India: Parur and other Cochin Synagogues

India: Parur and other Cochin Synagogues

Shala Weil, author of India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle (Mumbai: Marg Publications [first published in 2002; 3rd edn.], 2009) and dozens of articles on India's Jewish culture and history, has reminded me of the wonderful offering of the website:

The Synagogues of Kerala India: Architectural and Cultural Heritage

The site is very rich in descriptive, historic and analytic content and photos of Cochin and Kerala's many synagogues. There is also an extensive bibliography.

In the architecture Jay Waronker writes at length about seven standing synagogues as well as lost synagogues of Kerala.

India: Jews of Cochin (and Judaica)

India: Jews of Cochin (and Judaica)

Many of my readers may also be interested in following the blog Jews of Cochin maintained by Bala Menon. Bala's most recent posting is about the Judaica of Cochin Jews which is increasing turning up in notably collections, and also at Judaica auctions.

Meanwhile, the government in Kerala (India) is nearing completion on the careful restoration of the former synagogue in Parur. ISJM's Jay Waronker has been advising on this work for well over a year with support from the Koret Foundation. Jay will supply a report on the project's progress soon.

Here is a Bala's post...

Museums and collectors worldwide have been quietly acquiring valuable belongings of the Cochin Jews over the past couple of decades. Articles of interest include clothing, religious pieces, life-cycle related materials, historical and literary items etc., which all come under the general definition of Cochin Judaica. Some of the pieces are valued at several thousands of dollars.

Many of these wonderful pieces are now appearing on auction sites like eBay, while some have become part of treasured collections at institutions like the fabled Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, the Skirball Cultural Centre in Los Angeles, the Jewish Studies collections at Columbia University Libraries, University of Cambridge and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

One of the prized exhibits at Skirball's At Home series is a Hanukkah lamp from Cochin. This exquisitely designed work of utilitarian art, made of hammered brass was donated to the centre in 2005 by Dr. David Hallegua (California) and his sister Fiona (New York) of Mattancherry in memory of their grandparents Satto and Gladys Koder. The lamp was used in the Koder home in Cochin during Hanukkah celebrations for over 90 years. (Koder House today is a boutique hotel.)

Read the entire essay and see photos here.

Also see:

ISJM Receives Koret Foundation Funding for Indian Synagogue

India: ISJM's Jay Waronker Furthers Kerala Preservation Projects

Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies #11: Articles on Indian Jews and Synagogues

Parur (Kerala), India. Synagogue interior. Photo: Jay Waronker.

ISJM-funded researcher architect Jay Waronker has an article in the new issue of Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies on the synagogue at Parur, India. ISJM has received three grants from the Koret Foundation to support Jay's research and efforts at conservation at Parur.

Contents of issue number 11:

"Purim in Cochin in the Middle of the Thirteenth Century according to Lisbon's Inquisition Trials" by Jos Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim

"The Synagogue at Parur, India: Its Architecture and Spatial Experience" by Jay A. Wakoner;

"*Baumgartner's Bombay: *Postcolonialism and Postmemory" by Linda Weinhouse

"Bronze Age and Writing Systems of Saraswati Hieroglyphics Evidenced by Two 'Rosetta Stones'" by S. Kalyanaraman

"Ethnocultural Barriers Medicalized: A Critique of Jacobsen" by Ephraim Nissan

"The Ethics of the Pepper Marts of Mid-19th Century Malabar: A Sephardic View" by Zvi Zohar and Nathan Katz

Madhuri Santanam Sondhi, *Intercivilizational Dialogue on Peace: Martin Buber and Basanra Kumar Malik*, reviewed by Maurice S. Friedman

"Cochin's Jews: History's Last Gasp - A Tribute to Samuel Hallegua" by Vinay Lal

To order Issue number 11 send a check for $15 to Professor Braj M. Sinha, Department of Religion and Culture, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada S7N 5A5.

