History of the Jews in Malaysia
Encyclopedia
Malaysian Jews is a term used to refer to Jews living in Malaysia, or those originally from the country. A good number used to live openly in the state of Penang
until towards the end of the 1970s. They were also found elsewhere in the nation, especially in Negri Sembilan and Malacca
. Malaysian Jews consists mainly of Sephardic and Marrano
Jewish descendents amongst the Kristang people
(Portuguese descent Eurasians
), Oriental Jews (the majority of whom are Baghdadi Jews
), India's Cochin Jews
, with the rest being Ashkenazi Jews and possibly Chinese Jews
, who fled from Kaifeng
, China, during the communist revolution in China in 1949.
(later part of Malaysia) goes back to the 9th century AD on the riverbanks of the Bujang Valley
, and later well into the 18th Century AD in the cosmopolitan bazaars of Malacca. The presence of Sephardic Baghdadi Jews in Penang probably occurred at the turn of the 19th century as the fledgling British ruled entreport grew and attracted Jewish trading families like the Sassoon
s and Meyers from India. There was also significant emigration of Jews from the Ottoman
province of Baghdad
as a result of the persecutions of the governor, Daud Pasha
, whose rule lasted from 1817 to 1831.
The first Baghdadi Jew known by name to have settled in Penang was Ezekiel Aaron Menasseh, who emigrated from Baghdad
in 1895. Menasseh claimed to have been the only practicing Jew in Malaya for 30 years until after World War I, when a significant number of Baghdadi Jews began to settle in Malaya. Statistics from the same period showed a somewhat different picture :
During the Japanese invasion of Malaya
, the Penang Jewish community was evacuated to Singapore
, and many were interred by the Japanese
during the subsequent occupation of both Malaya and Singapore
. After the war, a majority had emigrated to Singapore, Australia, Israel and the United States. By 1963, only 20 Penang Jewish families remained in the country.
Penang's only synagogue, located on 28, Nagore Road, closed down in 1976 as the community could no longer fulfill the minyan
, a quorum of ten or more adult Jews assembled for purposes of fulfilling a public religious obligation.
Today, approximately 100 Jews who are refugees from Russia
are said to reside in Malaysia,. The original Penang Jewish community has ceased to exist with the death of Mordecai (Mordy) David Mordecai on 15 July 2011. The rest of the Penang Jews have either embraced Christianity or else have emigrated to other countries, especially with the rise of anti-semitic sentiments and anti-Israel policies pursued by the Malaysian government since the 1970s.
Jahudi Road (or Jew Road) in Penang, where the majority of the Penang Jewish population stayed, has since been renamed Jalan Zainal Abidin, erasing another legacy of the Jewish presence in Malaysia. The only significant presence remaining is the Jewish cemetery and the old, disused synagogue.
Many of the descendants of the Penang Jews are mainly seen in Singapore
(such as ex late Chief Minister David Marshall, a Baghdadi Jew). Many also reside in Australia, Canada
, New Zealand
, the United Kingdom
, and the United States
, especially in New York, but their numbers are unknown. The majority of Penang Jews spoke Malay
and English, whilst the rest spoke mainly Yiddish
, Persian
, Hebrew
and also Arabic
.
in the country. It forms a 38087 square feet (3,538.4 m²) cleaver shaped plot of land situated alongside Jalan Zainal Abidin (formerly Jahudi Road), a small link road located between Burmah and MacAlister Roads in George Town
. The cemetery used to be a green lung, but much of the lawn has been cemented over.
The oldest Jewish tombstone is dated 9 July 1835 dedicated to a Mrs. Shoshan Levi and is believed to mark the grave of the English Jewess that was the benefactor who donated the land where the current cemetery stands. Most of the graves take the form of a triangular vaulted-lid casket, resembling ossuaries
commonly found in Israel
. There are approximately 107 graves located in the cemetery, with the most recent tombstone dated 2011, incidentally the grave of the last ethnic Jew on the island. It is the only cemetery established solely for the once small and thriving Jewish community in Peninsular Malaysia, although there may be a few Jewish graves in other non-Jewish cemeteries.
