Jewish Synagogue

Also known as Pardesi Synagogue, the synagogue was built in 1568. Although it was demolished in a Portuguese raid in 1662, it was rebuilt two years later by the Dutch. It has stood the test of time, and is now handled and taken care of by Jewish families in Jew Town, Mattancherry. This Jewish temple houses many artifacts. The floor tiles are hand-painted Chinese ones from the 18th century. You can see scrolls, and there’s a 4th-century copper plate that bears the inscriptions of the Kochi Maharaja in ‘kannadiyezhuthu’ script in Malayalam. Its specialty is that it can be read only with the help of a mirror. The 19th-century glass chandeliers are from Belgium.

An intriguing feature of the Synagogue is that it has a clock tower adjacent to it. It was built by a prominent Jewish businessman Ezekiel Rahabi, in 1760. The Jews do not have a custom of ringing bells for worship! There are four faces on this clock. One side, with Malayalam number, faces the palace of the Maharaja of Cochin, another side with Hebrew letters faces the Synagogue itself, the third is in Roman numerals. The fourth, however, is blank.

*Image source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradesi_Synagogue.