Last Cochin Jews: Two Men Fight to Keep Kochi's Centuries-Old Jewish Heritage Alive

As dusk settles over Kochi's historic Jew Town, two men carry the weight of an ancient community's memory. Keith Hallegua and Elias "Babu" Josephai maintain the Paradesi and Kadavumbagam synagogues respectively, preserving rituals, buildings and stories as the living Jewish population in the region dwindles.

Last Guardians of Jew Town

Hallegua, wearing a gray kippah, still walks the cobbled lane to the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue to pray—even though he usually cannot form a minyan (the quorum of ten men required for communal services). He is the last regular local congregant in the neighborhood known as Jew Town.

Josephai tends to the 12th-century Kadavumbagam Synagogue in nearby Ernakulam. After helping to restore it following vandalism, he keeps an oil lamp burning before the ark, assembles lamps for festivals and often leads prayers alone. "That will never come back," he says of the lively congregations of the past.

Exodus and a Complex Legacy

Most Cochin Jews left for Israel in the 1950s, taking with them much of the community's daily life and leaving behind homes, synagogues and cemeteries. Today, fewer than 5,000 Jews live across all of India.

The Cochin Jewish community's history combines long periods of religious tolerance with internal divisions. The Paradesi Jews—Sephardic, lighter-skinned families whose ancestors fled the 16th-century Iberian expulsions—once dominated the community. Their freed enslaved people, the Meshuchrarim, and the darker-skinned Malabari Jews, who trace a local presence back centuries, faced discrimination and unequal status. Those divisions have largely faded in memory but remain part of the community's legacy.

Preservation Across Faiths

Local Hindus, Muslims and Christians play key roles in preserving Jewish heritage. M.C. Praveen, a Hindu trustee who grew up in Jew Town, helps run the Paradesi Synagogue and the new museum. Thaha Ibrahim, a Muslim, inherited an embroidery shop and continues to close it on Saturdays and light Shabbat candles, maintaining the craft he learned from the late Sarah Cohen. Donations and assistance for synagogue restorations have come from people of many faiths—Muslim, Christian and Hindu alike.

The Paradesi Synagogue features blue-and-white Chinese porcelain tiles, 19th-century Belgian crystal chandeliers, colorful glass lanterns and a carved teak Torah ark oriented toward Jerusalem. The Kadavumbagam Synagogue, rebuilt and renovated, contains handcrafted tilework and a red-and-gold ark; Josephai hopes a Jewish organization will eventually take stewardship of the site, its library and the museum he is assembling.

Memory, Identity, and an Uncertain Future

Both men say their work is motivated by family obligations, faith and a desire to keep memory alive. Hallegua remained in Kochi to care for his mother and brother. Josephai pledged to keep the synagogue's doors and prayers open on behalf of his grandmother. Yet both worry that, when they are gone, so will many living links to Cochin's Jewish past.

"I was born a Jew in India and I shall die in India, a Jew," Hallegua says. Josephai adds, "Once I'm gone, there is no one who can tell these stories."

Efforts underway—restorations, a museum showcasing an ancient charter granting religious freedom, and interfaith stewardship—give the community's history a chance to survive beyond memory. Still, the fate of many traditions and personal recollections depends on whether new stewards step forward.

Keith Hallegua, a Paradesi Jew, stands next to his dining table as his cat walks past at his home in the historic Jew Town neighborhood of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Elias Josephai, a Malabari Jew, speaks to his guests at the 12th-century Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Ernakulam, mainland district of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

A nun walks through the main hall with its blue-and-white Chinese porcelain tile floor at the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue in the historic Jew Town neighborhood of Kochi, India, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Visitors walk past a sign featuring a map of Kochi and details about the Paradesi Synagogue and the Jewish cemetery in the historic Jew Town neighborhood of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Keith Hallegua, a Paradesi Jew, speaks to The Associated Press at his home in the historic Jew Town neighborhood of Kochi, India, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

An Indian man prostrates himself in a traditional Hindu gesture of obeisance to the Torah ark during his visit to the 12th-century Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Ernakulam, mainland district of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Keith Hallegua, center, walks past a handicrafts store toward the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue in the historic Jew Town neighborhood of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Elias Josephai, a Malabari Jew, wipes away tears while speaking to The Associated Press at the 12th-century Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Ernakulam, mainland district of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Elias Josephai, a Malabari Jew, speaks to The Associated Press at the 12th-century Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Ernakulam, mainland district of Kochi, India, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

An iron stand with a message at the entrance to the historic Jew Town neighborhood of Kochi, India, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)