Editing Cochin Jews (section)

===1660 to independence===
[[File:57Cochin White Jew Town.jpg|right|thumb|Photo identified as "White Jew town", Cochin, 1913]]
The [[Paradesi Jews]], also called "White Jews", settled in the Cochin region in the 16th century and later, following the [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain|expulsion from Iberia]] due to forced conversion and religious persecution in Spain and then Portugal. Some fled north to [[Holland]] but the majority [[History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire|fled east to the Ottoman Empire]]. Both "Black Jews" and the "White Jews" (the Spanish Jews) of Malabar claimed that they are the true inheritors of the old Jewish culture.<ref name=":22">"Further Studies in the Jewish Copper Plates of Cochin", ''Indian Historical Review'', vol. 29, no. 1–2, Jan. 2002, pp. 66–76, doi:10.1177/037698360202900204.</ref>

Some went beyond that territory, including a few families who followed the Arab [[Spice trade|spice routes]] to southern India. Speaking [[Ladino language]] and having [[Sephardic]] customs, they found the Malabari Jewish community as established in Cochin to be quite different. According to the historian Mandelbaum, there were resulting tensions between the two ethnic communities.<ref>Cited on p 51 in ''The Last Jews of Kerala''</ref> The European Jews had some trade links to Europe and useful languages to conduct international trade <ref name=":0" />

When the Portuguese occupied the [[Kingdom of Cochin]], they allegedly discriminated against its Jews. Nevertheless, to some extent they shared language and culture, so ever more Jews came to live under Portuguese rule (actually under the Spanish crown, again, between 1580 and 1640). The Protestant Dutch killed the raja of Cochin, allied of the Portuguese, plus sixteen hundred Indians in 1662, during their siege of Cochin. The Jews, having supported the Dutch military attempt, suffered the murderous retaliation of both the Portuguese and Malabar populations. A year later, the second Dutch siege was successful and, after slaughtering the Portuguese, they demolished most Catholic churches or turned them into Protestant churches (not sparing the one where Vasco da Gama had been buried). They were more tolerant of Jews, having granted asylum claims in the Netherlands. (See the [[Goa Inquisition]] for the situation of Jews in nearby [[Goa]].)<ref>'''Weil, S.''' 2020 (ed.) ''[https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Goa-Shalva-Weil/dp/9389755778 The Jews of Goa]'', New Delhi: Primus Books.</ref>

The Paradesi Jews built their own house of worship, the [[Paradesi Synagogue]]. The latter group was very small by comparison to the Malabaris. Both groups practiced [[endogamous]] marriage, maintaining their distinctions. Both communities claimed special privileges and the greater status over each other.<ref>[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4435-cochin "Cochin Jews"], ''Indian Express''. Accessed 13 December 2008.</ref>
[[File:"Juifs_noirs"_03.jpg|thumb|Cochin Jewish children in 1936]]
In the early 20th century, [[Abraham Barak Salem]] (1882–1967), a young lawyer who became known as a "Jewish Gandhi", worked to end the discrimination against ''meshuchrarim'' Jews. Inspired by Indian nationalism and Zionism, he also tried to reconcile the divisions among the Cochin Jews.<ref>[http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-kochi-dream-died-in-mumbai/397831/0 "A Kochi dream died in Mumbai"]. ''Indian Express'', 13 December 2008.</ref> He became both an [[Indian nationalism|Indian nationalist]] and Zionist. His family were descended from ''meshuchrarim''. The Hebrew word denoted a [[manumission|manumitted]] slave, and was at times used in a derogatory way. Salem fought against the discrimination by boycotting the Paradesi Synagogue for a time. He also used ''[[satyagraha]]'' to combat the social discrimination. According to Mandelbaum, by the mid-1930s many of the old taboos had fallen with a changing society.<ref>Katz, ''The Last Jews of Kerala'', p. 164</ref>