The Last Jews of Kerala: The Two Thousand Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community [Hardcover]

Edna Fernandes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008

When a people die out, can their story survive?

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Two thousand years ago, a little-known group of Jews settled in Kerala, in southwestern India. Eventually, they numbered in the thousands, with eight synagogues. Fernandes explains that some of them owned large estates and plantations and enjoyed economic privilege and political influence, but for centuries, the Black Jews of Ernakulam feuded with the White Jews of Mattancherry, fighting over who arrived first in their adopted land. Today, fewer than 50 Jews are left, and only one synagogue remains. “This account,” Fernandes writes, “charts their rise and fall, from a glorious centuries-long heyday when they were the confidantes of kings, to the twentieth-century decline and twenty-first-century denouement.” Fernandes says that their fortunes were lost by a devastating nexus of apartheid, centuries of interbreeding, mental illness, and a latter-day exodus from Kerala after the creation of Israel in 1948. Fernandes, a British Indian journalist, is the author of Holy Warriors (2007).  Her new book brings to life a Jewish society little known to most of us. --George Cohen

About the Author

Edna Fernandes is a British-Indian journalist who has worked for many leading international news organizations, including AP-Dow Jones and Reuters. Her articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune. She is the author of Holy Warriors and The Last Jews of Kerala.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602392676
• ISBN-13: 978-1602392670
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Exaggerated and disappointing book, March 4, 2009

By 

D. Hallegua - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Jews of Kerala: The Two Thousand Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community (Hardcover)

There have been several scholarly books written on the Jews of India. Among them are scholarly books written on the Jews of Kerala titled "The Jews of Kerala" by J. B. Segal and the "Jews of Kerala" by P.M. Jussay which the author has conveniently or inadvertently omitted from her list of references.

Ms. Fernandez either has little or no knowledge of the location of the 3 synagogues on Synagogue lane in Cochin or has decided not to mention it in her book. Two of these synagogues and their Torah scrolls and property called the Thekkumbaggam and Kadavumbagham synagogues were owned solely by the Malabari Jews (Ms Fernandez and other Western authors call them Black Jews). The Malabari Jews' two synagogues and the Paradesi Jewish synagogue (White Jews to Ms Fernandez) are located on a stretch of road measuring about 1000 meters. The Malabari Jews and the Paradesi Jews would carry the Sifre Torah from one synagogue to another on Simha Torah and attend services in each other's synagogue. The Shoheth (ritual slaughterer for kosher chicken and beef) for the Paradesi Jews from the late 1940's to 1960's was a Malabari Jew (Black Jew to Ms Fernandez) who lived in the house of a Paradesi Jew (White Jew to Ms Fernandez). Ms. Fernandez claims or was misinformed that the Paradesi Jews refused to eat the meat slaughtered by any Malabari Jew. Old single male Jews from the Jewish community of Mala (suburb of Cochin) and the Kadavumbagham synagogue in Cochin left behind after the communities there left en masse for Eretz Israel were not only welcomed to stay in buildings adjacent to and owned by the Paradesi Synagogue but were given financial help for their food and daily needs for many years till they died of old age in Cochin. Ms Fernandez exaggerates for the purpose for gossip and infamy that apartheid was present in the Jewish community of Cochin. The use of the word "apartheid" to the situation in Cochin is an insult to the suffering of the African people in South Africa. All the Jews in Cochin were free citizens with the right to vote, seek employment, own property, conduct business and not forced to live in shanty towns. The 3 synagogues in Synagogue Lane were in such close proximity that the houses of the Paradesi Jews and the Malabari Jews were intermingled. The role and extent of prejudice and differences between the Paradesi and Malabari Jews have written about at length in many books and articles. The author's claim that the prejudice and discrimination made the Jews of Kerala leave for Israel is false and without substance. The Jews of Kerala, Calcutta and Bombay left for Israel in order to fulfill the Messianic vision and live in Eretz Israel or for better economic opportunities.

Space limits me listing all the inaccuracies in this book. The remaining Jews in Cochin and Ernakulam are constantly under the prying eyes of a 1000 tourists and journalists who visit the Cochin Paradesi Synagogue and the 2 synagogues in Ernakulam every day. They desire no fame or exposure to the media. Ms Fernandez has deliberately exposed the unattractive physical characteristics of these people to add tabloid material to her book. She has also repeated false and slanderous information that is very personal to some of Cochin's Jews increasing their exposure to taunting and prying by various tourists and journalists. This is irresponsible penmanship and my hope is that scholars and people interested in the history of the Jews of Kerala will buy the works of reputable authors listed above and that this book will find its way into the dustbins of history,

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but dissapointing., November 3, 2008

By 

Mr. R. Susman "Roy Susman" (Moshav Sde Nitzan,Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Jews of Kerala: The Two Thousand Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community (Hardcover)

In her book "the last Jews of Kerala" Edna Fernandes describes the life of the remaining Jews living in Kerala. She unfortunately places far too much emphasis on the question of colour but when she came to Israel to talk to the jewish population that immigrated to Israel from Kerala she neglects to interview any member of the white group - who,by the way settled more in the centre of the country and did not "make the desert bloom" as she puts it. I, personally, do not know any of these "white" jews but do know many of the "black" jews that immigrated from Kerala as they live near me in the Negev and they are "the salt of the earth". I have never heard them complain of any type of colour bar either here or in their past life in Kerala (although they will tell you that it existed if you question them)and they are very industrious people.

Edna Fernandes should also be more careful if she wants to intersperse her narrative with hebrew words by making sure that she really does understand them and the difference between singular and plural in Hebrew.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Survival is hard for tiny minority, May 11, 2010

By 

Carol Kasper Winet "Carol Kasper Winet" (Pasadena, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Jews of Kerala: The Two Thousand Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community (Hardcover)

This book is an account of that portion of the Jewish diaspora that wound up on the southwest coast of India, in Kerala. King Solomon sent traders there before the Christian era, and later, after the destruction of the temples, additional Jews wound up on its shores. These early settlers, probably heavily male, intermarried with the dark-skinned local women. Their descendants, retaining dark coloration, are known as "black Jews". One early settler made a great impression on the local Raja and was granted special privileges, almost on a par with being royal. Another wave of immigrants followed the Inquisition, and remained segregated, protecting their racial purity as white-skinned people, or "white Jews", disdaining their darker brethren and refused to intermarry or use the same synagogues. The advantage of being in Kerala was the high level of religious tolerance, for Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Christians lived and still live in amity. When the State of Israel was founded, some Indian Jews, from Kerala as well as from Bombay and Calcutta and elsewhere, went to Israel; most stayed, gradually getting used to the very different conditions. A few who went from Kerala to Israel were uncomfortable in Israel, mostly because of the perpetual fear of the Arab enemies but also because of the hustle and bustle, and some of these returned to Kerala where one's neighbors were, at least, not physically hostile. The exodus to Israel plus the refusal of the white Jews to intermarry has led to a greatly shrunken Jewish population in Kerala and in India in general. The handful of "white Jews" will not survive for their are no children nor prospects of any. The larger number of "black Jews" in Kerala might survive in that place but depend on finding Jews from elsewhere, e.g. Bombay, if such urban sophisticates are willing to re-settle in the "backwater" of Kerala. The rather conservative Jews of India do not like to consider marrying outside the faith. The author did not discuss the Israeli religious ruling that a Jew is the offspring of a Jewish mother. The author suspects that the black Jewish community was founded by immigrant males and local, non-Jewish females. I kept wishing for some Y-chromosome and mitochrondrial DNA analyses of these populations! The book is an excellent depiction of the fate of a small population group who refuses to out-breed.