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St. Paul's School, Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma)

Description

History of St. Paul's School and its Jewish Student Body: Two additions that the British brought in the wake of their invasion and occupation of Burma include firstly, a great deal of European architecture that now litters Burma, from grand buildings that housed the masterminds of the British colonial project in the country, to the wide and "notably shadless streets" that visitors have criticized for being an alteration thoughtless of the tropical Burmese climate [3]. Secondly, the British brought their Christian religion through European missionaries. St. Paul's was a product of the culmination of both of these additions. This school, founded by Bishop Paul Bigandet and established in January 1868 [4], was fashioned in the style of any all-boys prep school that could be found in England around the same time [5].

The schools primary service was to Anglo-Indian and European boys, but the complex system of colonial hierarchy that the British crafted, dictated an allowance for the enrollment of Jewish boys from the community of Rangoon that was close in proximity to Pagoda Road, the street in which St. Paul remains today. Though the British never imagined the Jews in Burma to be on the same status level as their Christian-selves, they, without question, perceived the Jews as being steps above the Buddhist Burmese population; stereotypical orientalist and colonial-empowering tropes of the time, led the British to imagine the Burmese to be incapable of thriving in a school dictated by a British curriculum [6].

Not all Jewish boys were privy to St. Paul's and other missionary schools like it, but it was a priority of well-off Jewish families to enroll their children in these schools, of which St. Paul's was the most popular and seemingly prestigious. Often, families who were not residing in the Jewish community of Rangoon, would send their sons to live there, just for the opportunity to attend St. Paul's. Although the school provided no Jewish education, the Christian student body was overall tolerant of their Jewish counterparts; this may be a product of the incredibly ethnically diverse school body that St. Paul's harbored. The boys Jewish and Hebrew education then became a home and community endeavor. Jewish boys not only enjoyed an English education, but were welcomed into a well-rounded set of activities, including competitive sports [7].

Today the school remains in operation, and has recently, as of March, 2017, inherited a Blue Plaque from the Yangon Heritage Trust [8]. Unfortunately though, it no longer stands as a beacon of hope and prosperity for the Jews of Burma, as the Jewish community of Rangoon is hanging onto existence by a thread.

Jews of Myanmar (Burma): The Jews that began to settle in Burma throughout the first half of the 19th century were primarily Baghdadi Jews from Calcutta who became acquainted with the region as a result of their trade endeavors [9]. Other Jews in Burma during this time period would have included those from the oldest Jewish community in India, the Cochin community [10], as well as those from Persia [11]. The diverse range of Oriental Diaspora Jews dispersed themselves from Mandalay to Toungyi. These settlers though, did not constitute sizeable communities or settlements until Burma came under British domination [12]. This period of domination began with the British East India Company's takeover of Penang, an island situated in the Malacca Straits, in 1786 [13]. As the British, over the next century drove their sphere of influence over the whole of Malaysia [14], the Jewish settlements of Burma were growing. This growth became palpable in 1857, the year in which Burma's first Synagogue, the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue was established in Rangoon [15]. 

Jewish Community of Yangon (Rangoon): The roots of the community of Yangon can be found in the early nineteenth century as a product of Baghdadi Jews involvement in trade, specifically that of opium [16]. At the time of the establishment of the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue, approximately thirteen hundred Jews constituted the community of Rangoon [17], a seaport city in South Burma, bordered on the three sides by the Yangon, Hlaing, and Bago rivers [18]. A vast majority of these individuals were Arabic-speaking Jews of Middle Eastern origin, while a miniscule minority was composed of Jews originating from the Bene Israel community [19]. The Bene Israel community is centered in and around Bombay, India, and after the Cochin community, Bene Israel is the second oldest Jewish settlement in India. Due to their traditional legacies in the fields of government and military, Jews from the Bene Israel dispersed throughout South and Southeast Asia. It has been approximated that sixty of these Bene Israel Jews landed in Rangoon, Burma's capital up until 2006. The Bene Israel community is interesting in that, for centuries, its members remained wholly segregated from their Jewish counterparts around the world. They became increasingly '"Hinduized'", and began to prioritize certain Hindu practices over their Jewish ones [20]. This extensive detachment from orthodox Jewish practice frequently caused tension between the majority and minority Jewish groups of Rangoon [21]. For example, the Jews of Middle Eastern origin questioned the Bene Israel Jew's, leading this minority to be barred from matters of the Synagogue; Bene Israel Jews were prohibited from running for a Musmeah Yeshua trustee position [22]. There was a great deal of debate over the perceived phenomenon of the majority group Jew's subjugating the minority Jews to a diminished status in the religious corners of the community. This issue was largely remedied with the establishment of the second synagogue in 1932, the Bethel Synagogue. The Bethel Synagogue is notable for two reasons: firstly, within this new Synagogue, Jews of Bene Israel enjoying synonymous rights to those Jews of the Middle East, and secondly, the primary reason for constructing a second Synagogue in Ragoon dealt with the congestion of the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue. Rangoon was simply becoming too populous (Rangoon reached a peak population of 2,100) [23], and had outgrown a single place of prayer. This growth is a symbol of the overarching success of this community; at Rangoon's height, the community enjoyed a Jewish major, "a Zionist group " (the first of its kind in east and southeast Asia) (7), "and numerous charitable and communal organizations" [24].

However counterintuitive, the British domination over Rangoon, which Britain annexed to its Indian colony in the late 19th century, allowed for a stable, prosperous, and largely unfettered oasis for this Jewish community [25]. Unfortunately, this British shield was shattered in 1941 with the Japanese storming of Burma. This World War II occurrence prompted a massive migration of the Burmese population to India, especially the Jews of the Burmese population, who were perceived by the Japanese as British sympathizers. Though in 1943 the Japanese granted Burma conditional sovereignty, it is clear that the Jews of Rangoon felt their prior quiet and peaceful home to be soiled, and only a few hundred returned. A vast majority of those Jews that had fled to India, opted to migrate to Israel instead [27]. Today, father and son team, Moses and Sammy Samuels are responsible for the upkeep of the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue, and their descriptions of this task are telling of what is left of the community. Sammy explains that "'Sometimes you feel very lonely, you feel very sad... Sometimes it's only me, only me in this big synagogue". Often this miniscule community cannot even gather enough individuals for a service. Regardless, Sammy and Moses, now surrounded by an overflowing Muslim quarter, are whole-heartedly devoted to keeping the remnants of the historical gem of Rangoon's flourishing Jewish community alive for any future aspiring Jewish community members [27]. 

Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar

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