New Delhi, Aug. 6 -- The establishment of Chabad houses in Weligama and along the Sri Lankan East Coast sparked a mass agitation across the country, paving the way for many social media commentators to depict Jewish tourists on the island as bogeymen. Yet the history of the Jews in Sri Lanka tells us a different narrative - one that many are reluctant to acknowledge.

The demographic structure of Sri Lanka after independence offers little indication about a permanent Jewish population in contrast to Sri Lanka's neighbouring state, India, where Cochin and Baghdadi Jews survived amidst all the chaos. In post-independent Sri Lanka, Jewish connections to the island's culture largely remained overlooked. Anna Ranasinghe, a German-born Jewish H...