India: ISJM's Jay Waronker Furthers Kerala Preservation Projects

Top: Tekkumbhagam Synaoggue in Ernakulam (a part of Kochi).
Bottom: Kadavumbhagam Synagogue in Ernakulam
Photos: V. Isaac Sam.

India: ISJM's Jay Waronker Furthers Kerala Preservation Projects
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM) member and architect Jay Waronker has concluded a productive working trip to India sponsored by ISJM with support from the Koret Foundation, during which he continued research on Kerala synagogues, and continued to work on ongoing projects of synagogue protection, preservation and public presentation.

Parur (Kerala), India. Synagogue interior. Photo: Jay Waronker.

During his stay, Waronker also met with officials of the Kerala Department of Tourism to help further plans for the restoration of the Parur synagogue. Work on the project, which includes restoration of the synagogue and an adjacent Jewish house, will begin this fall and be completed by the end of 2010.

According to Waronker, "although each of the seven surviving Cochin synagogues possesses unique qualities, particularly the Paradesi Synagogue since it is the only still functioning and fully intact sanctuary, it is the one at Parur, also called Paravoor, and located to the north of Kochi (Cochin), which is the most architecturally distinctive. While closed for a number of years and in derelict condition, it represents the most complete example of a synagogue incorporating the many influences of building design that shaped Kerala. With its chunam (polished lime) over laterite stone walls featuring restrained detail, wood floor and roof framing exposed at its deep eaves, and clay roof tiles covering its pitched surfaces, the Parur Synagogue is an archetypical example of the local thachusasthra style. As with other Cochin synagogues, it is made up of not one building but a collection of parts forming a distinct compound. Parur is notable for having the greatest number of connected and consecutive pieces which have survived fully intact, albeit rotting and crumbling. Unique to this synagogue is the way its parts are formally arranged and linked in a highly axial and ceremonial fashion."

The Kerala government has also invited waronker and his team to coordinate an exhibtion on the history of the Parur community, which will be housed in the restored synagogue and adjacent Jewish residence.

While in Kerala, helping to facilitate the Parur restoration, Waronker also wrote and supervised the installation of heritage plaques about the history and architecture of the closed Kadavumbhagam and Tekkumbhagam Synagogues in Ernakulam and for the closed Kadavumbhagam Synagogue in Jew Town/Mattancherry. These tri-lingual signs have been posted on the building exteriors for the benefit of visitors.

Installation of heritage plaques at (former) Kadavumbhagam Synagogue in Ernakulam.
Photos: Jay Waronker

He also wrote and had printed an information sheet on the architectural and religious features of the restored Chennamangalam synagogue which will be distributed free of charge to visitors. Kerala Department of Archeology officials report that during high season nearly 200 people a day visit the synagogue/museum. Waronker also updated and printed new copies of a brochure in both English and Malayalam that he first produced in collaboration with Dr. Shalva Weil of the Hebrew University and Marian Sofaer of Palo Alto, CA, on the social and architectural history of the Chennamangalam synagogue.

Waronker had previously helped plan the permanent exhibition in this synagogue, and on this visit he met with the new director of the Kerala Department of Archeology to review tasks that were never completed during the previous restoration phase, including the hanging of traditional lanterns and lights. As a result of these discussions, Waronker will also join a team of Indo-Judaic scholars in planning a permanent exhibition on the history of the Kerala Jews in a still to-be-built museum as a part of the impressive Muziris Heritage Site project.

While in Kerala, Waronker also interviewed various Kerala Jews to learn even more about the history of the synagogues and re-visited all seven of Kerala's synagogues, photographing and noting their current conditions. ISJM - through the work of Jay Waronker and other researchers and preservationists, will continue to be engaged in India.

Publication: New Book on Jews of Kerala (India)

Publication: New Book on Jews of Kerala (India)

(ISJM) Just as ISJM begins a new project move forward the conservation of the historic synagogue of Parur, Kerala (India), a new book has been published by British-Indian journalist Edna Fernandes about this past, present and future of the very small community of Jews that still calls Kerala home.

