Drs Nirmala and Verghese Philip was interested to visit the Jew Town about which they heard a lot about.
Being a Friday, the synagogue was closed to visitors in preparation for the Sabbath. The synagogue located in a quadrangle has a history of 200 years. There were over 100 hundred families living here till late nineteen sixties.. Now perhaps a few older people are left.
The synagogue is a tourist attraction as it i sone of the few synagogues in south India.
But what seems to attract the visitors is also because of the two parallel streets adjacent to the synagogue, which have shops of treasures form the past in museums, art gallaries and antique shops located on either side of the road.
For us it was more than just history...it was a recollection of the story of the pilgrim community who remained scattered all over the world till they were united after Israel was declared as a nation.
The government of india is now in an attempt to bring back Hindus scattered in adjacent countries. Some fear that it is an attempt to declare India as a Hindu country from what it is now a secular country. We are in the midst of a resistant movement against the recent legislation to allow the returns of Hindus without giving the same privilege to Muslims.
The history of a nation of Israel is a story of conflicts and resettlements. The ongoing struggle with Palestine is a rather painful one wondering why Israel resists to accept Palestine as a nation!
I wonder whether the territorial conflicts would ever come to end!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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