Taking Back the Narrative
A Deep Dive Into the History of Cochin Jews: India's Oldest Jewish Community; Featuring Thapan Dubayehudi | Season II: Episode 2
Indian Jews have a fascinating history, in that they are not one group, but several groups with different Diaspora stories. On this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Thapan Dubayehudi, a Professor of Foreign Languages, and also one of 15 members of the Cochin Indian Jewish community who currently remain in India.
Thapan delves deeply into the history of Cochin Jews and their actual origins, which unfortunately has been shared and re-shared inaccurately by Jews from outside their community. Thapan also dispels the myth that there had never been antisemitism in India; in fact, during a time period, a great number of Jews were massacred and only because the Jewish community held a Jewish woman's honor in high regard.
While today, nearly all Cochin Jews live in Israel, as they had always been proud Zionists, it is important to share the history and contributions of an often-overlooked but significant community in the Jewish Diaspora.
Indian Jews have a fascinating history, in that they are not one group, but several groups with different Diaspora stories. On this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Thapan Dubayehudi, a Professor of Foreign Languages, and also one of 15 members of the Cochin Indian Jewish community who currently remain in India.
Thapan delves deeply into the history of Cochin Jews and their actual origins, which unfortunately has been shared and re-shared inaccurately by Jews from outside their community. Thapan also dispels the myth that there had never been antisemitism in India; in fact, during a time period, a great number of Jews were massacred and only because the Jewish community held a Jewish woman's honor in high regard.
While today, nearly all Cochin Jews live in Israel, as they had always been proud Zionists, it is important to share the history and contributions of an often-overlooked but significant community in the Jewish Diaspora.