Cochin Jews and ancient synagogues

Monday we went on a trip (tiyul) from AACI to the northern Negev region near
Beersheva. We first visited a settlement named Nevatim which was founded in
the 1950s by a group of Jews from Cochin, India. Cochin is a town in the
State of Kerala along the Malabar coast of southwestern India. Jews
apparently arrived there several thousand years ago, some say as far back as
King Solomon's time. There exist several engraved copper tablets that
illustrate the history of the community and the oldest is dated 1080, and is
an agreement between the Jewish community and the local Prince.
They remained faithful to the practice of Judaism for at least 1000 years.
But, they clearly look Indian and spoke Malayalam, the local language. There
was never any antagonism between them and the other local communities,
Hindu, Christian and Muslim and they never experienced any anti-Semitism.
But, they were also very Zionistic, and when the State of Israel was founded
in 1948 they spontaneously decided to move as a community "back" to their
homeland. At that time there were ca. 2,800 of them living in the town of
Cochin and two other small towns nearby and they had 8 synagogues that were
the center of their activities.
In 1953 they completed the move paid for by themselves and were settled in
five villages or moshavim, one on the Lebanese border, three near Jerusalem
and Nevatim in the Negev. When it was founded Nevatim had nothing and was
extremely isolated. Now it is 10 mins drive from the edge of Beersheva and
its large American style malls. In India the families had servants and the
wives did not work, but in Israel they had to roll up their sleeves and
become farmers. Now most of the inhabitants work outside the settlement, but
the synagogue is the center of their community life. They imported the
interior of one of the synagogues from Cochin, with the assistance of the
Kerala and Indian Governments, and another one was imported by the Israel
Museum in Jerusalem. They still try to maintain their unique culture, but it
is fading fast as Israel develops and the children adapt. They have a small
museum of their history and culture, but it was partially destroyed when
Beduin smashed it with a bulldozer and stole some of their original
artifacts.
Incidentally the Beduin consider themselves distinct from the other Arabs,
they were nomadic until the 60's, but the Israel Government then started to
settle them. There is a large Beduin town called Rahat near Beersheva, and
five Beduin villages in the north central Negev. The Beduin have taken to
sedentary living slowly because to them the Arabs in the north are inferior
and they hate farming, even though most of them now do it.
We then drove into two forests established by the JNF, the Lahav and Yatir
forests, and in each of these we visited the site of an ancient Jewish town
each with an ancient synagogue. Although these and many other ruins have been
partially excavated, there remains a lot untouched. The northern Negev was at
the southern end of the region of Judea. Adjacent to the settlement of Lahav
lies the ruin called Khirbet Remalya in Arabic (Khirbet means 'ruin'), which
is identified as Biblical Ein Rimon ('well of pomegranate' in Hebrew). There
was a base of a large synagogue there capable of holding some 100 people.
Nearby were subterranean houses and tunnels where the inhabitants hid in case
of an attack and where they stored water in cisterns. Letters have been found
that were exchanged between Ein Rimon and the authorities in Jerusalem.
We then went to a ruin called Khirbet Anim identified as the Biblical village
of Anim. On the crest of the hill are the ruins of a fortress dating back to
3,000 bce with massive stone walls. Nearby is the village that dates from the
early Christian era, with a Synagogue that is quite unique. When the area was
conquered by the Muslims in the 700s ce, the inhabitants were converted to
Islam. By then the synagogue was already 400 years old (having been partially
rebuilt), and they simply reconfigured the Synagogue into a Mosque. The
aron kodesh facing Jerusalem at the northern end was removed and a
mihrab was placed in the southern end facing Mecca. It is quite unique to
find an ancient synagogue with both these features on opposite walls of the
building, apparently three others have been found. Nearby there were also
Christian villages with contemporary Churches of very similar design, but
no evidence that the Christians or Jews long survived the Muslim conquest.
Generally they were not massacred, they were tolerated as the "peoples of
the books," but were taxed (unlike Muslims), could not appear in Muslim
courts and over time took an offer they couldn't refuse.
All in all it was a very interesting and enjoyable day, illustrating the
unique and strong bonds Jews have with our amazing homeland.