- Population
- 8,000
- Location
- Moshavim Nevatim, Shahar, Yuval, Mesilat Zion; Beersheba, Jerusalem and other cities
The Cochin Jews come from the Malabar coast of Kerala in southern India, where Jews lived for at least a thousand years under the protection of Hindu rulers, and almost the entire community moved to Israel in the 1950s. They were sent to farm, and still give their character to a string of villages from Yuval in the Upper Galilee to Nevatim in the Negev; with descendants they number about 8,000. Their heritage language is a Jewish form of Malayalam, kept alive mainly in the songs women sing at weddings and on Simchat Torah. In Nevatim a replica of a Cochin synagogue, built with fittings brought from Kerala, houses a heritage centre and a restaurant serving Cochini food.