Anna Zacharias
About
annazacha@gmail.com
Anna Zacharias is a PhD student in Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Her research investigates the extant Jewish community in Kerala, utilizing material culture and heritage tourism as lenses to explore themes of nostalgia, loss, and belonging.
As the local community has dwindled and synagogues have been transformed into museums, Zacharias focuses on the shared history of objects and their interconnectedness.
Her work addresses the challenges of preserving minority heritage and the role of “museumified” spaces in maintaining the cultural memory of the Malabari and Paradesi Jews.
Lecture Abstract:
Historically, Jewish merchants formed an integral part of maritime trade networks in the Indian Ocean. Situated at the heart of the spice trade, the Malabar coast was an important node in connecting South Asia to the Mediterranean world. Previous research on Cairo Geniza documents, Dutch East India Company (VOC) archives, Kerala state archives, etc signify the predominance of Jews in the commercial lifeworlds of Malabar and the Indian Ocean. Drawing on a rich scholarly tradition by scholars like Walter Fischel, Pius Malekandathil, Elizabeth Lambourn, Shalva Weil and Ophira Gamliel, this paper attempts to trace the historical role of the Kerala Jews in Indian Ocean commerce in the early modern period. References to 15th century figures like Ezekiel Rahabi, and other Jewish trading families from 17th century records highlight the prominence of Jewish families in Indian ocean trade networks. Similarly, the accounting ledger of a spice merchant from the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Cheshbon shel shanah 5504... (1744-1745...) provides a quotidian picture of everyday transactions in the 18th century. A leather-bound book, it includes lists of spices bought and sold, names of prominent Jewish business families like Maday and Hallegua and a list of Hebrew books owned by an anonymous Jewish merchant. While figures such as Rahabi suggest Jewish integration in the early modern period, late eighteenth century records indicate a sustained engagement in spice trading networks. Together these disparate strands demonstrate the ways in which Jewish merchants forged and sustained networks across the Indian ocean over centuries.