Published: 11 January 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THERE WAS A CHANUKAH party last month in the former Myanmar capital of Yangon and enough guests — over 200 — to surprise an uninvited tourist.
“They’re no Jews here anymore,” the tourist proclaims, confused about the celebration at Yangon’s regal Chatrium Hotel.
“Yes there are,” replies Ari Solomon, a guest from Australia.
“No, they said there are 10 families,” the tourist responds.
“Well, that’s not nothing – that’s 10 families,” Solomon counters. “That’s a lot. You go back to my hometown, Calcutta, and there are lucky to be 16 Jews, let alone 10 families.”
Indeed, Myanmar’s Jewish community has dwindled to about 20 people. Most of the Jews had fled when Japan invaded the country in World War II, as the Axis power distrusted them for their perceived political alignment with the British. The majority who remained left in the mid-1960s, when the new regime nationalized businesses as part of a socialist agenda that would soon run the country into the ground.
Still, Sammy Samuels, 38, the de facto leader of this Southeast Asian nation’s remaining Jewish community, has held out hope for its future, if not a revival. In recent years his father, Moses, had maintained the community, opening the door of Yangon’s sole synagogue daily in the hopes of welcoming tourists.
FULL STORY In repressive Myanmar, a tiny Jewish community hangs on to the past (JTA)
Photo: The Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue in Yangon dates back to the 19th century (Charles Dunst)
