Abraham Barak Salem

Abraham Barak Salem (1882–1967) was an Indian nationalist and Zionist, an attorney and politician, and one of the most prominent Cochin Jews of the twentieth century. A descendant of meshuchrarim, he was the first to graduate from college, and the first Cochin Jew to become an attorney. He practised in Ernakulam, where he eventually used satyagraha to fight the discrimination among Jews against his people. An activist in the trade union and Indian national causes, he later was attracted to Zionism. After visiting Palestine in the 1930s, he later helped arrange the migration of most Cochin Jews to Israel by 1955. He stayed in Kochi for the remainder of his life.