COCHIN SYNAGOGUE was built in the 1568 under the auspices of the Raja of Cochin but shortly thereafter destroyed by the occupying Portuguese who persecuted local Jews until the Dutch took control of the area in the 1660s. The synagogue was then reconstructed, featuring the most eclectic collection of items from all over the world, symbolic of the ancient "globalization": Chinese hand-painted tiles, Belgian chandeliers, Hindu brass oil-burning lamps, and an oriental carpet given as a gift by the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, which used to be laid out in front of the ark on special occasions.