THE KADAVUMBHAGOM SYNAGOGUE OF MATTANCHERRY-A Vanishing Heritage

The structure of the synagogue:  

For more details on the structure and history, see my earlier post (updated) here. The  Kadavumbhagom Synagogue of Mattancherry shares similar architectural features with other existing synagogues in Kerala. The synagogue is aligned in the east to west direction. The complex begins with a double-storied gatehouse at the eastern end followed most probably by a breezeway to a two-storied structure that opens into the main sanctuary building at the western end. The two-storied structure had a lower Azara or Anteroom, and an upper floor which is the women's seating room. The anteroom is the buffer space of the synagogue, mainly used as a waiting area and a place for storage. There was also a Hebrew school in the synagogue and I believe it was adjacent to the women's room or part of the upper floor of the gatehouse. Inside the main double-height long rectangular sanctuary building, was a central Tebah (Pulpit) and a beautifully carved wooden Heickal (Holy Ark), the holiest part of the synagogue where the Torah Scrolls were kept. The Ark was placed at the at the western wall facing Jerusalem. One of the prime attraction of the synagogue was the elegantly carved and painted ceiling woodwork. In addition, there was another pulpit inside the sanctuary at the eastern end. The second reading desk was part of the upper wooden balcony, reached by a staircase from inside the synagogue. An extra pulpit is unique to Kerala synagogues and was used on special occasions. The upper balcony is separated from the women's room by a latticework partition.  Access to the women's gallery was not inside the  sanctuary but through a staircase from the anteroom.

The synagogue before collapse: 

Soon after the synagogue was abandoned in 1950s, its gatehouse and breezeway were demolished during the road widening of Jew Street (1960s). A few decades later in 1991 its interior finishes including the wooden ceiling panels, the upper balcony, the Holy Ark, the Torah Scrolls, the pulpits, the staircases, the steps to the balcony etc. were dismantled and taken to Jerusalem. What was left from the  dilapidated building was an anteroom and the empty sanctuary building. The anteroom was enclosed initially, but the door was removed later. The wooden ceiling and the walls on north and south sides of the anteroom were intact. There was a wooden locked door at the south wall, but the entry from the north side wall was sealed. The anteroom was accessed from the east, however it lacked a door. The main entrance to the sanctuary building was from the western wall of the anteroom, which was also devoid of a door and was flanked by two large side window openings. The synagogue entrance was draped partially by a ugly blue coloured cloth and the side windows were covered by plastic sheets. The floor of the synagogue was very filthy, heavily littered with pigeon droppings and dumped with wooden planks and garbage. The sanctuary was completely empty, there was nothing worth to notice except for a Hebrew inscription above the lintel over the main entrance. Upon careful observation, two floral motifs can be seen engraved on the western wall of the sanctuary. The steeply slopped clay tiled roof however remained relatively intact. A few wooden panels and logs projected from the ceiling of the women's gallery as a leftover from the upper floor. The side and back courtyard areas were heavily overgrown and not navigable. A new residential complex (private) has appeared on the southern courtyard sometime recently.

The synagogue after collapse:  

The anteroom and roof were the worst affected parts. The wooden ceiling and eastern wall of the ante chamber have caved in.The western wall and the side walls are what all is left from the anteroom. Luckily, the Hebrew inscription is still retained  without damage. Whatever left of the women's room and upper balcony have disappeared. A major portion of the tiled roof at the eastern section is also heavily compromised, the remaining clay tiles are broken in many places, and with rainwater easily seeping in, a total collapse of the structure is a matter of time. When I  paid my first visit to the synagogue in 2011, I couldn't access the interior as the entrance was locked by a metal shutter door. The door went missing leaving the anteroom and main sanctuary exposed and unguarded by the time I visited the synagogue again on 2015 (The shutter door was removed when some portion of the front entrance was demolished on July, 2014).The structure had remained more or less the same until September 2019. 

Ownership disputes and current status of the synagogue
The exact circumstances that led to the synagogue's current situation is not very clear. The synagogue was abandoned in 1955, and it was left under the guardianship of the Paradesi Jewish community and the Mumbai (Bombay) Jewish Association. In 1965, the synagogue was rented out to Vanaja Traders, a firm involved in coir business, the deal was to take care of the property and permission to use a part of the synagogue for their trade purposes. Vanaja Traders purchased the synagogue in 1981 and around 10 years later sold the synagogue to  V. G. Antony through Mumbai Jewish Association. According to Jay Waronker (2010), Vanaja Traders bought the synagogue for 35,000 INR from S. S. Koder, who had the power of attorney to sell it. Antony sold the synagogue's interior furnishings which eventually landed in Israel Museum, Jerusalem through German-born British Jewish philanthropist Fred Worms. From V. G. Antony, the plot (2.82 cents + 8.68 cents = 11.5 cents) was purchased by the current owner, Mrs. Regina Tharian (K. J. Regina) in 1999.

From this time onwards, the developments are vague or uncertain.  Some allege that Regina bought the synagogue for 200,000 INR in 1999, and made a sale deed with P. K. Said of Mattancherry for 4, 500, 000 (INR) in 2014. The other more reliable narrative is that she sold around 2.82 cents to Mr. Munaf C. K., and the remaining land of 8.68 cents (3800 sq. ft.) along with the synagogue was mortgaged to the Punjab National Bank. The matter took a turn for the worse when she failed to repay the amount 3,420,000 INR (48,000 USD), and the bank decided to confiscate the land (I have personally seen the Bank notice on the walls of the synagogue). Since the synagogue was already declared as a protected monument on 30 January 2016, the Government of Kerala stepped in and took the matter seriously. In an order dated 20 June 2018, an amount of 9,145,000 INR (130,000 USD) was sanctioned to the Department of Archaeology to settle the dispute and take all measures to procure the land and protect the monument. Unfortunately, despite all these efforts, no proper actions were taken and the synagogue collapsed due to sheer neglect and apathy.

The following set of photographs will shed more light into how the synagogue what once was a grand structure is reduced to a pile of rubble. 

The above undated rare black and white photograph is unique as it captures the full synagogue complex with all its structural components. The photo depicts the north side of the synagogue, and you can see the double-storied gatehouse with a side door to the synagogue compound. Looking at the position of the boundary wall in the B & W photo and the side wall in the 2019 photograph (between the synagogue and the shop), you can have an idea about the length of the gatehouse, The photograph is definitely before 1960 and perhaps much earlier. I have included the yellow dotted line to mark the destruction in 1960s when the gatehouse and the breezeway were removed, and the red dotted line indicates the damage occurred during the recent event (2019).

 

The undated colour photograph (courtesy Moshav Nevatim) posted above is surely taken after 1977, since the windows in the front wall are all sealed which was not the case with Barbara Johnson's photograph (see previous post). By comparing with the photos taken in 2011 and 2017, we see that the synagogue's overall structure hasn't changed much, but the gable has been altered and the border outline of windows have disappeared. The closed black box like structure/shop? (1) and an open small shop (2) in the front of the northern courtyard of the synagogue is also absent in the later photos.