Not many know about the Kadavumbhagam Jewish synagogue, which sits quietly hidden behind a plant nursery in Kochi, between Market Road and Broadway. The synagogue is not internationally known like the one at Mattancherry, but amazes you with its architectural beauty, once you step inside.
Last week, the caretakers of the synagogue, Josephai Babu Elias and Ofera Elias, celebrated the Jewish festival Hanukkah all by themselves at the synagogue. Every evening after sundown from December 14 to 20, Josephai lit the customary Hanukkah lamp placed at the entrance, reading from the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, thereafter. The lamp has eight wicks, and each evening, one additional wick is lit till the last day, when all eight are lit.
“The lamp commemorates a miracle; it was lit with oil for just one day but lasted for eight days. During Hanukkah, it is kept at the entrance of every home and synagogue so that the light falls on it,” says Ofera.
Hanukkah is one of the most important of Jewish festivals, and is usually celebrated by families getting together to exchange gifts, have specially prepared foods, sing hymns and play the dreidal, a kind of dice game. For Josephai and Ofera, their two daughters have moved to Mumbai and Israel respectively, and so there isn’t much of a celebration.
But Josephai remembers how they used to burst crackers during Hanukkah, in his childhood. “We never had a dreidal but played a board game brought from Iraq, with manjadi seeds. My mother used to make pastel and hubba, rice stuffed in onion.”
He is also one of the only four people in Kochi who know to read the Torah today. “When I was small, my grandmother would try to get me and my brother to read the Torah with her and learn Hebrew better but we were least interested and would doze off. I regret not mastering it now,” he says.
Ofera grew up in Mumbai, among a large Jewish community and also studied in a Jewish school, so she too has learnt Hebrew. “For Hanukkah, we would make foods made in oil and celebrate together. This time, I just made batata fritters. If friends visit us from Israel, they bring us chocolate gold coins which are gifted during Hanukkah. This time, there were no visitors, though,” she says.
The synagogue, which dates back to 1200 AD, has seen numerous burglaries and renovations before reaching its current state. Looked after by a trust made of Josephai and his brothers, its pillars on the front face the direction of Jerusalem, and the 10 huge windows signify the Ten Commandments. The balcony upstairs was where women used to be seated, away from the vision of the men. The rooms in the front housed a Hebrew medium school, till 1948. “Thieves destroyed the building and stole the original brass lamps. I have ordered new ones from Israel. I have also re-laid the floor tiles, with handmade ones from Karaikudy, Tamil Nadu.”
Any Jew can drop in and offer their prayers at the synagogue, and often, foreign tourists from Israel drop by, they say.
Doesn’t Josephai wish to move to Israel as well? “At the age of 14, I wanted to, but my grandmother stopped me as she wanted someone to conduct the rites, as my father had died two years ago. In 1983, I tried to move again, but was again stopped, by my mother.”