The Synagogues of Kerala: Their Architecture, History, Context, and Meaning
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The Synagogues of Kerala: Their Architecture, History, Context, and Meaning by Jay Arthur Waronker This thesis/dissertation document has been electronically approved by the following individuals: MacDougall,Bonnie Graham (Chairperson) Chusid,Jeffrey M. (Minor Member) THE SYNAGOGUES OF KERALA, INDIA: THEIR ARCHITECTURE, HISTORY, CONTEXT, AND MEANING A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Jay Arthur Waronker August 2010 ©2010 Jay Arthur Waronker ABSTRACT This thesis sets out to record for the first time the architectural history of the functioning, decomissioned but still standing, and lost synagogues in the southernmost Indian State of Kerala on the Malabar Coast. Throughout India, there are today thirty- five existing or former Jewish houses of prayer, built by distinct communities of Jews, dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, and the oldest ones are in Kerala. Early Kerala synagogues, realized during the eleventh through the mid-sixteenth century, no longer exist. The Kerala Jewish community, who are believed to have first settled in and around the ancient port town of Cranganore near the Arabian Sea, suffered rounds of persecution during the medieval and early modern periods. In the process, the Jews had to abandon previously built synagogues. Shifting to various places just outside of Cranganore, the Kerala Jews built new synagogues. While some of these houses of prayer likewise do not survive since the Jews remained in locations temporarily or this newer round of synagogues were also attacked and destroyed by hostile human or natural forces, fortunately synagogue construction from the mid-sixteenth century onwards still stands – albeit often in altered states. Until the mid-twentieth century, Kerala had eight Jewish communities each having its own synagogue. Collectively known as the Cochin, or the more inclusive label of Kerala Jews, they were made up of two informally defined subgroups who built houses of prayer. The Malabar Jews, who had lived in Kerala far longer than their Paradesi coreligionists, had seven synagogues. The Paradesi Jews had just one building, of the same name, which was originally built in 1568. Since 1990, I have been involved in synagogue study and documentation. My interest lies in non-Western regions of the world where Jewish communities once thrived yet, owing to social or political change over the sixty years, are today in irreversible decline or extinct. India is one such case. Over the course of funded visits, I visited and surveyed its thirty-four synagogues that once served four of the country’s distinct groups of Jews: the Bene Israel, Baghdadi, Benai Menashe, and Cochin (Kerala) communities. These synagogues, located in various areas of the large subcontinent ranging from the largest cities to the smallest villages, are in various states of preservation. Today, many no longer function as Jewish houses of prayer and some have been demolished since my project’s inception. Among 1.17 billion Indians, the Jewish population currently stands at no more than 4,500 (2001 Census of India). For this thesis, I focused on the synagogues built by the Kerala Jews. At their height, the population of the community is estimated to have been around 2,500 people, but today, according to a community census, it numbers no more than forty-five. Seven synagogues buildings have managed to survive in Kerala despite this overwhelming decline in the community’s population since the mid-1950s due to immigration to Israel. Constructed out of locally available materials and using time- tested building techniques, these synagogues are prime expressions of the centuries-old vernacular architectural and planning traditions of Kerala. This is a heritage made up of a cornucopia of secular and religious buildings erected by both natives and visiting imperialists. These design influences were in turn combined with an assortment of Jewish liturgical requirements to complete a distinct and beautiful synagogue aesthetic. Of Kerala extant synagogue builidngs, only one is a functioning house of prayer. The others, left behind by the Jews when they moved en masse to Israel beginning in 1955, came to be rented or sold, began serving other purposes, or slowly deteriorated. In recent years, however, the synagogues have come to be recognized as invaluable cultural and architectural markers. As this happens, some are being restored. These renewal efforts draw to light a growing awareness and appreciation of communities in lesser known places in the world where Jews in the ancient tradition of the Diaspora established themselves and built synagogues. Even though the original creators and patrons of thesem religious buildings are temporal beings, the synagogues have remained as evidence of the way things were. Through the use of photography, measured architectural drawings, detailed watercolor renderings, interviews among members of the remaining or former Kerala Jewish community, careful personal observation and note taking, local narratives and legends, folksongs sung exclusively by the women of the Kerala Jewish community, consultations with local historians and preservationists, and drawing from a rich collection of existing literature, this thesis brings to light the architecture of these Indian Jewish buildings in the context of the region’s social and religious history, climate and topography, traditions of building, and overall sense of place. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Jay A. Waronker, born in Atlanta Georgia and a graduate of its public high school system, was educated in architecture at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. After completing his apprenticeship with Robert A. M. Stern Architects in New York and passing his licensing examination, he returned to his birthplace in 1994 to establish an architectural practice specializing in residential design. There he completed several published and awarded projects. In addition to his professional practice, since 1996 Waronker has taught on the univesity level courses in architectural design, drawing, painting, architectural theory, graphic communication, architectural history, and a class on the “City as Text.” For eleven years, Waronker served on the faculty at Southern Polytechnic State University in Atlanta in its Department of Architecture, where he was also its Interim Chair. He also taught at Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, North Dakota State University, Duksung Women’s University in Seoul, and North China University of Technology in Beijing in a visiting capacity. Along with professional practice and academic instruction, Waronker has for years pursued research in the field of architectural history. In 1990, he was awarded grants through the Asian Cultural Council, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture to begin documenting India’s thirty-five synagogues. He returned to India in 1994, through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation, and the Bokser Memorial Foundation, and again in 2000, as a Fulbright scholar, to complete detailed watercolors renderings, in the centuries-old tradition of hand drawings, and select architectural iii drawings of these synagogues dating from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Waronker’s paintings have been extensively exhibited in a variety of venues in the United States and abroad. In early 2005, Waronker was awarded grants through the Koret Foundation and Marian and Abraham Sofaer of Palo Alto California to initiate an effort to restore and make use of the no longer functioning synagogues at Kerala in southwestern India. With Dr. Shalva Weil of Hebrew University, he traveled to India for this project. From this visit, Waronker, with Dr. Weil and Marian Sofaer, founded and served as curator for India’s first Jewish museum. Opened in February 2006 in the Chendamangalam Synagogue restored by the government of Kerala, this museum was funded by the Abramowitz Family of Ross California and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life of San Francisco. It is today operated by the Kerala office of the Indian Department of Archeology. Each year, travelers from throughout India and the world visit the cultural venue to learn about the cultural history and synagogue architecture of the former Jewish community in Chendamangalam. As a result of this successful project, and with the support of the Koret Foundation, Waronker’s current effort is serving as an advisor to the Kerala government for the restoration of a second synagogue in Kerala. Work on bringhing this building back to form, located in the city of Parur and dating in part to the early seventeenth century, began in April 2010. In 2005-6, Waronker received a second Fulbright grant to document via careful drawings and watercolor renderings the synagogues and other Jewish architecture of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and parts of South Africa. He returned to the African continent in 2008, with the support of the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, to expand his project to include the Jewish architecture of Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya. This work is now being exhibited, and articles on some of the synagogues have since been published. iv Waronker’s plan is to eventually include the synagogues and other Jewish architecture of Ghana, Nigeria, and Eritrea. v In Memory of My Father, William L. Waronker vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS