Established in 1200 CE[1]: 15:247  and restored several times on the same site,[2] it is the oldest synagogue of the Malabar Jews with a Sefer Torah scroll and offering occasional services.

Several millennia of contact and sea trade between Malabar Jews and local traders in Kerala led to immense cultural exchange between communities.

[5][6] The Malabar Jews who settled since the times of King Solomon intermingled with the natives and thus share linguistic and cultural aspects with the local people.

The Kadavambhagam Ernakulam Synagogue belongs to the diaspora of Jews who settled along the southwestern coast of India during the Sangam period (600 BCE – 300 CE), when a chief commodity being traded was black pepper, used for food preservation and other purposes.

[6] In ancient times, the port of Muziris (Muchiri) served as a hub of nautical trade between the Levant (Israel, Phoenicia, Rome) and Kerala.

[5][6] A West Asian trading post emerged in the ancient Muziris region, as mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written in the 3rd century BCE by a "Greek in Egypt, a Roman subject", as described by the translator Wilfred Harvey Schoff.

[5][6] The ancient Malabar Jews were present all along the Limyrike through Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ezhimala, Pandalayini, and most of all in Muziris.

An ancient synagogue was said to have existed in Muziris, but is now believed to be submerged due to gradual rising sea level over the millennia.

[citation needed] Early Jewish settlements also existed in Paloor (Palayur), as evidenced by ruins of an ancient synagogue.

The migration began from 722 BCE after the Assyrian conquest of Israel; further waves were recorded after the destruction of the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar II, the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt (132 CE), and then subsequent attacks on the Jewish communities by various groups.

This earned the Zamorin significantly more taxes from the larger Arab trading population than the smaller Jewish community.

Similar copper plates were given to the Kerala Nasrani Syrian Christians;[9]: 184–187  these have old Malayalam inscriptions and as well as signatures in Hebrew, Kufic, and Pahlavi.

"[8] In 2017, the Israeli government enshrined a replica of the Kerala Nasrani Syrian Christian copper plates in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.