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Singapore, Singapore

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A History of the Jews in Singapore:

 

The first Jews arrived in Singapore, a British colony and free port since 1819, in the early 1800s via Calcutta.[2] They were part of the Baghdadi Trade Diaspora, a group of Baghdadi Jews who emigrated from Ottoman Iraq eastwards toward India and beyond for economic reasons and to escape Ottoman persecution, which surged under the reign of “cruel Ottoman governor” Daud Pasha (r. 1817-1831).[3] In Bombay and Calcutta, a flourishing Baghdadi Jewish merchant class grew.[4] Most individuals remained there or continued East, following the British as they expanded their mostly coastal outposts.[5]

The Baghdadi Jewish population in Colonial Singapore grew slowly but steadily. Those who came maintained strong connections with the Baghdadi Jewish communities in India and the Middle East.[6] They kept their religious practices while also building connections within Singapore, trading with Chinese merchants, and participating in the opium trade–the main trade in Singapore at the time.[7] Later, in the 1890s, many Jews would leave the opium trade and begin reinvesting their profits in stocks and real estate.[8]

The small Baghdadi Jewish population spoke Judeo-Arabic, and stood out among the largely Malay and Chinese population of Singapore.[9] Nevertheless, they were still able to socialize and trade freely with other groups in a way they could not in Ottoman Iraq.[10] The men wore “...distinctive Arab robes, gabardine vests, turbans and fezzes.''[11] The women wore “...loose ankle-length dresses called rappahs and scarves knotted around their heads.''[12] They learned the Tamil and Malay spoken in the marketplace, and associated not just with the Chinese and Malay but with other minority groups including the Balinese, Javanese, Indians, Europeans, Armenians, and Arabs.[13] Singapore was special in that traditional barriers of prejudice and habit between different groups were “dissolved” by trade.[14] Among this multicultural landscape, Jews achieved great success.[15] Joan Bieder, author of The Jews of Singapore, writes, “...by 1846, six of the 43 trading houses in Singapore were registered to Jewish Traders,” despite there being fewer than sixty Jews in Singapore.[16] 

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Ottoman Egypt, cutting travel time from Europe to Asia in half, and greatly increasing commerce between the continents.[17] This stimulated “major economic and population growth” in Singapore and attracted many new immigrants, including Jews from all over the world.[18] The original Baghdadi Jewish community, which consisted of fewer than one hundred Jews, comprised merchants and their families, along with some clerks and teachers.[19] Now, Jews joined them from Germany, Russia, and Egypt.[20] They were also joined by other well-off Baghdadi Jews from the British Raj.[21] The largest number of new immigrants, however, were poor Baghdadi Jews coming directly from Ottoman Iraq.[22] From 1870 to 1900, the Jewish population almost tripled.[23]

For nearly forty years, up until 1869, “...the pioneering [Baghdadi] Jewish community in Singapore felt like one big, cohesive family,” but the new wave of Jewish immigrants changed this.[24] The Jewish community became stratified along class and ethnic lines.[25] The impecunious Baghdadi Jews “...would recreate the close-knit community they had in Baghdad,” living in and around Middle Road in an area spanning six blocks including Wilkie Road, Sophia Road, Selegie Road, Princep and Short Streets that they called the mahallah, Arabic for “place,” or “enclave.”[26] Some of them came to resent the wealthy Baghdadi Jews for not helping them financially in any meaningful way, and for instead carrying out demeaning acts of “charity;” e.g., by inviting poverty-stricken Jews to queue in long lines outside their mansions on holidays to receive a coin or two, which would in no way help them escape poverty, and which some poor Jews were too proud to do.[27]

By 1900, the once unified group of wealthy Baghdadi Jewish merchants living around Synagogue Street had scattered, and the five or six extended families who had grown very wealthy lived in the Tanglin or Katong neighborhoods and socialized with the British.[28] Wealthy Baghdadi Jews in colonial Singapore admired and emulated the British lifestyle.[29] Some even became naturalized British citizens.[30]

