The Jews of Cochin and Pesach Stumpers and Challenges

We began our unit of study about the Jews of India during the past two weekday sessions. I shared with the students that there were 3 major waves of immigration of Jews to India over the past 2,000 (perhaps even as far back as 3,000) years.

The first wave of Jews were those who eventually settled in the City of Cochin in the Kerala District of southwest India. We focused on this group this week. I introduced them to the students by showing a two-part YouTube video called "The Heritage of Cochin Jews." The video shared the history and culture of Cochini Jews, as well as the move of most of the community to the modern State of Israel in 1953 and their integration into Israeli society. During the late 15th century, Sephardi Jews who were exiled from Spain in 1492 began to make their appearance in Cochin. Though small in number, they had an out-sized influence on the culture of the Cochini Jews.

The second major immigration wave consisted of Jews who called themselves the "Bene Israel" (Children of Israel), but who were called the "Shanwar Teli" by non-Jews around them (meaning the Sabbath Oil Pressers, since they brought the art of oil pressing to India and observed the Sabbath as a rest day). They settled further north, near the City of Bombay, and claimed to be descended from 7 couples shipwrecked along the coast, and rescued by none other than the Prophet Elijah. We'll be studying them in more detail this coming Sunday.

The last group of Jews to arrive in India were the Baghdadi Jews who, as their name indicates, came from Baghdad and other areas of Iraq. They were merchants and traders and were invited by the British in the 19th century to settle in the major cities of India during British "Raj" (England's occupation of India). They were, for the most part, Sephardi Jews (descended from the Jews of Spain and Portugal).

We ended both weekday sessions with the Shira and Y'tzira students, learning Pesach (Passover) songs with Eric, our weekday music teacher. He reviewed all four verses of the "Mah Nishtana" (The Four Questions recited by the youngest child at the seder ceremony), and taught us to sing the answer to the questions - "Avadeem Ha'eenoo; ata b'nei choreen!"("We were slaves; now we are free!") We also sang the spiritual "Let My People Go" and had a fun time singing the "Dayenu" song.

And since Pesach is just four weeks away (the first seder takes place on Monday evening, April 10th), I put up a new set of stumpers and challenges on our holiday bulletin board.

The Stumpers: (worth 1 sticker)
1.  Where does the word "Charoset" come from?
2.  According to the Talmud, what is the only way a seder can succeed?
3.  How have some seders and haggadot been changed to make them more meaningful to us today?
4.  Why did the Rabbis include "Had Gadya" in the Haggadah?

The Challenges: (worth 5 stickers)
1.  Name the 15 parts of the Pesach (Passover) seder by heart.
2.  Name the 10 plagues by heart.
3.  Say (or sing) the final verse of "Had Gadya" by heart in English.

Remember that 20 stickers = a $10.00 Toys 'R Us gift certificate!