A milestone event for Jewish-Indian culture in Israel as foundation stone laid for the Heritage and Cultural Center of Indian Jews Premium

Hundreds of attendants gathered for the laying of the foundation stone for the Heritage and Cultural Center of Indian Jews, right across the lawn from the Cochin Jewish Heritage Center, in Nevatim, Israel, on June 8, 2023.

The Moshav (agricultural village) of Nevatim lies in the Negev desert east of Be’er Sheba, amid scenery reminiscent more of Rajasthan than the native Cochin of its founders. On Thursday afternoon, (June 8) the elders of this famous Indian Israeli hamlet prepared for a long-awaited event that would make local history. Dressed in their best Indian finery, they decked a podium in marigolds, arranged platters of Laddu and tea, and arranged rows of chairs on the lawn for guests.

Hundreds of attendants gathered for the laying of the foundation stone for the Heritage and Cultural Center of Indian Jews, right across the lawn from the Cochin Jewish Heritage Center. The multi-million-dollar project is spread across three acres of land and will have a museum, conference and events hall, and an Indian tropical garden, encapsulated in a lotus-stem shaped complex, designed by leading Israeli architects, Professor Zvi Efrat and Meira Kozlovsky of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. The first stage of its construction will see the coming up of a 300-seat multipurpose hall, slated for completion in 2024.

Guests arrived from all four Jewish-Indian communities: Cochinis, Bnei Israel, Baghdadis and Bnei Menashe.

In turn, the Israeli-born generation of community leaders took to the podium and addressed the audience with brief speeches delivered in Hebrew, translated into English, and even Marathi. Devotional hymns were sung in all four respective traditions, in Hebrew, English, Malayalam, and Kuki.

The origins of Jewish presence in India are debated among historians, but they go back almost 2,000 years, at least. In 1968, Cochini Jews celebrated bimillennial anniversary to the community. There are currently 80,000-95,000 Jews of Indian descent living in Israel.

One reason this event is historic was the joyous participation of all four Jewish-Indian communities. The festivities symbolised not only the rise of Israel-India relations, but also internal reconciliation among Indian Jews, where internal feuding and communal acrimony along the lines of caste and class go back hundreds of years.

In 1520, a letter was sent to Cairo, to Rabbi David ben Zimrah, one of the leading authorities of the day on Jewish law, to adjudicate a dispute between the two factions of Cochini Jews, Malabaris and Paradesis, otherwise known as Black Jews and White Jews. The former claimed the latter were not local Jews, but immigrants from European Jewry, and therefore not entitled to their upper-caste privileges granted by the Maharaja of Malabar. The latter group, who penned the letter, claimed that the Black Jews were not of pure Jewish pedigree and were descendants of mixed marriages with local Hindus. Rabbi Ben Zimrah outlined a plan to restore the peace, but it was not implemented.