HALLEGUA

HALLEGUA, family of White Jews in Cochin. Originally from Aleppo, Syria, the family provided communal leaders from the 17th century until the present day. One of the first recorded members was MOSES HALLEGUA (Aleguo), whose tombstone is dated 1666. The title and office of the mudaliar (head of the autonomous Jewish community in Cochin) fell to the Hallegua family when this hereditary position became vacant. When Anquetil-Duperron visited Cochin in 1757, JOSEPH HALLEGUA held the office. ḤAYYIM JOSEPH HALLEGUA, who moved to Bombay, was instrumental in publishing in 1846 the Marathi translation of the Passover Haggadah of the bene israel . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.H. Lord, Jews in India (1907), 97; Fischel, in: Herzl Yearbook, 4 (1961–62), 316–8; J.J. Cotton, List of Inscriptions…in Madras (1905), 274, no. 1550. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.B. Segal, A History of the Jews of Cochin (1993). (Walter Joseph Fischel)