INDIA - The Last Jews of Cochin

As the sun set over Kochi’s historic Jew Town neighborhood, Keith Hallegua donned a gray kippah and began a solitary walk to the synagogue at the end of his cobbled street.

Hallegua is the synagogue’s last local congregant—the only Jew left in Jew Town.

They ache for what’s already gone and work to preserve what’s left.

In the 1950s, much of the Jewish community in Kochi (historically known as Cochin), a seaport on India’s southwestern coast, immigrated to Israel. They left behind their homes, synagogues and cemeteries, including those in Jew Town, which has long-been the official name of the neighborhood.

Hallegua and Elias Josephai stayed. Now they represent the final chapter for the Cochin Jews who have lived peacefully—and without fear of antisemitism—for centuries alongside Hindu, Muslim and Christian neighbors. There are now fewer than 5,000 Jews in all of India, the world’s most populous country.

Earlier this year, synagogue leaders opened a museum showcasing Kochi’s Jewish history. It features the settlement’s original deed: two copper plates bearing a Hindu king’s charter from 1000 CE granting the community religious freedom.

[Hallegua’s] mind teems with memories. Singing the Paradesi Jewish tunes that blended Sephardic chants with local folk elements. The aroma of his mother’s chili chicken. His grandmother’s frantic cleaning ahead of Passover, Hallegua’s favorite season. The new clothes for Rosh Hashanah.

-apnews.com, 7 August 2026

Commentary: From the few excerpts of this AP News article, the sadness is self-evident. The 450-year-old synagogue, built before the USA existed, testifies to Jewish resilience on the one hand; and on the other, the dwindling Jewish population from the highs of about 30,000 before 1948.

What is noticeable is the sentence, “…Cochin Jews who have lived peacefully—and without fear of antisemitism—for centuries alongside Hindu, Muslim and Christian neighbors.” Obviously, those days are over. Instead, national religious fervor has gripped the world. In India, Hinduism. and in Pakistan, Islam.

We would be remiss not to mention that Churchianity, particularly in the USA, is also strongly nationalistic.

The real Church, however, is different: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29).

(See Israel and the Church, Item #2376, $16.99.)