 The poor and middle class Jews remained in the mahallah and socialized among themselves.[31] The Jewish middle class later began to move to bungalows within walking distance of Maghain Aboth Synagogue, built in 1878 in the mahallah by the trustees of the original tiny synagogue that had been in the business district, while the wealthy stayed on their estates farther away.[32] The middle class also eventually emulated the British, while the poor continued their traditional lifestyles and still spoke Judeo-Arabic.[33] However, their children assimilated and learned English.[34]

The wealthy Baghdadi Jews strived to present themselves as European and were thus treated better by the British.[35] Poorer Jews, who kept to their traditions, were seen as Asian and thus treated worse and looked down upon, even by their wealthy Jewish brethren.[36] However, despite the efforts of wealthy Baghdadi Jews to be considered European, most were barred from entering British institutions like the Tanglin Club, and they weren’t allowed to serve in the British army during the world wars.[37] For the first half of the twentieth century, a community member said: 

 

"There was a ruling class and there were the others. We were the others. Quite simply, we were considered as natives. Even incredibly wealthy Jews who practically owned Singapore at the time never penetrated further than the periphery of British colonial society… of course, we thought of ourselves as being loyal British subjects. There was a picture of the King in every Jewish home. But the British did not want to have anything to do with us. The arrogance of the British became more and more irksome and we became increasingly aware of the anomalies and injustices which we had to endure."[38]

 

By 1900, wealthy Jews “had separated themselves from other Jews physically and psychologically.”[39] Under British rule, they prospered, and the gap between them and their poor brethren widened.[40]

Ashkenazi Jews coming from Europe included the Frankels, who were poor Lithuanian Jews fleeing antisemitism that arrived in Singapore in the 1870s.[41] They became wealthy by building a European furniture company, and mingled and became integrated with the wealthy Baghdadi Jews in Singapore.[42] However, apart from the Frankels, the Ashkenazi and Baghdadi Jews did not really mix, and a cultural divide grew between the Ashkenazis and the Baghdadi Jewish majority.[43] Many Ashkenazis sent their children to Europe to be educated.[44] Even though they prayed together at the synagogue, they did not socialize with each other, and the Jewish cemeteries were split into Ashkenazi and Sephardi sections.[45] Ashkenazi Jews “....did not interfere with - nor were they invited to participate in - the management of the synagogue.”[46] The barriers of class and national origin that were in place would continue to “grow until shattered by World War II.”[47] 

By 1900, the opium trade, which had once been so prominent in Singapore, was “tainted with widespread disapproval,” as it had destroyed so many lives in China and the world, and Jewish entrepreneurs were looking elsewhere for business.[48] The wealthier Baghdadi Jews traded in tin, rubber, and textiles while also investing in real estate and the stock market.[49] In fact, “Jewish businessmen were so prominent in the stock market that trading reportedly closed down on the most important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur.”[50]

Colonial Singapore and its Jews initially remained largely removed from events surrounding World War II.[51] As the war progressed, Singapore’s Jewish community “...caught glimpses of the war’s horror when an occasional German [Jewish] refugee passed through and told them about life under Hitler. They boycotted German products, and David Marshall[52], Eze Nathan[53] and others helped German refugees find work in Singapore and Malaya, but otherwise … [their] lives did not change.”[54] In 1941, the citizens of colonial Singapore seemed at ease, confident the British could protect them.[55]

But on December 8 1941, Japan began dropping bombs on Singapore.[56] The British army welcomed non-Asian volunteers, but Jews were considered Asians and therefore turned down.[57] Some Jews found ways to volunteer anyway.[58] Charles Simon[59] and David Marshall were two such volunteers, who joined the Straits Settlements Volunteer Corps.[60] Simon and Marshall were imprisoned by the Japanese and shipped off to hard labour camps along with British and Australian soldiers.[61] They suffered through forced labor on the Thailand to Burma “death railway”[62] and mined in horrible conditions in Hokkaido[63] in the middle of winter, respectively.[64]

Many Jewish women and children left Singapore for Bombay before the Japanese occupation and waited out the war there.[65] By the time the Japanese occupied Singapore on February 15, 1942, half the Jewish population had fled.[66] 

