c. 1996 Religion News Service

COCHIN, India (RNS)-“There was no need for it to come to an end, but now the party’s over,”Lily Koder said as she stood looking down Jewtown, a narrow lane leading to one of Asia’s oldest synagogues.

Koder’s father, Samuel, who started Cochin’s first electric company and ferry service, was a businessman who opened shops all over the Indian state of Kerala. But now most of the shops have closed.

Nearly 500 years ago a group of European and Persian Jews settled on this tiny island, with its Chinese fishing nets standing sentinel over the harbor. The newcomers built ships out of teak and gave them biblical names like”Jerusalem”and”Solomonis.”They traded in pepper, ginger and cardamom in this tropical region near the southern tip of India.

But now the long, storied history of the Cochin Jews is coming to an end.

After Indian independence in 1947, most of the remaining community immigrated to Israel and North America. Lily Koder, who is in her 70s, is among the fewer than 20 who remain. Most live in neighboring houses in Jewtown.”We still light lamps during Hanukkah and go to the synagogue to perform individual prayers on Saturdays, but most of the beautiful ceremonies are no longer held,”Koder recalled.”Before the New Year and Yom Kippur, we used to have a man who would walk along Jewtown and call to each of us by name to attend the penitential selichot service held at 4 a.m. at the synagogue. But that no longer happens.” The passing of the Cochin Jews will mark the demise of one of the last of the old Jewish communities in Asia. An ancient Jewish community in Kaifeng, China, virtually disappeared in the 19th century. Other communities that have disintegrated or are near an end include those in Rangoon, Burma, now known as Myanmar; Karachi, Pakistan; and Kabul, Afghanistan. Still another community on the brink of vanishing is the Baghdad Jews of Calcutta.

The Jews of Cochin”were preceded by an earlier settlement of Jews there in (the Indian state of) Kerala that may have come at the time of King Solomon,”said Johanna Spector, a retired professor from New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary who in 1991 made a documentary movie about the Cochin Jews.

Another theory is that the first people of Jewish descent came to India from the Middle East when the apostle Thomas arrived in A.D. 52.

Today, the number of men in the community has fallen below 10, and regular Saturday services can no longer be held. (Traditional Jewish law requires 10 men for a formal prayer service.) Jackie Cohen, in his 70s, who had been caretaker of the synagogue, is bedridden after being diagnosed with cancer.

Help sometimes comes from a separate group of Jews who live in the town of Ernakulum, across the harbor from Cochin. The Ernakulum Jews are generally believed to be of indigenous Indian origin.”For special religious festivals, the (Jews from Ernakulum), come to assist us in the synagogue,”said Koder.

Differing theories exist about the origin of the Ernakulum Jews, the most common being that they were slaves of the Cochin Jews who were later freed and converted to Judaism.

In 1948, for the first time, an Ernakulum Jew-a telecommunications engineer-married a member of the Cochin community. Nine years later, his brother, who had studied in the United States, also married a Cochin Jew. Then in 1978, the engineer’s son did the same-the last wedding in the community. The newly married couple followed in the footsteps of most others by emigrating, as did the engineer, who went to Israel.

The greatest blow to the community came with the death in 1994 of Sattoo Koder, Lily Koder’s brother, who had headed the Jewish communities in the Cochin region. Sattoo’s widow, Gladys, still lives in Cochin. Like most of Cochin’s Jews, Gladys has visited Israel, but she has mixed feelings about the country.”In Israel many people don’t observe the Sabbath whereas Cochin’s Jews have always diligently tried to keep their faith,”she said.”I don’t feel there was any need for our community to emigrate to Israel. We had highly educated people, doctors, engineers, professionals,”she said.

But the younger generation saw things differently, and hundreds of Jews have left.”I was in Israel for six years but had to come back after losing my job,”said Len Hallegua, unmarried and in his 30s. He says his ancestors moved from Spain to Cochin in 1514, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition.

Hallegua is one of the last of the younger generation remaining in Cochin.”I would like to return to Israel as there are no opportunities left here for people such as myself,”he said.

MJP END MURPHY