When Jews Thrived in India: The Cochin Copper Plates

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Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner follow the Cochin copper plates from royal charter to communal touchstone—three hammered sheets of metal inscribed in Tamil and Vattezhuthu that granted a Jewish leader named Joseph Rabban rights, status, and a place in India’s intricate hierarchy. From Solomonic trade legends to Black, White, and Brown Jewish castes, from Portuguese incursions to a post-1948 exodus that left barely a remnant in Cochin, they trace how one fragile document illuminates a Jewish community that was honored, separate, deeply Zionist—and still symbolically anchored to the Malabar coast.

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