Jewish Synagogue

 Jewish Synagogue

 Jewish Synagogue : or the Paradesi Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in theCommonwealth of Nations,[8] located in Kochi in South India. It was built in 1568 by theMalabar Yehudan people or Cochin Jewish community in the Kingdom of Cochin. It is also referred to as the Cochin Jewish Synagogue or the Mattancherry Synagogue. 

The synagogue is located in the quarter of Old Cochin known as Jew Town,[8] and is the only one of the seven synagogues in the area still in use. The complex has four buildings. 

It was built adjacent to the Mattancherry Palace temple on the land gifted to the Malabari Yehuden community by the Raja of Kochi, RamaVarma. The Mattancherry Palace temple and the Mattancherry synagogue share a common wall.

The Paradesi Synagogue is the oldest active[1] synagogue in theCommonwealth of Nations,[2] located in Kochi, Kerala, in South India. Constructed in 1568, it is one of seven synagogues of the Malabar Yehudanpeople or Cochin Jewish community in the Kingdom of Cochin. 

Paradesi is a word used in several Indian languages, and the literal meaning of the term is "foreigners", applied to the synagogue because it was historically used by "White Jews", a mixture of Jews from Cranganore, the Middle East, andEuropean exiles. It is also referred to as the Cochin Jewish Synagogue or theMattancherry Synagogue.

The synagogue is located in the quarter of Old Cochin known as Jew Town,[2]and is the only one of the seven synagogues in the area still in use. The complex has four buildings. It was built adjacent to the Mattancherry Palace temple on the land given to the Malabari Yehuden community by the Raja of Kochi, Rama Varma[disambiguation needed]. The Mattancherry Palace temple and the Mattancherry synagogue share a common wall.

The Malabari Jews (also known as Cochin Jews) formed a prosperous trading community of Kerala, and they controlled a major portion of world wide spice trade. In 1568, the Jews of Kerala constructed the Paradesi Synagogue adjacent to Mattancherry Palace, Cochin, now part of the Indian city of Ernakulam, on land given to them by the Raja of Kochi. 

The original synagogue was built in the 4th century in Kodungallur (Cranganore) when the Jews had a mercantile role in the South Indian region (now called Kerala) along the Malabar coast. When the community moved to Kochi in the 14th century, it built a new synagogue there.

The Malabari Jews' first synagogue in Cochin was destroyed in the 16th century by the Portuguese persecution of the Jews andNasrani people. The second, built under the protection of the Raja of Cochin along with Dutch patronage, is the present synagogue, which is still in use for worship and can attract a minyan. 

It is called Paradesi synagogue because it was built with Dutch patronage; this contributed to the informal name: paradesi synagogue or "foreign" synagogue." In addition, a new Jewish group had immigrated to Kochi, Sephardim from the Iberian Peninsula. 

They and the Malabari Jews shared many aspects of their religion, and the newcomers learned the Judeo-Malayalam dialect, but the Sephardim also retained their own culture. By 1660 the Dutch ruled the Kochi area, calling it Dutch Malabar. In later years, the Paradesi Synagogue was used primarily by the Sephardim (who were also referred to as Paradesi) and their descendants, and later European exiled Jews.