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Amber Mansions, Singapore, Singapore

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A Brief History of Jews in Singapore

 

The first Jews arrived in Singapore, a British colony and free port since 1819, in the early 1800s via Calcutta.[4] They were part of the Baghdadi Trade Diaspora, a group consisting mainly of  Baghdadi Jewish merchants who migrated from Ottoman Iraq eastward toward British Colonial India and beyond to escape Ottoman persecution and pursue economic opportunities.[5] Although they stood out in Singapore in their Iraqi garb and spoke Judeo-Arabic, they became very successful, trading freely with the Malay and Chinese majorities and other groups.[6]

Following the Suez Canal’s opening in 1869, Jews from various communities worldwide moved to Singapore, diversifying the community.[7] The majority were poor Baghdadi Jews, but wealthy Baghdadi Jews, Egyptian Jews, Ashkenazi businessmen working for European companies importing luxury goods, and Russian and Eastern European Jewish refugees fleeing antisemitism also arrived.[8] Singapore’s Jews became stratified along class lines, with the majority, poor Baghdadi Jews, living in a tightly knit community they called the mahallah, or enclave, around Middle Road in south central Singapore.[9] Rich Jews lived in mansions around the island and distanced themselves from their indigent brethren.[10] While Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews prayed together at the Maghain Aboth synagogue, they tended not to socialize with each other.[11]

The rifts in the Jewish community continued to grow until shattered by World War II.[12] Singaporeans initially felt the British would protect them, but Japan conquered the island on February 15, 1942.[13] Many Jewish women and children left right before the Japanese occupied, and those who stayed spent the war under Japanese occupation.[14] However, Jews were allowed to practice their faith, and Jewish residents in Singapore were declared “neutral,” meaning they were neither considered enemies nor allies of Japan.[15] Then, in April 1943, one hundred Jewish men were declared “enemy subjects” and interned, and the rest of the  Jewish community- an additional 472 people - was interned with them from March 1945 until the end of the war in Singapore in August 1945.[16] However, although several Jews were randomly arrested, tortured, and killed during the occupation, they were not murdered en masse like their Chinese neighbors.[17] 

Life in Changi prison, where a hundred Jewish men were interned along with many other Singaporeans, broke down social barriers as all Singaporeans waited out the war together in captivity.[18] The Japanese surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945, and the British reoccupation began on September 5, 1945.[19] The British colonial government was unable to house Singaporean residents or provide medical supplies after the war, and overcrowding, homelessness, and disease were prevalent.[20] Many middle class Jewish families who had left during the war chose not to return, and the Jewish population continued to decline over the next forty years.[21]

In the aftermath of the war, poverty and destruction were rampant.[22] 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.[23]

By the 1960s, Singapore's Jewish population numbered about 500 individuals.[24] Some Jews who had escaped to India before the Japanese Occupation had 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.[25] 

There were seven hundred Jews in Singapore after WWII, but only about 250 individuals remained by the mid-1980s.[26] As Singapore grew into a prosperous nation, however, more Jews began to arrive, and as of 2024, there are about 2,500 Jews residing there.[27]

 

Amber Mansions History

 

Joe Elias (b. 1881-d. 1949) was a second-generation Baghdadi Jew born in Calcutta.[28] His father had grown very wealthy in the opium trade but died unexpectedly when Elias was 21, leaving him in charge, as he was the eldest son.[29] Elias 

 

"...proved to be a gifted, aggressive, entrepreneurial businessman who had enormous success, first in stocks, real estate, and property brokerage and development, and then selling the modern wonders of refrigeration and moving pictures."[30] 

 

In 1921, Elias decided to build a “...then innovative new style of building complex.”[31] It featured a shopping arcade on the ground floor and residential apartments above, a novel idea that was just about to gain popularity.[32] The complex was designed by the famous colonial architecture firm Swan & Maclaren.[33] He built this building at the corner of Penang Lane and Orchard Road, and named it “Amber Mansions” after his mother’s clan name.[34] The name is carved in concrete across “the building’s handsome curved façade.”[35] Although it was only three stories tall,

 

"… architect Lee Kip Lin noted that it was one of the best-designed post-World War I buildings in Singapore. Its front façade followed the curve of Penang Lane with a series of shops facing the road. Suites of lawyers and architects were housed upstairs. Some of the building’s well-known tenants included the University Bookstore, Fosters Steakhouse and the construction house, City Developments Limited. The municipal Gas Department was housed on the ground level of the Amber Mansions."[36]

 

Amber Mansions was home to many Jewish families who enjoyed the convenience and the hidden inner court of the building where children could play away from the road.[37] Jewish merchants ran successful shops in the arcade, including Jacob Ballas’s shop Harrows, Eze Nathan’s electrical shop, and the Benjamin Fashion Boutique.[38] Eze Nathan’s family flat was just above his electrical shop.[39] Jewish families including the Sayers and Nassims also lived in the flats over the years.[40]

Amber Mansions became one of Singapore’s first shopping centers, and included some of  Singapore’s most expensive boutiques offering the latest fashions.[41] It was considered an elite place to shop, and many socialites frequented it in its heyday.[42]

 Amber Mansions remained in use until it was demolished by the Singaporean government in 1984 to make way for a new MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) station, the Dhoby Ghaut station, which is a bustling hub today.[43] 

Throughout his life, Elias built apartments and houses across Singapore, invested in tin and rubber, created the Fresh Food and Refrigerator Company, and extracted and processed Singapore’s Seletar Hot Springs waters.[44] He observed the Jewish holidays and lived in a home with a kosher kitchen.[45] He and his brother-in-law David J. Elias became trustees of Maghain Aboth Synagogue in the late 1930s.[46]

Contributions by Alana Bregman (alana@shanelani.com)

Singapore, Singapore