Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/540

JEW formerly to use such privileges, but have discontinued them."

There is record of disputes between the White and Black Jews for as early a time as that of the Dutch settlement, or even earlier. Jealousy and strife between the two sections on matters of intermarriage and equal privileges seem to have existed even during the time of the Portuguese. Canter Visscher, in his ' Letters from Malabar,'* refers to these party feelings. "The blacks," he writes, "have a dark coloured Rabbi, who must stand back if a white one enters, and must resign to him the honour of performing the divine service in the synagogue. On the other hand, when the black Rabbis enter the synagogue of Whites, they must only be hearers. There has lately been a great dispute between the two races; the Black wishing to compel the White Jewesses to keep their heads uncovered, like their own women, and trying to persuade the Rājah to enforce such a rule. The dispute ended, however, with permission given to every one, both men and women, to wear what they chose."

More than once, Jewish Rabbis have been appealed to on the subject of racial purity, and they have on all occasions upheld the claims of a section of the Black Jews to being Jews, and the White Jews have as often repudiated such decisions, and questioned their validity. The weight of authority, and the evidence of local facts, seem to militate against the contention of the White Jews that the Black Jews do not belong to the Israelitish community, but are the descendants of emancipated slaves and half castes. The White Jews appear to have maintained the purity of their race by declining