Editing Jewish diaspora (section)

====Cochin Jews====
{{Main|Cochin Jews}}
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews, are the oldest group of [[Indian Jews|Jews in India]], with possible roots that are claimed to date back to the time of [[King Solomon]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qhKGPprbQaYC&q=two+millennia ''The Jews of India: A Story of Three Communities''] by Orpa Slapak. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. 2003. p. 27. {{ISBN|965-278-179-7}}.</ref><ref>Weil, Shalva. "Jews in India." in M. Avrum Erlich (ed.) ''Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora'', Santa Barbara, USA: ABC CLIO. 2008, 3: 1204-1212.</ref> The Cochin Jews settled in the [[Kingdom of Cochin]] in [[South India]],<ref>Weil, Shalva. ''India's Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art and Life-Cycle,'' Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2009. [first published in 2002; 3rd edn] Katz 2000; Koder 1973; Menachery 1998</ref> now part of the state of [[Kerala]].<ref>Weil, Shalva. "Cochin Jews", in Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember and Ian Skoggard (eds) ''Encyclopedia of World Cultures Supplement'', New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. pp. 78-80.</ref><ref>Weil, Shalva.  "Cochin Jews" in Judith Baskin (ed.)'' Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture'', New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. pp. 107.</ref> As early as the 12th century, mention is made of the Black Jews in southern India. The Jewish traveler, [[Benjamin of Tudela]], speaking of [[Kollam]] (Quilon) on the Malabar Coast, writes in his ''Itinerary'': "...throughout the island, including all the towns thereof, live several thousand Israelites. The inhabitants are all black, and the Jews also. The latter are good and benevolent. They know the [[law of Moses]] and the prophets, and to a small extent the [[Talmud]] and [[Halacha]]."<ref>''The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela'' (ed. Marcus Nathan Adler), Oxford University Press, London 1907, p. 65</ref> These people later became known as the Malabari Jews. They built synagogues in [[Kerala]] beginning in the 12th and 13th centuries.<ref name="isjm">Weil, Shalva. ''From Cochin to Israel''. Jerusalem: Kumu Berina, 1984. (Hebrew)</ref><ref>Weil, Shalva. "Kerala to restore 400-year-old Indian synagogue", ''The Jerusalem Post''. 2009.</ref> They are known to have developed [[Judeo-Malayalam]], a dialect of the [[Malayalam]] language.