Last Jewish family of Tamil Nadu being forced to leave

The last Jewish family in Tamil Nadu is set to leave the country. The family had been facing problems with errant and rowdy tenants who have been threatening them.

Chennai: A Jewish family that took refuge in Tamil Nadu 400 years ago, after being persecuted in Europe, is about to leave Chennai.

The family which migrated to the Besant Nagar area in Chennai over 400 years ago is now on the verge of leaving.

David Livy is a resident of Besant Nagar area. Jewish by faith, he was living with his wife, two children and his mother for years in the area. Last June, David asked his tenants to vacate the house because of their misconduct and non-payment of rent. Livy lodged a complaint against them and that resulted in him being beaten up by goons.

Since one of the tenants of that house was the son of an IPS officer and the other was the son of a politician, the problem worsened. After a discussion between the concerned parties, it finally came to an end. However, since the Jewish family are unable to recover from the adverse impact of the incident, they have now decided to leave Tamil Nadu.

The pending departure of the last Jewish family that was living in Tamil Nadu has saddened the people of that area. Speaking to ETV Bharat over the phone, David Livy said, “We were nine people living there and we are all about to leave Tamil Nadu after that particular incident. We have a very close bond with Tamil Nadu and we had been leading a peaceful life before that incident; my mother wished to live in this place.'

He also said that one of the Jewish synagogues was demolished in 1936 and it was his mother’s desire to rebuild it. "We have a deep connection with Tamil Nadu," he said. Livy added that it was sad for them to leave Tamil Nadu.

David Livy’s great-grandparents were the victims of the genocide in Germany. Former Chief Minister Anna (C.N. Annadurai) had erected a memorial inscription in their memory. "Our family has been very close to Anna," Livy said.

When the only Jewish temple in Tamil Nadu was demolished in 1936 and 1968, the data on the Jews who were living in Tamil Nadu was lost. And while the tombs of the Jews had been relocated to various places over a period of time, the details of those who lived in the state were also lost due to the floods in 2015.

David Livy was maintaining the Jewish cemetery in order to pass on to the next generation the details of those Jews who lived in Tamil Nadu. Yet, circumstances have forced this Jewish family to move out.