![]() ![]() Today it is estimated that there are only 20 Jews left in Myanmar. Jews were greatly affected by these economic shifts as well as losses in the educational sphere and resultant “general chaos” of the regime. However, the remaining community was effectively lost in 1962 with the Burmese military coup that resulted in the nationalization of industries as well as loss of trade networks. Some Jews did return to Burma after the war, joining those that never left in the first place. This conflation left them vulnerable to attack and dispossession at the hands of those looking to overthrow the British, and is therefore the reason for many Jews fleeing during anti-imperial or pro-national skirmishes.īurma gained its independence from Britain in 1948, the same year as the Partition of Israel and Palestine. Like Jews in many colonial contexts, the Jews of Burma were seen as intrinsically connected to the British colonial forces. During the early war period (roughly 1941-1942) the majority of Burma’s Jews fled to India, Israel, and later, the United States. However, with the onset of WWII and the subsequent invasion of Burma by the Japanese, who were intent on dominating Asia and the Pacific, the Jews were pushed out. Jews integrated well into Burmese society and held important roles as merchants and in social and public life. The Jews of Burma became concentrated in Rangoon, but could also be found in many other regions throughout the country. ![]() These Jews are some of the oldest and most historic of India. Additionally, “ethnically Indian Jews,” the Bene Israel and Cochin, made up a large portion of the significant Jewish community in Burma. As Iraq, too, was a soon-to-be British mandate, Iraqi Jews cultivated British trade connections, specifically in teak wood. A large community of Baghdadi Jews also arrived in Burma in late 19th century. One such community was made up of Sephardic Jews who came over with the British from India. British colonial rule in Burma (1824 - 1948) increased the migration of Jews to Burma, transplanting large communities of Jews from around the world into Burmese lands. Jews of Myanmar: Before WWII there were roughly 2,500 Jews in Burma. Today, with so few Jews remaining in Yangon (and in Myanmar as a whole), much of the maintenance and care for the synagogue is left to Sammy Samuels, son of Moses Samuels, a Jew of Iraqi descent. Originally built of wood, the synagogue was restored using stone in 1896, and is one of 188 protected Historic Sites in Yangon. Built in 1854 with a land grant provided by the British, it remains the only synagogue in Myanmar today, and the only place in which the small community of Jews in Yangon can congregate to worship. It sits on a bustling one-way street, surrounded by Indian and Muslim retail and trade shops. The Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue is located in the center of Yangon (formerly ‘Rangoon’), Myanmar (formerly ‘Burma’). Surprisingly well maintained amid the graying buildings that line the street, the synagogue stands as a testimony to the proud community that constructed it in the late nineteenth century, and to the devotion of the few remaining Jews of Burma, who hold it in trust for an uncertain future.” Balconied buildings line the roads, ever confronting the incessant press of nature in hot, humid Burma.īut if you turn from the sights of the streets and raise your eyes, you will see above the white walls an archway decorated with a seven-branched blue candelabra and the name of the synagogue in large blue letters. A few blocks away is the Strand Hotel, where dignitaries, royalty and writers stayed when the British ruled the country in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the busy street corner one catches a glimpse of the Sule Pagoda, reputed to be twenty-five hundred years old, an important center of Buddhist worship in this deeply religious land. It stands behind high white walls, on a narrow street filled with vendors of betel nuts, bananas, books, paint, and homeopathic medicines. “It would be easy to miss Musmeah Yeshua, the grand and all-but-silent synagogue in the heart of Rangoon. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |