Judaism in India: Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, and Baghdadi Jews

India is home to several distinct Jewish communities, each arriving at a different time and settling in a different region. All found a place to practise their faith without the persecution seen elsewhere.

MCQ Questions

Art and Culture

Judaism in India

Three communities, three eras, three regions — none facing the persecution seen elsewhere

Cochin Jews

Kerala coast, ancient

One of India’s oldest Jewish communities

Paradesi Synagogue (16th c.) — among the oldest active in the Commonwealth

Bene Israel

Konkan coast, Maharashtra

Tradition holds arrival after a shipwreck

Historically oil pressers — “Shanivar Teli”

Baghdadi Jews

Calcutta & Bombay, 18th-19th c.

Arrived later, as merchants

Sassoon family — major Bombay trading and philanthropic legacy

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Must Know

• The Cochin Jews are one of India’s oldest Jewish communities. They settled on the Kerala coast many centuries ago, developing a distinct local Jewish culture.
• The Paradesi Synagogue in Cochin, built in the 16th century, is one of the oldest active synagogues in the Commonwealth of Nations. It remains a symbol of the community’s long presence.
• The Bene Israel community settled along the Konkan coast, in present-day Maharashtra. Tradition holds they arrived after a shipwreck, and many worked historically as oil pressers.
• Baghdadi Jews arrived in India much later, mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. They settled as merchants chiefly in Calcutta and Bombay.
• The Sassoon family, prominent Baghdadi Jewish merchants, built major trading and philanthropic institutions in Bombay. Their name remains attached to several landmarks in the city today.

Good to Know

• India’s three main Jewish communities — Cochin Jews, Bene Israel, and Baghdadi Jews — arrived in different eras and settled in different regions. Each developed its own distinct local customs, rather than forming one single unified community.
• The Bene Israel’s occupation as oil pressers gave them a distinctive local nickname, “Shanivar Teli” (Saturday oil pressers), reflecting their observance of the Sabbath alongside their traditional trade.
• The Sassoon family’s institution-building in Bombay reflects a broader pattern seen among Baghdadi Jewish merchants across Asia. Trade wealth was often reinvested into local philanthropy and civic infrastructure.

Test Yourself

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1. The Cochin Jews, one of India’s oldest Jewish communities who developed a distinct local Jewish culture over many centuries, settled on the coast of which present-day state?

Kerala

Gujarat

Maharashtra

Tamil Nadu

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Great to Know

• That three separate Jewish communities, arriving centuries apart, could each settle in India without facing the sustained persecution seen in much of Europe and the Middle East is often cited as a distinctive feature of India’s historical religious tolerance.
• The very different social profiles of these three communities — an ancient coastal trading community, a smaller agrarian-artisan community, and a later urban merchant elite — show that “Indian Jewish history” is really several distinct regional histories, not a single unified narrative.