Ashdod Travelers guide

Ashdod | Sightseeing 154 Kerala region) came to the area by ship at the time of King Solomon. According to one version, they were merchants sent by Solomon with the purpose of bringing ivory and parrots for the first temple. According to another version, they were Jews who arrived during the Babylonian exile. Either way, the first synagogue in the Kerala region was built in 1568. In the 18th century, there were already eight synagogues and the Jews of the region earned the name the Jews of Cochin, after one of the main cities of the region. Many of the Cochin Jews immigrated to Israel during the 1950s and 1960s. Some of them were absorbed in different community settlements in the country, and a few hundred of them arrived in Ashdod and settled mainly in Quarter Vav (6). In 1967 the community's first synagogue was built. The new synagogue, inaugurated in 1995, bears the name of the greatest scholar of the community, Rabbi Nechemia Ben Avraham, also known as Nechemia Motta (Nechemia the elder), who some say came Cochin from Aden in Yemen. The building was designed by architect Joseph Cohen. It is modest, it creates an intimate atmosphere, and its outer visage slightly resembles the beautiful synagogue that stands to this day in the village of Chennamangalam, where some of the community members lived (by the way most of the remaining synagogues in Cochin are now used as museums). But, while the original synagogue was mostly made of bronze-plated wood, the one in Ashdod was built with stone, and because of the Mediterranean climate conditions and the fear of termites - the ark here is made