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Jewish English School (Approximate Location), 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 named Solomon Gabriol who 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, as purveyors of key goods such as teak and bamboo to the British Army. After living in Rangoon in the 1840s, Reinman settled in Cochin, where an indigenous Jewish community had lived for centuries.[2]

Baghdadi Jewish traders from Kolkata would cross the Sea of Bengal and arrive in Burma’s Rangoon in the early 19th century when 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 could tap into many different avenues of trade. Baghdadi Jews became integrated into Burmese society, working in shops and even as government officials and police officers; however, they did not, for the most part, 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, was most often strategic, not do with “sentiment.”[3]

 

The first Baghdadi Jewish traveler to settle in Burma was likely Azariah Samuel, who traversed from the city of Bunshire 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 in some sense felt more a part of the Kolkata Jewish community, with whom they would often spend the holidays with. In 1931, the descendants of Azariah Samuel moved to Kolkata, and then to London and Sydney.[4]

 

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 often dubbed the “City of Gems.” Mordecai Saul, the grandfather of Saul Ezra Saul, would come to make 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, 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.[5]

 

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 the 1870s, a larger influx of Jews moved into Rangoon and from there synagogues, community organizations, and cemeteries were built to accompany the growing Jewish population.  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.[6] The following are a few of the prominent Jewish merchants and businesses in Rangoon: Isaac A. Sofaer, Solomon & Co., David & Ezra Brothers, and Messrs A.V. Joseph & Co.[7]

 

By 1941, the Japanese invaded Myanmar and hundreds of thousands of Burmese and Jewish groups escaped to India for refuge, with only about 200 returning after the war.[8]  Even after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and with Myanmar creating a diplomatic relationship with Israel, the Jewish population remained sparse. After the Burmese military regime took over Myanmar in 1962, more Jews departed leaving only a few families in the community. [9]

Today, only about 20 Burmese Jews remain together with just over 100 Jewish expatriates. They are led by Sammy Samuels, the grandson Isaac Samuels, one of the first Jewish settlers of Burma. [10] These days there is only one local synaogogue, Musmeah Yeshua. It has remained open due to the efforts of Sammy Samuels (Aung Soe Lwin in Burmese) and his father Moses (Than Lwin in Burmese) before he passed. The family holds Shabbat services when the tourist season brings Jews from other countries outside of Myanmar. [11]

 

SITE

 

At the height of Jewish life in Burma in the mid-to-late 19th century, wealthy Burmese Jews, who considered themselves British subjects, sent their children to English schools. Those Jewish families who could not afford to send their kids to the coveted English schools enrolled instead in the Jewish English School at 22 Sandwith Road near the Scott Market Bridge. These schools instilled in their students an appreciation and reverence for Britain and the British Empire, while also teaching students about religion and the Hebrew language, although not about Jewish history explicitly. This curriculum that endeavored to straddle the secular and religious, the Jewish and British perhaps perfectly exemplified the limbo identities that Baghdadi Jews in Burma found themselves occupying in the 19th and 20th centuries.[12]

Daily school life would include meals provided by philanthropists. In addition, community members in mourning would often do an act of service by providing meals as well. The Aaron family provided the main supply of lunches which was especially beneficial for students from low income families. [13] A typical lunch might have been chicken and curries with rice. A regular schooling environment placed boys and girls in the same classroom until the sixth or seventh grades and by then they would separate to their gendered learning environments. [14]

The persecution of the Jewish population by the Japanese in 1941 resulted in the loss of many Jewish community organizations. The Jewish English School that had once served more than 200 students is today a renovated government run high school. [15]

 

 

 

Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar