Torah Finials (Cochin)

These Torah finials from Cochin, India, were made around 1565. Elegant and simple, crafted from metal, their surfaces appear to be hammered, with one adorned with a Hebrew inscription. The earliest Jewish communities in Cochin were established as early as 1000 CE, and legends claim that Jews were already there in biblical times. By the late sixteenth century, the earlier Jewish community had been augmented by new arrivals, Sephardic refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions, as well as immigrants from Iraq, Persia, Yemen, and Germany.