Meshuchrarim: Difference between revisions

'''Meshuchrarim''' are a [[Jew]]ish community of freed [[slave]]s, often of [[mixed-race]] [[African-European]] descent, who accompanied [[Sephardic Jews]] in their immigration to India following the 16th-century expulsion from Spain. The Sephardic Jews became known as the [[Paradesi Jews]] (as "foreigners" to India.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} They were also sometimes called the White Jews, for their European ancestry).{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

The descendants of the ''meshuchrarim'' were historically discriminated against in India by other "White Jews." They were at the lowest of the [[Cochin Jews|Cochin Jewish informal caste ladder]]. The Paradesi came to use the [[Paradesi Synagogue]]; 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]] marriage circle.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} 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]] became one of the most prominent Cochin Jews.<ref>[http://www.easas.org/?q=panel39 PANEL 39: Nationalisms and their Impact in South Asia]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} - European Association of South Asian Studies</ref> 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.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} 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]] by the mid-1950s.