THE THEKKUMBHAGOM SYNAGOGUE (1580 AD) OF ERNAKULAM.

For an updated (February, 2024) post on this synagogue, see the link here. 

Positioned in a remote corner near the crowded ‘Ernakulam Market’ is the abandoned sanctuary of ‘Thekkumbhagom Synagogue’. The synagogue’s main entrance is from the southern side in the ‘Jew Street’ of Ernakulam. It can be easily missed unless you spot a small gap between the long rows of congested shops in this crowded street. To be more specific, the main entrance to the synagogue is about 100 feet east of the ‘Jew Street-Broadway’ intersection, and situated between the shops, C K Mathew & Sons and Fancy Stores in the ‘Jew Street' (See here and here)

 The Location of Thekkumbhagom Synagogue of Ernakulam

 Courtesy, Google Maps

 

The entrance is guarded by a closed iron gate with signboards and a heritage plaque describing the history of the synagogue and contact details for accessing the site.  From the gate, a narrow path goes inside and you can notice the corner of a yellow three-storey building at the end, which is the only portion of synagogue visible to the public today. When I was visiting the area, the alley was blocked by garbage, weeds and dead branches of a nearby tree. The synagogue is presently maintained by the Association of Kerala Jews, but due to internal conflicts within the local Jewish community, the monument is difficult to access. Most probably you may have to be contended with views from the closed gate. In addition to this, during week days, the space in front of the synagogue is blocked and turned into a two-wheeler parking lot, making the situation even worse to obtain a view from outside. However, not many are aware of a synagogue entrance from the northern side that is almost hidden behind the ‘Ernakulam Market’. The entrance (also closed) can be spotted, if you are lucky to trace a narrow pocket road connecting the synagogue to the market area. Although, the northern entrance looks more messy and isolated, it gives a full view of the closed synagogue building from the back. In front of the entrance is a signboard in Malayalam that says: ‘This way goes to the Synagogue. Do not dirty this place’'.

Jono David has some excellent photographs taken in 2009, from both the interior and exterior of the synagogue here. You can see that the synagogue is virtually empty, and perhaps the upper gallery and the staircase leading to it are the only original structures remaining now. The traditional 16^th century Torah Ark, Bima (pulpit) and other inside furnishings of the Thekkumbhagom synagogue were brought to Israel in 1970s and incorporated to the Moshav Nevatim’s Synagogue (near Be’er Sheva, Israel), built in the traditional Kerala style. Here is an online link for some nice photographs taken from the Nevatim Synagogue displaying the Thekkumbhagom Torah Ark and Bima. 

History of the Synagogue 

The present Thekkumbhagom Synagogue of Ernakulam is mostly a renovated structure from the late 1930s. The original synagogue is said to be established in 1580 AD and modeled after the 12^th century Parur Synagogue. According to a tradition, the land where the present synagogue stands was gifted to the Malabari Jews of Ernakulam by the Rajah of Cochin. The story behind this warm gesture is discussed earlier in the blog (see the Ernakulam Jew Street and the story of ‘Bell Thieves’). In 1711, the Malabari Jews received a grant of land in Ernakulam from the Rajah of Cochin. Rev. James Henry Lord records (1907) that it was addressed to ‘the 64 Jews of Naikar of Kadavoo (Kadavumbhagom) at Ernakulam’ (The Jews in India and the Far East, p.78, 86, 100). A certain other tradition dates the presence of an even earlier synagogue in the site from 1200 AD, wherein the credit for building the synagogue is given to the Jews of Cranganore, who settled in Ernakulam after Muslims attacked their city in 1154. The heritage plaque placed in the entrance of the synagogue gives the date 1200 AD. It would be interesting to note that the adjacent Kadavumbhagom synagogue of Ernakulam also dates its establishment from 1200 AD. However, it is unlikely that Ernakulam had two synagogues from 13^th century, as only after the formation of a harbor in 1341 that Cochin and the surrounding places including Ernakulam developed.

