Editing Jewish diaspora (section)

====Paradesi Jews====
{{Main|Paradesi Jews}}
Paradesi Jews are mainly the descendants of [[Sephardic]] Jews who originally immigrated to India from Sepharad (Spain and Portugal) during the 15th and 16th centuries in order to flee forced conversion or persecution in the wake of the [[Alhambra Decree]] which expelled the Jews from Spain. They are sometimes referred to as White Jews, although that usage is generally considered pejorative or discriminatory and it is instead used to refer to relatively recent Jewish immigrants (end of the 15th century onwards), who are predominantly Sephardim.<ref name="Orpa Slapak"/>

The Paradesi Jews of Cochin are a community of Sephardic Jews whose ancestors settled among the larger [[Cochin Jews|Cochin Jewish]] community located in [[Kerala]], a coastal southern state of India.<ref name="Orpa Slapak">The Jews of India: A Story of Three Communities by Orpa Slapak. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. 2003. p. 28. {{ISBN|965-278-179-7}}.</ref>

The Paradesi Jews of [[Madras]] traded in diamonds, precious stones and corals, they had very good relations with the rulers of Golkonda, they maintained trade connections with Europe, and their language skills were useful. Although the Sephardim spoke [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]] (i.e. Spanish or Judeo-Spanish), in India they learned to speak [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Judeo-Malayalam]] from the Malabar Jews.<ref name=Katz-Koder-Puthiakunnel>Katz 2000; Koder 1973; Thomas Puthiakunnel 1973</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2016}}