Ruby "Rivka" Daniel ( he, רובי "רבקה" דניאל; ml, റൂബി ദാനിയേൽ; December 1912 - 23 September 2002) was a

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predomina ...

Cochin Jew Cochin Jews (also known as Malabar Jews or Kochinim, from ) are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots that are claimed to date back to the time of King Solomon. The Cochin Jews settled in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now pa ...

ish heritage, the first Malayali woman in the Indian Navy, and the first Cochin Jewish woman to publish a book. Between the years of 1982–1999 Daniel translated into English over 120

Judeo-Malayalam Judeo-Malayalam ( ml, links=no, യെഹൂദ്യമലയാളം, '; he, links=no, מלאיאלאם יהודית, ') is the traditional language of the Cochin Jews (also called Malabar Jews), from Kerala, in southern India, spoken today ...

women’s songs. Her translation efforts led the way for an ongoing international project to translate and analyze the songs within the Cochin Jewish community.

Early life

Ruby Daniel was born in

Kochi, India Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

and was the eldest child of Eliyahu Hai Daniel and Leah Japheth Daniel. Her father, Eliyahu Hai Daniel, sold tickets for the ferry boat which connected Cochin with

Ernakulam Ernakulam () is the Central Business District of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation ...

. Ruby had two younger siblings - Bingley and Rahel. Ruby also lived with her maternal grandparents, Eliyahu and Rivka ("Docho") Japheth. Ruby Daniel excelled in school, both at the local government school for girls and at the Jewish school where she studied Hebrew, Torah, and the synagogue liturgy every morning and afternoon. She attended

St. Treasas Convent Girls Higher Secondary School ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

in Ernakulam. She completed high school there and studied one year at

St. Teresa's College St. Teresa's College is an autonomous women's college located at Kochi, Kerala, India, formed under the patronage of the Archdiocese of Verapoly. History The college was established on 15 June 1925, as the first Women's College of the erstwh ...

. She left St. Teresa’s College after her father and grandfather died in the same year.

Military career

Ruby Daniel enlisted in the military and served in the Armed Forces of India. She is noted for not only being one of the few women in the Indian army at the time but also as the first Jewish Indian woman and the first Malayali to do so in modern Indian history. She was employed for over fifteen years in government service, as a clerk in the High Court, District Court Munsiff Court, and from 1944–1946 in the Women’s

Royal Indian Navy The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. F ...

Writing career

She made

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally descri ...

in 1951 and moved to the predominantly

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

and secular

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Neot Mordechai Neot Mordechai ( he, נְאוֹת מָרְדְּכַי) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Upper Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The kibbutz was estab ...

. Her 1995 memoir, "Ruby of Cochin", lists a fourth method for marriage among the Jews of Cochin: that of witness by the entire congregation to a marriage. The memoir includes her experience in the Armed Forces of India as a Jewish woman among Hindu and Muslim men. In order to preserve Cochin Jewish culture, Ruby Daniel published a booklet of nine songs in Judeo-Malayalam - transliterated in Hebrew. She worked prodigiously through the 1990s to translated some 130 songs, which are sung by the Jewish women, into English.

Works

* ''We Learned from the Grandparents: Memories of a Cochin Jewish Woman''. 1992 * ''Ruby of Cochin'' .Jewish Publication Society (JPS). 1995

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel, Ruby 1912 births 2002 deaths Cochin Jews Malayalam-language writers Writers from Kochi Indian women in war Indian emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Indian-Jewish descent Women in war 1900–1945 Military personnel from Kerala 20th-century Indian translators Malayali people Women writers from Kerala Jewish women writers Indian people of World War II Indian women of World War II Indian military personnel of World War II 20th-century Indian women writers Indian women translators Women of the Kingdom of Cochin People of the Kingdom of Cochin Indian women non-fiction writers Women biographers 20th-century Indian biographers English-language writers from India Jewish translators