Ernakulam Jews and their statistics 
The earliest documented evidence for the existence of Thekkumbhagom and Kadavumbhagom synagogues in Ernakulam is from the writings of the Dutch Jew, Moses Pereyra de Paiva who visited Cochin in 1686 and published a report, ‘Notisias Dos Judeos De Cochim’ in 1687. In this report, de Paiva refers to 9 Malabari synagogues in Kerala, and two of them were in Anguicaymal (Ernakulam). He visited both the synagogues of Ernakulam on 25^th November, 1686 and recorded 150 Jewish families, but finds the congregants of ‘poor people’. A letter written by the famous Paradesi Jew, Ezekiel Rahabi II (1694-1771) to the Dutch banker Tobias Boas in 1768, enumerated 100 Jewish families in Ernakulam. A century after de Paiva’s visit to Cochin, in 1781, the Dutch Governor of Cochin, Adriaan Moens confirmed Ezekiel Rahabi’s observation and wrote: ‘at Anjecaimal (Ernaculam) they possess a little over 100 houses and two synagogues’.  Nearly eight decades after Moen’s visit, the Jewish emissary Jacob Saphir reached Kerala in 1860, and catalogued 120 Jewish families in Ernakulam in his book ‘Even Saphir’ (1866). All these reports account for the number of Jewish families, but do not give the number of people.

One of the earliest record for the number of ‘Ernakulam Jews’ is a report given by the Church of England missionary, Rev. Thomas Dawson who visited Kerala in 1817. Dawson’s account based on the information collected from the Paradesi Jew, Moses Isarphaty gives 286 Jews (152 males and 134 females) in Ernakulam out of a total 1,529 Jews in Kerala (Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East, 1819, p.330). About two decades later, the numbers had changed; thus in 1839, Ernakulam had only 193 Jews (85 males, including children & 108 females, including children) living in 52 houses out of a total of 1,039 Jews in Kerala (The Calcutta Christian Observer, 1839, Vol VIII, p.660). By 1848, we have at least two independent observations that retain the number of Jewish population in Ernakulam at 193, but with different estimates for the total number of Jews in Kerala, viz. 973 (Star of Jacob, Rev. Moses Margoliouth, 1847 edition, p. 61) and  1,344 (J B Segal, History of the Jews of Kerala, 1993, p.89), respectively. According to a survey in 1857, the number of ‘Ernakulam Jews’ had suddenly increased to 353, and the total number of Jews in Kerala were 1,790 (J B Segal, A History of the Jews of Kerala, 1993, p.89). 

From 1891 onwards, we can rely on the Census of India Reports (updated and published  every decade since then) for a more authentic estimate of the Jewish population in Ernakulam. The 1891 census accounted 427 Jews in Ernakulam, but in 1901, the figures had slightly fallen to 412 Jews (209 males and 203 females). By 1911, there were 488 'Ernakulam Jews' (248 males and 240 females), that increased to 548 (287 males and 261 females) in the 1921 census estimates. During the 1931 census there were 644 Jews (335 males and 309 females) in Ernakulam. At the time of India’s Independence (1947) and Israel’s formation (1948), the population of Ernakulam Jews were at their peak. Their population is reported at a record high of 901 (out of 2,233) in 1948 by Eliya Ben Eliavoo and Shellim Samuel (The Synagogues of India, 1978, p.75).  In early 1950s, before the mass migration to Israel began; Dr. Rudolf Reitler also estimated 909 Jews in Ernakulam (Gilbert Kushner, Immigrants from India in Israel, 1973, p.15). The decline afterwards was so abrupt that, today the ‘Malabari Jews’ have reached almost on the verge of extinction in Kerala. In early 1950s, Dr. Reitler reported a total of 1,902 ‘Black Jews’ from five settlements, but today there are not more than 40 ‘Malabari Jews’ left in Kerala!