After the occupation, the Japanese Minister for Religious Affairs observed a service at Maghain Aboth and told the congregation that the Japanese would not interfere with the practice of their faith.[67] By a “...quirk of fate, the Japanese felt a strange mix of awe and anti-Semitism that surely saved Jewish lives.”[68][69] Nevertheless, all Jews were forced to wear armbands labeling them as Jewish.[70] The lives of all Singaporeans were upended, as some homes and businesses were commandeered, cars were confiscated, public transportation stopped running, most shops were closed, industries collapsed, and the news was censored.[71] 

Jewish residents in Singapore were declared “neutral,” meaning they were neither considered enemies nor allies of Japan, and although several Jews were randomly arrested, tortured, and killed, they were not murdered en masse.[72] Their Chinese Singaporean neighbors were not as lucky. Bieder writes: 

 

"The Jewish community was chilled by the massacre of their Chinese friends and neighbours … Japanese soldiers randomly murdered between 5,000 and 25,000 Chinese citizens. Most were roped together, taken on boats and dropped overboard, or herded into the sea off Changi and Siglap and machine-gunned to death."[73] 

 

For all Singaporeans, Bieder continues, 

 

"Random violence was the order of the day in the weeks and months to come. On the street, people would be stopped for no reason, whipped or killed - or given a ride home. They might be given a friendly warning to get new papers, or interrogated or tortured - or simply vanish never to be heard from again."[74]

 

Several Jews were also randomly arrested and subjected to psychological or physical torture, killed, or just vanished.[75]

During the occupation, Maghain Aboth served as a sanctuary for Jews and a place for them to derive comfort from one another.[76] Jews gathered to pray for the safety of loved ones who had left Singapore, exchange news, and raise money to support the poorest members of the community.[77] Bieder explains:

 

"The sudden focus on their Jewish identity during the war had a strong effect on the community. Many became more conscious of Judaism and turned to religious practices and rituals more vigorously than before. Jacob Ballas[78] said that although he had grown up in a kosher Orthodox home, he had spent little time with Jews before the War, because most of his friends were Chinese. But when the Japanese Occupation began, he found himself becoming more religious. … As word of what Hitler was doing to the Jewish population in Europe reached Singapore, his Jewish identity deepened even further."[79]

 

On April 5, 1943, Japanese soldiers rounded up more than one hundred Jewish men, who were given twenty minutes to pack and told to bring one mattress and one suitcase with them to the lorry that would take them to Singapore’s Changi Prison in east Singapore.[80] They had lost their neutral status and been classified as “enemy subjects.”[81] However, an estimated five to six hundred Jewish men, women, and children were left free.[82] People were left confused about why some Jews had been interned while most were left free.[83] A Japanese soldier informed Fred Isaacs[84] that a German ship had recently arrived in Singapore, and German officers had ordered the Japanese to “do something” with the Jews.[85] The round-up happened soon after.[86] 

The Japanese viewed Jews with a kind of awe, resulting in better treatment for Jews than other ethnic groups.[87] Even when one hundred Jewish men had been interned from April 1943–and the rest of the community was interned from March 1945–until the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, a former internee recounted:

 

"The Japanese felt somehow that we Jews were one of them. They treated us well and talked to us about Judaism. We never really knew why. They seemed to like us and even be in awe of us. They certainly would never speak in such a friendly way with the other internees."[88]

 

 Life in Changi Prison broke down social barriers as all Singaporeans waited out the war in captivity.[89] While the Japanese were at first lenient with the prisoners and allowed them to organize classes and a whole prison “university” headed by David Marshall, after October 10, 1943, known as the “Double Tenth,” they cracked down and banned these classes, also blocking food and medicine from coming in.[90] On this day, forty prisoners, including Jews, were sent to the Japanese Kempeitai, the ruthless military police force of the Imperial Japanese Army, and tortured for months on the false pretense that they radioed intelligence to the Allies that helped sink Japanese ships.[91] Fifteen of the internees were tortured to death.[92] Another, a Jewish man, was tortured for six months, allowed to almost recover, but was then shot to death.[93] Those who weren’t taken to the Kempeitai were forced to stand in the hot sun for hours without food or water before being ordered back to their blocks.[94]

