When a Jewish journalist visited Kochi a few years ago, researcher Shalva Weil reported that only two Jews were now living in Kochi, down from about 3,000 in the 1950s.
On Sunday, Queenie Halegua, one of the last two Jews left in Kochi, died at the age of 89, leaving her nephew Keith Halegua as the last Jew in Kochi.
Queenie was the warden and managing trustee of the 450-year-old historic site Pardesi Synagogue from 2012 to 2018. She was the director of the S. Synagogue until 2011. Queenie was also the managing partner of Koder House, a boutique hotel once owned by her grandfather Shabdai Samuel Koder, an Iraqi immigrant who settled in Kochi in the early 20th century and later owned the local electric company. Halegua sold the property to the hotel’s current owners, and it remains a popular spot for tourists.
Queenie and her late husband Sammy hosted Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip when they visited the Paradesi Synagogue in the Mattancherry neighbourhood in October 1997.
