Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 1937 (Letters)

A consideration of historical data as will be shown can throw very little light on the question 1937] THE RACIAL AFFINITIES OF THE JEWS OF COCHIN 7 but some of the customs of the White Jews indicate a continuity with a Jewish culture that differs from that of Jews to the West of India and resembles that from which the Malabar Jews also descended. [...] The Black Jews again appealed to the chief Rabbi at Alexandria (Roby) but at the request of the White Jews the Raja commanded the Blacks not to hinder the construction work. [...] One in the usual place the middle of the auditorium and another up in the balcony on the east side in front of the grilled ladies gallery. [...] On the eighth day of the feast of the Tabernacles the five scrolls of the Pentateuch of Moses are taken out of the Synagogue sprinkled with rose water and carried around the grounds by the young men in procession surrounded by crowds of youths jumping and chanting. [...] The White Jews and the Paniyans have nothing1937] THE RACIAL AFFINITIES OF THE JEWS OF COCHIN 15 else in common anthropographically but a high frequency of agglutinogen A. It may be noted that the frequency of gene B in the White Jews is of the same order as that in the Jews of the Near East (Table II).