The Last Jews of Kerala by Edna Fernandes (Penguin Books India, 205 pp, 450 Rps) [ISBN 978-0670081479] is unique in that it is directed at an Indian audience as well as an international one.

A recent review in the Bangkok Post says that:

Fernandes first came across the Jews of Cochin on her first visit to Kerala in 2002, and went back there in 2006 to see and feel how the two sides lived. After interviewing people there and in Israel, at times hearing unsolicited confessions, and consulting archives and diaries, she has produced a book that brings alive the predicament of a diaspora weighed down by tradition and prejudice.

In 12 chapters, she relates the history, culture and beliefs of two groups that stayed apart for too long, although physically they lived only 40 minutes apart. The pardesi (foreign, or white) Jews arrived later than the Malabar (black) Jews, but used the surrounding Hindu caste system as a model for claiming greater privileges.

She weaves into the book the findings of well-known authorities - including Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz, Nathan Katz, Ellen S. Goldberg and David Mandelbaum. But apparently influential on the thrust of her story is Rabbi Rabinowitz's article for the Far East Mission in 1952. The rabbi noted that "irrational prejudices take precedence over law and logic and ethics" among Jews in Cochin

Click here for the full review.

There have been many books and articles written about the Jews of Kerela. There seems nothing like a good "Last Jews of..." story to attract the pack journalists. To mind mind the best book on the topic remains

The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India by Nathan Katz and Ellen Goldberg (University of South Carolina Press, 1993).

ISJM Receives Koret Foundation Funding for Indian Synagogue

Synagogue at Parur (Kerala), India. Photos: Jay Waronker

ISJM Receives Koret Foundation Funding for Indian Synagogue
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) The International Survey of Jewish Monuments is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant from the Koret Foundation to assist in planning efforts to protect and preserve the historic synagogue of Parur, Kerala, India.

ISJM member Jay A. Waronker, an architect from Atlanta and Ithaca, NY, is working on behalf of the Association of Kerala Jews in India to initiate a formal effort to restore the very derelict synagogue of Parur, located an hour away from Kochi (Cochin). According to the building's inscription, the synagogue was built in 1616, and for many years it served the local Jewish community before all immigrated mostly to Israel beginning in the 1950s.

According to Waronker, “The now-closed synagogue complex consists of a series of parts linked axially by a gatehouse, walled outdoor spaces, covered passageways, and a succession of rooms. The result is a highly dramatic and memorable spatial experience. The synagogue of Parur was built in the traditional style of Kerala that combines whitewashed chunam (polished lime) over laterite (a soft reddish-brown local stone) walls, timber framing, deep-eaved roofs covered with terra-cotta tiles, wooden latticed screens, and large shuttered windows. Drawing from the vernacular design of the region, the influences of the Portuguese and Dutch imperialists, Hindu and other religious building practices, (and perhaps even descriptions of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem), the Parur synagogue then combines Jewish liturgical elements resulting in a distinct approach to synagogue architecture.”

Waronker has spent several years documenting the thirty-four synagogues throughout India, including the seven found in various states of preservation and function in Kerala, and his work and watercolor renderings of the buildings have been well published and exhibited. An essay detailing the architecture of the synagogue in Parur can be found in the 2009 Indo-Judaic Studies Journal.

A preservation plan for the building was drawn two years ago by Indian conservation firm Thampy and Thampy. This same firm beautifully restored the nearby synagogue of Chennamangalam for Kerala office of the Indian Department of Archeology a few years ago. But until issues concerning project management, subsequent ownership, and long-term care and access to the building are resolved, it is premature to initiate work. Still, in anticipation of a successful outcome to Waronker’s work in India this summer, ISJM and the Association of Kerala Jews welcome pledges of funding support for restoration work.

For those interested in the project, including how they can assist, please contact Waronker at jayawaronker@aol.com or ISJM.