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House of Sassoon Solomon, Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma)

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Background: According to Ruth Fredman, author of Almost Englishmen: Baghdadi Jews in British Burma, the first Jew to settle in Burma was likely not part of the Baghdadi Jewish diaspora. Instead, she believes that it was a Bene Israeli Jew, indigenous to India, named Solomon Gabirol. Gabriol served in the army of Burmese King Alaungpaya (1752-1760). In the early 1800s, two European Jews, Solomon Reinman, who traveled through Kolkata’s Jewish community from Galicia, and Mr. Goldberg from Romania, arrived in Burma. They were purveyors of teak and bamboo, which were valuable goods to the British Army. After living in Rangoon in the 1840s, Reinman settled in Cochin, India, where an indigenous Jewish community had lived for centuries [1].

Baghdadi Jewish traders from Kolkata would cross the Sea of Bengal and arrive in Burma’s Rangoon in the early 19th century. This is due to the fact Rangoon became a pivotal port in the international opium trade that went through much of Southeast Asia. Baghdadi Jewish families from Baghdad, Basra, Syria, Egypt, and other locales began to follow the traders and lay roots in Burma, establishing vibrant homes and Jewish institutions that included synagogues and mikvehs (ritual baths). Their massive network as Baghdadi Jewish traders afforded them an advantaged status in the eyes of the British as people who had access to many different avenues of trade. Baghdadi Jews became integrated into Burmese society, working in shops and as government officials and police officers; however, they did not entirely consider themselves Burmese. They were Baghdadi-Jewish and, if anything else, British. In her book, Fredman quotes famous twentieth-century Burmese-Baghdadi Jewish trader Ellis Sofaer, who wrote that it was “quite common in the early part of the nineteenth century for Jewish families in the Near East to be sprawled over the different Turkish dependencies like an outstretched net, and yet to remain cohesive.” The sites of Baghdadi Jews’ dispersion, wrote Sofaer, were most often strategic and had little to do with “sentiment” [2]. This demonstrates that Baghdadi Jews in the diaspora identified with Baghdadi Jewry more than the local communities of their host countries.

The first Baghdadi Jewish traveler to settle in Burma was likely Azariah Samuel, who traversed from the city of Bushire on the Persian Gulf with his shochet (ritual slaughterer) to the port city of Akyab (now Sittwe) in 1841. Within a couple of decades, Samuel became a prosperous purveyor of wine and general goods. He started a family and had five children. The Samuels were the only Jewish family in Akyab, so they felt less a part of Akyab than they did a part of the Kolkata Jewish, with whom they would often spend the holidays. In 1931, the descendants of Azariah Samuel moved to Kolkata, and then to London and Sydney [3].

While the Samuels set up shop in Akyab, other Baghdadi Jews settled elsewhere in Burma. In the early 19th century, brothers Judah and Abraham Raphael Ezekiel settled in Upper Burma’s Yadanabon (present-day Mandalay). Later, David Hai Aaron also settled in Yadanabon, the royal city dubbed the “City of Gems.” Mordecai Saul, the grandfather of Saul Ezra Saul, made a fortune selling expensive perfumes in Mandalay. In 1878, a cruel King by the name of Thibaw took power, forcing the Ezekiel brothers to leave Upper Burma. After a falling out between Judah and Ezekiel, Judah settled in Rangoon and Abraham in Bassein. Some Jews, such as Mr. Jacob and Abraham ben Aharon Cohen, settled in the port city of Moulmein [4].

Most Baghdadi Jews, however, settled in the city of Rangoon, a port city on the Rangoon River, a tributary of the larger Irrawaddy River. Rangoon was an ideal location for merchants and for Jews and other religious minorities looking to practice their religion freely (the British allowed freedom of religion in their colonies). In the late 1800s, some Ashkenazim from Europe such as Jacob Cohen joined the Baghdadi Jews in Rangoon. In 1872, there were 83 Jews in Rangoon out of a total population of 98,138; in 1881, 172 out of 134,176; 1891, 219 out of 180,324; and by 1901, 508 out of 248,060 [5]. The following are a few of the most prominent Jewish merchants and businesses in Rangoon: Isaac A. Sofaer, Solomon & Co., David & Ezra Brothers, and Messrs A.V. Joseph & Co [6].

With the advent of World War II and the invasion of Burma by the Japanese, the majority of Burmese Jews fled, with only about 200 returning after the war. Today, only about 20 Burmese Jews remain together with just over 100 Jewish expatriates. They are led by Sammy Samuels, the grandson of Isaac Samuels, one of the first Jewish settlers of Burma [7].

Site: At the height of Jewish life in Burma, during the mid-to-late 19th century, wealthy Jewish merchants such as the Sofaer Family and Abraham and Ramah Cohen spent time in an opulent suburb of Rangoon known as The Lakes. There, Sassoon Solomon had a home on 18 Halpin Rd. which dwarfed the already extravagant home of his cousins the Sofaers. Ruth Fredman describes the home as follows: “[it had] marble floors, [an] interior marble staircase, and spacious, landscaped grounds, [a] concrete tennis court, stables, and [a] private artesian well. If the home was visited only for a day or a weekend, full meals were cooked at home and packed for the journey. On these special outings, banana leaves, ‘wide and green, and like satin to the touch,’ served as plates, and fingers replaced spoons and forks.” [8]

Fredman emphasizes that most Baghdadi Jewish families of Burma did not enjoy the luxuries of vacation palaces. She quotes Burmese Jew Abraham Shalom Judah who wrote that “during the early years [of the 1920s] we lived in a two-bedroom flat on Sparks Street. One bedroom was my parent's bedroom, and the other was occupied by my eldest sister with her husband. My mother had five daughters and one son (me). The rest of us would roll out our bedding on the floor of the sitting room, where we slept and each morning it was rolled up again.” [9]

Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar

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