is all very interesting.

But the whole premise fails because the Jews in these communities are dying and leaving their synagogues as tourist attractions because of the migration to Israel and also by migration to the cities by the young, not for any other reason. It happened in my own community - growing up in the South Wales valleys there were many tiny communities but one by one they have all gone or are dying as the children, myself included, left for the metropolises and Israel. Only the cities have vibrant communities now, in Wales and in India.

The last part of the book concerns the success or otherwise of some of the Kerali Jews who emigrated to Israel. It wasn't well-written, the stories were recited in a somewhat maudlin' fashion and there were factual errors (again!) about the religion. A better editor could have helped Fernandez to write a really cracking book and so perhaps its more the fault of the publishing house than of the author that the book was so flawed. Great cover though, and great cover art is always a plus to me.… (meer)

Unfortunately, Fernandes takes an interesting topic, the long-term Jews of India, and muddies it considerably with factual errors and a thesis that her book does not support. I leave aside the complaint that she discomfited members of the community by publishing her book, which is between her and the people she interviewed. I also leave aside the book's repetitiveness and meandering, which are annoying but not critical. The factual errors include some about Judaism, which decreases her credibility as a reporter-historian. The thesis problem, however, is more serious because it is the rationale for writing her book rather sticking with previous books on the Jewish communities of Kerala. Fernandes's contention is that racism on the part of the "white" Jews, and their failure to intermarry with the "black" Jews, has caused the death of the community. However, by both the communities' and Fernandes's report, it was the establishment of the state of Israel that caused a return from diaspora. Given these concerns, I recommend the interested reader to the books Fernandes cites rather than to hers.… (meer)