Abraham Barak Salem, an Indian nationalist, Jewish social reformer and later a Zionist, was born in 1882 in Cochin, in the princely state of Kerala. He belonged to the “Meshuchrarim,” a community of Jewish slaves who were freed and accompanied the Sephardi Jews in their immigration to India following the 16th-century expulsion from Spain.

This community of Sephardi Jews was popularly addressed as Pardesi (foreigner/white) Jews. But the Meshuchrarim, though Sephardi, were treated with neglect by the self-proclaimed Pardesi Jewish community. Though many believed that all these different Jewish communities would exist in harmony, but contrary to that expectation there was significant segregation and discrimination among them.