 After the Double Tenth, armed guards patrolled the camp at all times, and no more food was brought in; the prisoners had to survive on the rations they had left and were constantly hungry.[95] On May 1, 1944, the Japanese moved the prisoners to the “fresh air and fields” of Sime Road camp in central Singapore, in the former British Royal Air Force headquarters.[96] On March 25 1945, the remaining 472 members of Singapore’s Jewish community were interned in the Simes Road camp as well, where they remained for the rest of the war.[97]

 

The Japanese surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945.[98] After the British recolonized Singapore on September 5, 1945, Bieder writes:

 

"The camp began to empty, but the Jewish internees remained. They had no place to go; their homes had been bombed or requisitioned by the Japanese and then occupied by the ‘first-comers.’ It would take money to persuade the squatters to leave and the internees had no British currency for the task. Soon [Eze] Nathan said it became clear that the British colonial government had no plans to help them restart their lives."[99]

 

Many Jewish middle class families had fled during the war and never returned, and the Jewish population continued to decline steadily for the next forty years.[100] Singapore’s overall population had risen during WWII, however, and there was overcrowding and disease.[101] In 1948, more than two-thirds of Singapore’s population were not housed satisfactorily, and by the end of the war hospitals were out of supplies.[102] “As a result,” Bieder explains, “the lustre of all things British had faded and people began to question British colonial authority.”[103]

In the aftermath of the war, poverty and destruction were rampant.[104] The Jewish Welfare Association (later Jewish Welfare Board (JWB)) was founded by about half a dozen community members on June 27, 1946 to help the poor, and also aided those who wished to make Aliyah, or immigrate to Israel, but couldn’t afford it.[105] It was led by David Marshall from its founding through 1952.[106] While on a diplomatic mission in China at the invitation of the People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, Marshall also helped more than 550 mostly Russian Jewish refugees who had spent the war in China to gain permission from the Chinese government to leave the country.[107] 

The JWB’s responsibilities grew over time to include: 

 

"...maintaining the cemetery, running the synagogue, housing the 70 or 80 poorest Jewish citizens, maintaining their medical expenses and giving them $15-$20 a month to live on. The Board had to do all this with money from three poorly funded trusts - the Maghain Aboth Synagogue Trust, consisting of random small donations (traditionally $15-$25 a month) from community members; the tiny Cemetery Trust Fund, and the Jewish Properties Trust Fund, consisting of the $9,000 in rent collected each year on properties owned by the Jewish community."[108] 

 

This was not enough to hire a rabbi or to meet the community’s needs.[109]

There were other trusts, but these were for specific purposes and hard to access generally.[110] Therefore, when the JWB needed money, a treasurer would need to go beg the Meyer[111] family and other wealthy trustees for help.[112]

By the 1960s, Singapore's Jewish population numbered about 500 individuals.[113] Some Jews who had escaped to India before the Japanese Occupation returned, some Jews left, and the Jews that stayed were playing new and important roles in various fields, including in Singapore’s politics before and after its independence in 1965.[114] 

In 1965, Fred Isaacs was elected Jewish Welfare Board President.[115] He established a monthly fee for Maghain Aboth synagogue members and sold valuable property purchased in the community’s name by trustees in the 1890s and early 1900s next to the Thomson Road Cemetery for $3 million dollars.[116][117] He directed money from the sale to the Jewish Properties Trust Fund, which allowed the Jewish Welfare Board to combine the trusts to create the Singapore Jewish Charities Trust Fund and achieve stable finances for the community.[118] However, by the time this was achieved, the Jewish population had already drastically declined.[119] There were seven hundred Jews in Singapore after WWII, but only about 250 individuals remained by the mid-1980s.[120] As Singapore grew into a prosperous nation, however, more Jews began to arrive, and Jacob Ballas and Frank Benjamin[121] worked to attract the new immigrants to the community by providing a “...lively community center; social events; kosher food; a strong synagogue with an enthusiastic well-trained rabbi, hazan and youth leader, and innovative schools for the children that appealed to expatriates and permanent residents alike.”[122] As of 2024, there are about 2,500 Jews living in Singapore.[123]

 

Contributions by Alana Bregman (alana@shanelani.com)

Singapore, Singapore