Structure of the Thekkumbhagom Synagogue 
We don’t have much information about the structure of the original synagogue as most of the present building is modern and substantially modified. Jay Waronker discusses in cochinsyn.com about a few unique architectural features of the earlier synagogue, that included; 1) a polished black floor made of a mixture of burned coconut shells, charcoal, lime, sugar cane or other plant juices, and egg whites; 2) a decorated threshold of polished granite stone and, 3) a fine courtyard built with prized charol sand taken from the local river bed (see more details here). An old Malayalam folksong collected from the previous Thekkumbhagom congregants, the ‘Ernakulam Thekkumbhagom Synagogue Song’, throws more light into the former synagogue’s structure. The 18-lined song depicts the synagogue as a precious and beautiful structure with four courtyards and a nice black pebbled path to it. The folksong compares the synagogue’s front side to a gem studded ring and the upper gallery to pearls in succession. It is not known if the pre-1939 Tekkumbagam Synagogue had a gatehouse or a connecting breezeway as observed in other typical synagogues of Kerala. More details about the present synagogue’s architecture are given also in the plaque installed at the entrance by the ‘Friends of Kerala Synagogues’ in July, 2009.

Thekkumbhagom  Synagogue after 1930s

The renovation of present synagogue started in 1936 and the effort was to have a larger and better sanctuary for the expanding congregation as the earlier synagogue was in a much dilapidated condition. However, Second World War broke out in 1939, the reconstruction got halted and things were never the same afterwards. Jay Waronker in cochinsyn.com shares an interesting event from that period: ‘There was even concern that the city would be bombed during World War II, and some Jews left Ernakulam temporarily for outlying small communities where fellow Malabari Jews resided’. Soon after the war, the modern State of Israel was established (1948) and Jews began flocking to their ancestral home. By 1955, aliyah (the return to Israel) picked momentum with the Kerala Jews, especially with the Malabari Jews. In fact, Ernakulam Jews were known for their early Zionist activities. In 1922, eight elders from the Kadavumbhagom and Thekkumbhagom synagogues of Ernakulam wrote to the British Zionist Federation expressing their desire to settle in Palestine (see Walter J. Fischel, Early Zionism in India, Herzl Year Book 4, 1962, p. 327-328). When the South African Rabbi, Louis Rabinowitz arrived in Kerala to campaign for the aliyah, he addressed the Ernakulam Jews in the courtyard of the Thekkumbhagom synagogue. Their response literally brought tears to his eyes and he quotes: ‘They gave of their last annas and made a magnificient response’ (Far East Mission, 1952, p. 138-139).

Once completed, Thekkumbhagom was supposed to be the largest synagogue in Kerala and may be even in India. Rabbi Louis Rabbinowitz visited the synagogue in 1951 and wrote: ‘the Tekum Bagam, has the largest vestibule of all the synagogues’  (Far East Mission, 1952, p.130). The Thekkumbhagom Jews soon realized that their new synagogue had no future in Ernakulam. The synagogue was left unattended with no further modification or restoration efforts. The plaque placed in front of the synagogue entrance gives 1948 as the rebuilding year. The synagogue was finally closed in 1954. In 1990s, with funding from some of its members, the synagogue was partially restored and used occasionally for religious and social gatherings. It housed a Jewish run poultry farm in early 1990s-records Nathan Katz and Ellen S. Goldberg (The Last Jews of Cochin, 1993, p.70)! Today, the synagogue remains locked and is rarely used for religious ceremonies or activities.

The Controversies over the synagogue
In May, 2009 there were reports about Thekkumbhagom synagogue of Ernakulam being put up for sale and deals done with a local developer who wanted to buy the property and tear down the building. However, the Association of Kerala Jews who takes care of the synagogue denied any such claims to be true. The Kerala government received a mass petition opposing the sale of Thekkumbhagom synagogue from 50 Jews in Israel of Kerala origin. There was a similar attempt to sell the Thekkumbhagom synagogue in July, 2011. The Malabari Jews in Israel blame members of the Jewish community in Kochi for illegally attempting to sell the synagogue, and regret the Indian Government’s insensitive attitude. In July, 2010 a plan to conserve the Thekkumbhagom synagogue as a national monument was submitted to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and nothing much has been heard thereafter.