The death of Sarah Cohen, the grand
old dame of the Jewish community, at her home, opposite to the Synagogue in
Mattancherry, Kochi, at the ripe age of 96, brings an end to an era of a
community that came to be known as ‘Pardesi Jews’, a journey of exile of people
of a community that started from Portugal, Spain, Syria and Iran; to be
welcomed and allowed to settle down in one of the oldest of trading posts on
this side of Arabian Sea.
It is said that of the pardesi
Jews, now resettled predominantly in Israel, Canada and Britain; amounting
to only a few hundred now, has only just two people left here at
Mattancherry. It was five people about six months ago of which two
migrated to Israel and now with Sarah gone, practically ceased to exist in the
historical land of Mattancherry of 6x4 kilometres dimension, which even today
hosts around 35 plus different communities drawn from all over from India and
abroad such as Gujratis, Marwaris, Banyas, Kutchis, Saraswat Brahmins, Angola
Indians, Jains, Jews, Tamil Brahmins, Muslims of Arab descendants, local
Muslims, Hindus and of course, Christians. Whereas in places of high migration
such a USA, the melting of culture happens, it is a matter of an unique culture
here in Mattancherry where every community, even toady, follows its distinctive
traditions, lifestyle and rituals that was being followed for centuries by
their forefathers. Such places seldom exist in the world today and one
would urge travelers from across the planet to visit this anthropological
wonder called Mattancherry which adjoins another heritage place called Fort
Cochin, thus deriving a double treat of an experience.
Coming back to the Jews, they
retained their exclusivity and did not do any admixture. Very fair and
Europeanish, they had made immense contributions to the state of Kerala
particularly on its economy, as most of them were in business of export, import
and distribution. All Pardesi Jews could read write and speak Malayalam, the
local language and some of them even got employed in government services, for
instance, Sarah’s late husband Jacob Cohen worked for the Income tax
department. Later, there came in Jews from other parts of the world and
got settled in northern part of Kerala, thus, coming to be known as Malabar
Jews (almost all of them had left Kerala by now, mostly migrating to the
promised land, Israel.
History may not be of
much value to the generation today and the end of Jewish culture in Kerala may
not be of much consequences to the polity of the state, particularly when
majoritarian culture is swallowing everything. However, this milestone must be
viewed as very significant on social and cultural terms, for, it indeed is
passing of an era!
