Meshuchrarim are a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish community of freed

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

s, often of

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...

African-European descent, who accompanied

Sephardic Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

in their immigration to India following the 16th-century expulsion from Spain. The Sephardic Jews became known as the

Paradesi Jews Paradesi Jews were Jewish people who immigrated to the Indian subcontinent during the 15th and 16th centuries following the expulsion of Jews from Spain. ''Paradesi'' refers to the Malayalam word that means ''foreign'' as they were newcomers. ...

(as "foreigners" to India. They were also sometimes called the White Jews, for their European ancestry). The descendants of the ''meshuchrarim'' were historically discriminated against in India by other "White Jews." They were at the lowest of the Cochin Jewish informal caste ladder. The Paradesi came to use the

Paradesi Synagogue The Paradesi Synagogue aka Cochin Jewish Synagogue or the Mattancherry Synagogue (Malayalam: പരദേശി ജൂതപള്ളി) is a synagogue located in Mattancherry Jew Town, a suburb of the city of Kochi, Kerala, in India. It wa ...

; while they allowed the ''meshuchrarim'' as Jews to worship there, they had to sit in the back, could not become full members, and were excluded from the community's

endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...

marriage circle. At the same time, they were excluded by the Malabar Jews, the much larger community of Jews who had lived in Cochin for perhaps 1,000 years. In the early 20th century,

Abraham Barak Salem Abraham ben Barak Salem (1882 – 1967) was an Indian nationalist and Zionist, a lawyer and politician, and one of the most prominent Cochin Jews of the twentieth century. Popular by his epithet of "Jewish Gandhi", he was known as "Salem Kocha" ...

became one of the most prominent Cochin Jews. A descendant of ''meshuchrarim,'' he was the first to earn a college degree and the first Cochin Jew of any sort to become a lawyer. He fought against the discrimination against his people. By the 1930s, social discrimination against the ''meshuchrarim'' began to diminish. Most Cochin Jews, including the ''meshuchrarim,'' emigrated to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

by the mid-1950s.

See also

References

Further reading