By Our Special Correspondent.
Kochi, Aug 14 (IVC) The last of the Paradeshi Jewish women in Kochi, Queenie Hallegua, 89 years, passed away here on Aug 11. She was the daughter of late S Kodor who was considered the iconic member of the Jewish community in the city.
Ms Hallegua’s two children, who are now in the US, were at her bedside when she died peacefully. She was the warden and managing trustee of the Pardeshi Synagogue from 2012 to 2018. She was the managing partner of S Koder Private Limited until 2011.
Her father Mr Koder , was the first electricity distributor in Kochi and at one time , operated he Kochi boat services. She was born in the landmark Koder house in Fort Kochi and went to Mattancherry after marriage to Smuel Hallegua.
She is survived by her children , Fiona and David Hallegua and their spouses Alan nd Cici and her grandchild Eliana who lives in the USA. Her last rites were conducted at the Jew Street in Mattancherry in the presence of a large number of Jewish community members, according to Taha Ibrahim . He has been closely associated with the Jewish community for several decades. The only Jew now in Kochi is Keith Hallegua , nephew of Samuel Hallegua.
Though Jewish traders are believed to have frequented Kochi during the time of King Solomon ( Son of David,10th Century B C , King of Israel) who established trade relations with India, the ancestors of the extant Sephardic Jewish community here arrived after expulsion from the Iberian peninsula following the Alhambra Decree in 1742. Jews were ordered under the decree either to leave Spain or convert to Catholics. Many chose to flee ,reached port townsin India and the Jews of Kochi were among them.
The community was trated well in Kochi, where the kings gave them land to settle nd they prospered.
The coming into being of Israel in 1948 triggered a wave of migration of the Jews from different parts of the world into Israel and Paradeshi Jews were among them, though some of them migrated to other countries as well. There were over 15,000 Jews were in Kochi at the time of the birth of Israel in 1948.