Heritage · Jewish Kerala · 8 min read

Kadavumbhagam and Thekkumbhagam: The Twin Synagogues of Mattancherry and Ernakulam

The Malabari Jews of Kochi were divided into 'riverside' and 'southern' congregations, each with its own synagogue in both Mattancherry and Ernakulam. One was carried to Jerusalem, one demolished, one restored with a Torah scroll returned after 46 years, and one rebuilt but never finished.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Kerala's Jewish heritage: The synagogues of Kerala · Paradesi · Kadavumbhagam & Thekkumbhagam · Paravur · Chendamangalam · Mala · The Jew ponds · The Jews of Kerala

The names are geographical. Kadavumbhagam means "the side by the landing place" (kadavu, a river or boat landing), and Thekkumbhagam "the southern side". In both Mattancherry and Ernakulam, the Malabari Jews had two congregations with these names, each with its own synagogue. The rivalry and cooperation between them were part of everyday Jewish life in Kochi for centuries.

Kadavumbhagam, Mattancherry (1544)

Completed in 1544, this was one of the oldest synagogues in Kochi, built by Malabari Jews in Mattancherry, a short walk from where the Paradesi synagogue would rise in 1568. In 1955 the whole congregation emigrated to Israel. The building was encroached upon and used as a warehouse for coir. Its carved interior, including the women's gallery and the tevah, was shipped to Israel and reconstructed in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, where visitors can walk into a Kerala synagogue today. Its ark went to Moshav Nehalim in Israel. In September 2019, after decades of neglect, the front of the empty building collapsed in heavy rain. The Kerala Department of Archaeology has since taken it over for restoration as a museum.

Thekkumbhagam, Mattancherry

The southern congregation of Mattancherry also left for Israel in 1955. Its synagogue was later demolished. Some of its furnishings, including a restored Torah ark, are preserved in the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kadavumbhagam, Ernakulam

In Ernakulam, across the backwater, the Kadavumbhagam congregation claims an origin around 1200 CE; the present building stands on the old site and has been rebuilt more than once. Hidden behind a shop in the busy Market Road, it has a lotus-patterned ceiling, two tevahs and a magnificent gilded ark. Regular Sabbath services ended in 1972, when most of the congregation emigrated with their Torah scrolls. For years the front of the building was used for an aquarium and plant shop, Cochin Blossoms, whose owner, Elias "Babu" Josephai, one of the last Jews of Ernakulam, cared for the synagogue and showed visitors around. After restoration, a Torah scroll was brought back in 2018, 46 years after the last one had left, and occasional services are again held.

Thekkumbhagam, Ernakulam

Scholars date the Thekkumbhagam congregation of Ernakulam to about 1580. Its old synagogue was pulled down and rebuilt from 1939–40, making it the newest and largest synagogue building in Kerala, sometimes called the Yellow Synagogue. But the Second World War, Indian independence and the founding of Israel came before the work was finished, and the synagogue closed in 1954 as the congregation left. Its original tevah and ark went to Moshav Nevatim in Israel in 1973. An old ark found in the attic in 1996 is displayed inside. The building is not normally open to the public; visits can sometimes be arranged through the local Jewish community.