Israel 70 | India 5+2 | |
 | ||
Paradesi Jews were originally Sephardic immigrants to India from Sepharad (Spain and Portugal) during the 15th and 16th centuries who fled conversion or persecution in the wake of the Alhambra Decree expelling Jews from Spain. They are sometimes referred to as White Jews, although that usage is generally considered pejorative or discriminatory and refers to relatively recent Jewish immigrants (end of the 15th century onward), predominantly Sephardim.
Contents
- History
- Paradesi Synagogues and Cemeteries
- Notable Chennai Paradesi Jews
- Places Named After Chennai Paradesi Jews
- References
Paradesi Jews of Cochin were mainly traders are a community of Sephardic Jews settled among the larger Cochin Jewish community located in Kerala, a coastal southern state of India.
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 to Europe, and their language skills were useful. Although the Sephardim spoke Ladino (i.e. Spanish or Judeo-Spanish), in India they learned Tamil and Judeo-Malayalam from the Malabar Jews.
History
The East India Company (EIC) wanted to break the monopoly of Portugal in trading with diamonds and precious stones from the mines of Golkonda. The EIC entered India around 1600 and had built Fort St. George (White Town) fortress by 1644 at the coastal city of Madras, now known as Chennai.
EIC policy permitted only its shareholders to trade in diamonds and precious stones from the mines. The Company considered the Madras Jews to be interlopers because they traded separately through their Jewish community connections.
Madras Jews specialised in diamonds, precious stones and corals. They had very good relations with the rulers of Golkonda and this was seen as beneficial to St. George, so Madras Jews were gradually accepted as honourable citizens of St. George/Madras.
Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia), originally from Amsterdam, was an early Jewish arrival and a leader of the community. He established good relations with those in power and bought several mines. Through his efforts, Jews were permitted to live within Fort St. George.
De Paiva died in 1687 after a visit to his mines and was buried in the Jewish cemetery he had established in Peddanaickenpet, which later became the north Mint Street. In 1670, the Portuguese population in Madras numbered around 3000. Before his death he established ‘The Colony of Jewish Traders of Madraspatam’ with Antonio do Porto, Pedro Pereira and Fernando Mendes Henriques. This enabled more Portuguese Jews, from Leghorn, the Caribbean, London and Amsterdam to settle in Madras. Coral Merchant Street was name after the Jews' business.
Three Portuguese Jews were nominated to be aldermen of Madras Corporation. Three - Bartolomeo Rodrigues, Domingo do Porto and Alvaro da Fonseca - also founded the largest trading house in Madras. The large tomb of Rodrigues, who died in Madras in 1692, became a landmark in Peddanaickenpet but was later destroyed.
Samuel de Castro came to Madras from Curaçao and Salomon Franco came from Leghorn.
Isaac Sardo Abendana (1662-1709), who came from Holland, died in Madras. He was a close friend of Thomas Pitt and may have been responsible for the fortune that Pitt amassed.
Portuguese Jews were used as diplomats by the East India Company to expand English trading. Avraham Navarro was the most prominent of these.
Paradesi Synagogues and Cemeteries
The Paradesi Jews had built three Paradesi Synagogues and Cemeteries.
In 1500 First Paradesi Synagogues and Cemeteries was built in Coral Merchant St, George Town, Madras, which had a large presence of Portuguese Jews in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Neither the synagogue nor the Jewish population remains today.
In 1568 Second Paradesi Synagogue and Cemetery was built in Cochin-Jew Street, the oldest synagogue in Cochin, adjacent to Mattancherry Palace, Cochin, now part of the Indian city of Ernakulam, on land given to them by the Raja of Kochi.
In 1650 Third Paradesi Synagogue and Cemetery was built by Jaime de Paiva or Jacques de Paivia in Madras, Peddanaickenpet, which later became the North end of Mint street, demolished by local government in 1934 and the tombstones were moved to the Central Park of Madras along with the gate of the cemetery on which Beit ha-Haim (the usual designation for a Jewish cemetery, literally "House of Life") were written in Hebrew. The tombstones were moved again in 1979 to Kasimedu, when government school was approved to be built. In 1983, they were moved to Lloyds Road, when the Chennai Harbour expansion project was approved. In this whole process 17 tombstones went missing, including that of Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia).
Notable Chennai Paradesi Jews
Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia) - He was first Madras Jewish community leader, he built Paradesi Synagogue and Cemetery in Madras, Peddanaickenpet.
Bartolomeo Rodrigues - Among 12 aldermen who founded Madras Corporation
Domingo do Porto - Among 12 aldermen who founded Madras Corporation
Alvaro da Fonseca - Among 12 aldermen who founded Madras Corporation
Above Four were called four brothers, they had their own garden in which Bartolomeo Rodrigues Tomb was built. Plan of Fort St George and the city of Madras in 1726, shows Four Brothers Garden and Bartolomeo Rodrigues Tomb
Antonio do Porto - The Colony of Jewish Traders of Madraspatam
Pedro Pereira- The Colony of Jewish Traders of Madraspatam
Fernando Mendes Henriques - The Colony of Jewish Traders of Madraspatam
Avraham Navarro - Prominent Jewish diplomats of East India Company
Samuel de Castro - Founder of De Castro Trading house.
Salomon Franco - Founder of De Castro Trading house.
Isaac Sardo Abendana – Best Diamond Appraiser
Places Named After Chennai Paradesi Jews
Isaac Street and Pereira Street This Colonial Street has a long history, there was a synagogue and Jewish cemetery
Isaac Street named after Isaac Henriques De Castro who was killed in the Holocaust
Pereira Street named after Pedro Pereira- Member of, The Colony of Jewish Traders of Madraspatam
De Caster Main Road Probably incorrect spelling of De Castro, a Portuguese personage of those days. (Editor’s Note: Samuel de Castro / Caster was a Portuguese Jew who traded in diamonds and coral. He lived in the Fort in the mid-18th Century and was co-owner of ‘The Great House on Charles Street’, which survives as Admiralty / Clive House. His son Moses obtained from the Council several grants of land in the Great Choultry Plain and Royapettah.
Coral Merchant Street History: This Colonial Street has a long history and during seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was a synagogue. The Pagadalpet (coral-town) in the northern part of Muthialpet is named as coral merchant street. A small sized Portuguese Jews belonging to Paiva or Porto families lived here as a settlement since from 1688 and they chiefly engaged in the export the diamonds of Golconda to London and imported coral beads as well as in raw form their fellow Hebrew merchants in London. From the records it is learned that they were allowed to reside within the Fort St.George and had their cemeteries in Peddanaickenpetta. Also there was an association ‘The Colony of Jewish Traders of Madraspatam' prevailed. At the turn of 18th century the Colconda diamond trade dwindled down and the population of the jews reduced gradually and today there is no Jewish presence at this street and could not find neither a synagogue nor the Jewish cemetery.