The graves of the Cohen
s are located separately from the main group of graves on the north-eastern corner of the cemetery and it includes the grave of Eliaho Hayeem Victor Cohen, a Lieutenant
with the 9th Jat Regiment
of the British Indian Army
killed in an accident on 10 October 1941. It is the only grave in the cemetery that is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
. The cemetery is itself managed by a board of trustees
established and registered in 1885.
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...
until towards the end of the 1970s. They were also found elsewhere in the nation, especially in Negri Sembilan and Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
. Malaysian Jews consists mainly of Sephardic and Marrano
Marrano
Marranos were Jews living in the Iberian peninsula who converted to Christianity rather than be expelled but continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret...
Jewish descendents amongst the Kristang people
Kristang people
The Kristang are a creole ethnic group of people of mixed Portuguese and Malaccan descent based in Malaysia and Singapore. People of this ethnicity have strong Dutch heritage, some British as well as Chinese and Indian heritage due to intermarriage, which was common among the Kristang...
(Portuguese descent Eurasians
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
), Oriental Jews (the majority of whom are Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews, also known as Iraqi Jews, are Jewish emigrants from Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, who fled religious persecution and formed immigrant communities in their new homelands...
), India's Cochin Jews
Cochin Jews
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews , are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots claimed to date to the time of King Solomon, though historically attested migration dates from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Historically, they lived in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now part of the...
, with the rest being Ashkenazi Jews and possibly Chinese Jews
Chinese Jews
Chinese Jews may refer to:*History of the Jews in China*Kaifeng Jews...
, who fled from Kaifeng
History of the Jews in China
Jews and Judaism in China have had a long history. Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century CE, but may have arrived during the mid Han Dynasty, or even as early as 231 BCE. Relatively isolated communities developed through the Tang and Song Dynasties Jews and...
, China, during the communist revolution in China in 1949.
History
The first contact between Jews and the inhabitants of MalayaMalay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
(later part of Malaysia) goes back to the 9th century AD on the riverbanks of the Bujang Valley
Bujang Valley
The Bujang Valley or Lembah Bujang is a sprawling historical complex and has an area of approximately 224 square km. Situated near Merbok, Kedah, between Gunung Jerai in the north and Muda River in the south, it is the richest archaeological area in Malaysia.These archaeological remains show that...
, and later well into the 18th Century AD in the cosmopolitan bazaars of Malacca. The presence of Sephardic Baghdadi Jews in Penang probably occurred at the turn of the 19th century as the fledgling British ruled entreport grew and attracted Jewish trading families like the Sassoon
Sassoon
Sassoon may refer to:*Sassoon Other uses:* Sassoon Eskell , Iraqi statesman and financier* Siegfried Sassoon, English poet and author* Sassoon * David Sassoon Library, in Mumbai, India* Sassoon Docks, in Mumbai, India...
s and Meyers from India. There was also significant emigration of Jews from the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
province of Baghdad
Baghdad Province, Ottoman Empire
The Vilayet of Baghdad was a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. The capital was Baghdad....
as a result of the persecutions of the governor, Daud Pasha
Daud Pasha (mamluk)
Daud Pasha was the last Mamluk ruler of Iraq, from 1816 to 1831. Iraq at this period was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire but in practice largely autonomous...
, whose rule lasted from 1817 to 1831.
The first Baghdadi Jew known by name to have settled in Penang was Ezekiel Aaron Menasseh, who emigrated from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
in 1895. Menasseh claimed to have been the only practicing Jew in Malaya for 30 years until after World War I, when a significant number of Baghdadi Jews began to settle in Malaya. Statistics from the same period showed a somewhat different picture :
| Year | Males | Females | Boys | Girls | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1881 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 32 |
| 1891 | 47 | 64 | 14 | 30 | 155 |
| 1899 | 83 | 41 | 33 | 15 | 172 |
| 1901 | 16 | 17 | 8 | 4 | 45 |
| 1941 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 30 |
During the Japanese invasion of Malaya
Battle of Malaya
The Malayan Campaign was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from 8 December 1941 – 31 January 1942 during the Second World War. The campaign was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army...
, the Penang Jewish community was evacuated to Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and many were interred by the Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
during the subsequent occupation of both Malaya and Singapore
Japanese Occupation of Singapore
The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...
