The known history of the Jews in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) begins at least in the ninth century BCE.
Sri Lanka was already known to Jews living in Kerala as early as the 3rd century BC.
The city of Galle in southern Sri Lanka was said to be the biblical Tarshish where King Solomon, in 1000 BCE, once shipped elephants, apes, peacocks, jewels and spices.
[5] In Ceylon, Jewish administrators did not play a significant role unlike India.
Dr. Fiona Kumari Campbell, Deshamanya Tissa Devendra and Dr. Tuan Zameer Careem Khan are among the few academics who have done significant researches on the Jewish community in Sri Lanka, while author Carl Muller has researched on the Jewish connection of the Dutch and Portuguese Burghers in Sri Lanka.