Indians and Jews live almost side by side on Devon Avenue. But where are the Indian Jews? Even in India there aren’t many.
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Never a large group, the population has dwindled to fewer than 6,000; over the past 50 years, most have emigrated to Israel. Only 34 synagogues survive, and in 1994 Jay Waronker, an Atlanta architect, was given a grant by Chicago’s Graham Foundation to document the last temples. As he rode the bus from Cochin to North Parur through a wall of rain, he thought he should have known better than to go tromping through southern India during the monsoon season. He didn’t know for sure if the synagogue he was after would still be there; the pamphlet listing it had been written during the 1980s.
A covered breezeway led to a courtyard, and within the courtyard was a freestanding house of worship. The compound, Waronker says, dates to 1616 and is the oldest synagogue in India. It was in pretty bad shape. “The ark was still there, but the furniture was all gone, and the rain was leaking in through the roof,” he says. But he also found the place charming. “There’s no better word to describe it.”