. After the war, a majority had emigrated to Singapore, Australia, Israel and the United States. By 1963, only 20 Penang Jewish families remained in the country.
Penang's only synagogue, located on 28, Nagore Road, closed down in 1976 as the community could no longer fulfill the minyan
Minyan
A minyan in Judaism refers to the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. According to many non-Orthodox streams of Judaism adult females count in the minyan....
, a quorum of ten or more adult Jews assembled for purposes of fulfilling a public religious obligation.
Today, approximately 100 Jews who are refugees from Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
are said to reside in Malaysia,. The original Penang Jewish community has ceased to exist with the death of Mordecai (Mordy) David Mordecai on 15 July 2011. The rest of the Penang Jews have either embraced Christianity or else have emigrated to other countries, especially with the rise of anti-semitic sentiments and anti-Israel policies pursued by the Malaysian government since the 1970s.
Jahudi Road (or Jew Road) in Penang, where the majority of the Penang Jewish population stayed, has since been renamed Jalan Zainal Abidin, erasing another legacy of the Jewish presence in Malaysia. The only significant presence remaining is the Jewish cemetery and the old, disused synagogue.
Many of the descendants of the Penang Jews are mainly seen in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
(such as ex late Chief Minister David Marshall, a Baghdadi Jew). Many also reside in Australia, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, especially in New York, but their numbers are unknown. The majority of Penang Jews spoke Malay
Malay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
and English, whilst the rest spoke mainly Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and also Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
.
Penang Jewish Cemetery
The Penang Jewish Cemetery, established in 1805, is believed to be the oldest single Jewish cemeteryJewish cemetery
A Jewish cemetery is a cemetery where members of the Jewish faith are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition....
in the country. It forms a 38087 square feet (3,538.4 m²) cleaver shaped plot of land situated alongside Jalan Zainal Abidin (formerly Jahudi Road), a small link road located between Burmah and MacAlister Roads in George Town
George Town, Penang
George Town was voted as one of the best cities in Asia by Asiaweek, ranked 6th in 1998 and 9th in 2000. More recently, George Town has improved a notch to rank as the 9th most liveable city in Asia in a survey of 254 cities worldwide according to an international location ratings survey by , an...
. The cemetery used to be a green lung, but much of the lawn has been cemented over.
The oldest Jewish tombstone is dated 9 July 1835 dedicated to a Mrs. Shoshan Levi and is believed to mark the grave of the English Jewess that was the benefactor who donated the land where the current cemetery stands. Most of the graves take the form of a triangular vaulted-lid casket, resembling ossuaries
Ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary...
commonly found in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. There are approximately 107 graves located in the cemetery, with the most recent tombstone dated 2011, incidentally the grave of the last ethnic Jew on the island. It is the only cemetery established solely for the once small and thriving Jewish community in Peninsular Malaysia, although there may be a few Jewish graves in other non-Jewish cemeteries.
The graves of the Cohen
Kohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....
s are located separately from the main group of graves on the north-eastern corner of the cemetery and it includes the grave of Eliaho Hayeem Victor Cohen, a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
with the 9th Jat Regiment
Jat Regiment
The Jat Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army and is one of the longest serving and most decorated regiments of the Indian Army. The regiment has won 19 battle honours between 1839 to 1947 and post independence 5 battle honours, Two Ashok Chakras, eight Mahavir Chakras, eight Kirti...
of the British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
killed in an accident on 10 October 1941. It is the only grave in the cemetery that is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
. The cemetery is itself managed by a board of trustees
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
established and registered in 1885.
Notable Malaysian Jews
- Gary Braut - primary Jewish contact in Malaysia
- Charles Ephraim – one of the last Penang born Jews
- Ezekiel Menasseh – the earliest verified Jewish resident in Penang.
- Edgar Pinto Xavier - Ambassador for the Secular Humanistic Jewish Movement in Malaysia & the Far East
Literature
- Khoo Salma Nasution. More Than Merchants: A History of the German-speaking Community in Penang, 1800s–1940s. Areca Books. (2006). ISBN 978-983-42834-1-4 (pg. 33)