Thread by @HistoricalJW

Jewish ethnic divisions- Cochin Jews (Thread)

Cochin Jews is the oldest group of Jews in India, and also the smallest one. The origin of the Jewish community claimed to be since the time of King Solomon. Another suggestion is that they arrived in India a few hundred years later.

Several historians claim that the community migrated to the region of India about 722-727BC following Shalmaneser V, king of Assyria who conquered Kingdom of Israel, and its capital Samaria.

Another claim is that in 70CE with the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews escaped to India and settled in the city of Cochin.
Despite the community's historical claims, the first documentation of the presence of Jews in there is found only in the tenth century.

Another speculation is that the Jews of Cochin are in fact Yemenite Jews who immigrated to the area due to trade and marketing. Cochin Jewish prayers are very similar to Yemenite Jewish prayers and so is their appearance.

Although the small Jewish community was almost completely distinct and distanced from the rest of the Jewish communities in the world, in the 12th century, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela documented that the Jews in Cochin keep the Torah, and follow the Jewish laws.

According to a local Christian legend, the Jewish community in Cochin numbered about 20,000 Jews but were persecuted and many were forced to convert to Christianity, today there’s a Christian community which claims Jewish roots.

In the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, a few immigrated to Cochin and established a new Jewish community. Between the old Cochin Jewish community to the new Sephardic community there was a gloomy relationship, the two communities hardly mixed with each other.

The Jews of Cochin were mainly engaged in trade, they spoke Judeo-Malayalam and used to marry at a young age among the members of the community in order to prevent the assimilation of the Jews with the local population.

Although the community claim to be Jewish, until recently the genetic studies has shown they’re linked to the Levant but also genetically closer to the local Indian people.
In contrast to Bene Yisrael (Indian Jewish community whose DNA was more clearly linked to the Middle East).

In a recent study with more advanced technology, it was found that Cochin Jews are genetically closely related to both the Indian population and the Jewish populations such as Yemenite, Iraqi and Syrian.

The community numbers less than 7,000 people with the vast majority living in Israel. Among the elders of the community, there’s a fear that the community will become extinct because the intermarriage of Cochin younger generation with Israeli Jews from different backgrounds.