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you to open a correspondence with the Jews in the East.Perhaps it may not be known to some, that by the events of the late war in India, a colony of Jews have-become subject to Great Britain. This is the colony of the white and black Jews of Cochin. The number is calculated to be about 16,000. Mr. Frey informs me that the number of Jews in the United Kingdom is not reputed to be greater than 14,0lt;J0. So that our Jewish subjects in the east are yet more numerous than those in the west j and they are equally intitled to the regard and attention of your Society.I visited Cochin soon after the conquest of the province. The Jews received me hospitably, and permitted me to examine the libraries and their synagogues, and they presented to me many valuable manuscripts, which are novt, deposited in the library of the University of Cambridge. One of these is a roll qf the pen-, tateuch, on goat-skins died red ; one of the most ancient, perhaps, which the East can produce. The white Jews live on the sea-coast, and have commerce with foreign nations: the black Jews live chiefly in the interior of the country. The Hindoos call them Israeli; they call themselves Beni Israel, and not Jews; for their ancestors did not belong to Judah’, but to the kingdom of Israel. They consider themselves to be descended from those tribes who were carried away at the first captivity.—In some parts of the East, the BenUsraelnever heard of the second temple. They never heard of the Christian account of the coining of the Messiah. Some of them possess only the Pentateuch, and Psalms, and Book of Job—Others have no portion of Scripture left. But their countenance, and their observance of the Sabbath, and of peculiar rites, demonstrate that they are Jews. The white Jews at Cochin despise the black Jews, as being' of an inferior cast, and do not approve of intermarriages with them, because they do not ’belong to the second temple. Both among white and black Jews, i found that there was a general impresssion, that there would soon be a rumour of wars, and a commotion among the peoples, on their account. The white Jews expect a second Cyrus from the West, who shall build their temple the third and last time.You may address the Jews of Cochin with great advantage on the subject of the Christian religion, for they have the evidence of the Syrian Christians before them. These ancient Christians live in the vicinity, and are yeur wit-
Newspaper Details
Missionary Magazine
London, Middlesex, GB
Mon, Jul 16, 1810
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Danica E.
JP 23 Feb 2022
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