Shavuot 2026: Sparks of Torah in India

The dazzling hechal (ark) in the Kadavambagum synagogue in Ernakulam, the newer part of Cochin, gleams red and gold, almost as if it is painted with sparks of Torah. On every holiday in Cochin, the community decorated its synagogues with curtains and tapestries in colors appropriate to that holiday. Green for Sukkot; blue for the parting waters on Pesah; and red on Shavuot, symbolizing the Torah’s fiery power.

Even more uplifting—literally— is the synagogue’s second bimah (below), from where the Torah and haftarah are read on Shabbat and holidays. You have to climb a set of stairs to get to the bimah: it’s an actual aliyah—ascent—to the Torah! It’s as if every Shabbat and holiday the Jews of Cochin re-enacted receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai. Each synagogue in Cochin is designed this way, patterned after the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Ascending the stairs to read the Torah parallels climbing up to the Temple Mount.

The concept of aliyah has been uppermost in my mind because of another Indian Jewish community: the Bnei Menashe from the northeast states of Manipur and Mizoram. I remember visiting them in 2006 and being astounded by their fierce devotion to Judaism under harsh conditions of civil war and poverty. While 4,000-5,000 Bnei Menashe have been permitted to make aliyah in the past three decades, another 6,000 remained in India, awaiting aliyah. Under Operation Wings of Dawn, the Israeli government will relocate them to Israel by 2030. The first flight of 240 olim (immigrants) arrived in April 2026.

Read more about the Bnei Menashe’s April arrival in Israel here.
Click here to read my article in Hadassah magazine about my 2006 visit to the Bnei Menashe.

Photo above from my 2006 visit to the Bnei Menashe.