The Jewish Community in Mattancherry has lost its oldest member with the passing of Sarah J. Cohen around noon on Friday. The funeral will be held on Sunday.
She was 96 and was to turn a year older on September 4. Sarah Cohen, who was fighting memory lapse for some time, had a minor fracture in the hip following a fall last week and was under treatment at home.
Ms. Cohen’s demise has reduced the Jewish community of Mattancherry to just two members now.
The last of the Cohens in Mattancherry, she was a genial figure. Sarah’s Embroidery, a diminutive souvenir stall, on the narrow lane to the Paradesi Synagogue at Mattancherry, and her household attached to it have long been a meeting place of culture connoisseurs and religions sans borders.
In the 1990s when the Jewish community at Mattancherry was still strong in numbers, the Cohens – Sarah and her husband Jacob, who were without children – grew fond of a young Thaha Ibrahim, a Muslim boy and a middle school dropout from nearby Fort Kochi, and took him under their wings.
After the death of Jacob Cohen, an ex-income tax employee, in 1999, Thaha and his wife Jasmine became caretakers of the household, taking good care of Ms. Cohen. Seli, Ms. Cohen’s maidservant and a Christian, added to the household’s diversity.
“Aunty’s was a happy home where peace and love prevailed. That’s what she taught me over the last three decades. My aim now will be to live in harmony with everyone and to be of help to those who need assistance,” an emotional Thaha said.
Like every Mattancherry Jew of her generation, Ms. Cohen was fluent in Malayalam and was fond of singing hymns in Judeo-Malayalam. She was very particular about casting her vote in every election.
Yaakov Finkelstein, Consul General of Israel in Mumbai and Ms. Cohen’s grand nephew, remembers her as a dear lady.
“My mom was very much attached to her,” he says. He will be in Kochi on Sunday to attend the funeral.
