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Thursday October 11, 2007

Myanmar’s Jews, who number 20, live in fear

by itamar eichner
ynetnews.com

Very little is left of the Jewish community in Myanmar. At its peak in the 1940s, the community in former Burma numbered some 4,000 Jews, mostly of Iranian, Iraqi and Indian origin.

Now only 20 are left.

But Burma’s Jews began leaving during World War II. Most fled when Japan invaded the country, choosing to immigrate to the United States and the Middle East.

In 1962, after General Ne Win’s military coup, the community dwindled again. More Jews left in 1964, after the military regime began nationalizing private businesses.

Burma’s remaining Jews are concentrated in the capital, Yangon and in the country’s second largest city — Mandalay. There is no community life to speak of, and any interaction takes place during Shabbat and the holidays, when residents meet in the synagogue for prayers.

“The Jewish community here lives in fear. Nobody knows what might happen tomorrow,” said resident Sami Samuels.

“These are the saddest Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot we’ve had in a very long time … we had to adjust the prayer services to the military’s curfew, the streets are crawling with soldiers and the situation here is very unstable. The Jews, like many others here, fear for their lives,” Samuels said.

Tension between the military junta and Buddhist monks have made the Jewish community take extra precautions, including hiring a private security company to guard Yangon’s only synagogue.

“The unrest here makes it hard for us to even find the quorum needed for prayers,” Samuels said. The community is so small Jews sometimes find themselves celebrating holidays with the Buddhist monks.

His father, Moshe Samuels, is the manager of Yangon’s synagogue, built in 1854.

Samuels senior is slightly more optimistic: “The military junta here has no grudge against the Jews,” he said. “We stay out of politics, so what goes around has no real bearing on us.

“It’s true that finding a quorum for prayers has been difficult lately,” he added. “But our friends in the Israeli embassy help us with that.”

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