Journal of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center
No.16, Spring  2008


 

Sano Twena:

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN JEWS OF CALCUTTA AND RANGOON

 

 

Mr. S. Twena

As a member of the Calcutta Jewish community, I am a witness to the time when it was at its largest size, about 4,500 members until its virtual disappearance by the time I left India in 1965.

 Included in the figure of 4,500 was the influx of about 1800 Jews from Burma, mostly from Rangoon, but there were a number from other towns such as those of Bassein, Ackyab, Moulmein and Mandalay, and others, who arrived mostly on foot, but also by railway as well as by sea, following the Japanese invasion of Burma, in 1942. Some died on the way.

My brothers and my self were sent in March 1942, to a boarding school in Jubblepore, Central India, because of expected Japanese air raids on Calcutta, (today known as Kolkata). These did take place eventually, but only when we returned in December, and having survived their onset we were never returned to boarding school, to our great joy.

When I returned, I found a community with many, many new members, with various English accents, Burmese intonations, and expressions that we very soon recognised as those of the Rangoon Jews.

They arrived with what they could carry on their backs, over the summer months of 1942. To the surprise of all they were quickly rehabilitated, via family connections, in private homes, synagogues, and other Jewish public places, and, helped by the employment generated by the war effort, most were already employed at Jewish places of business.

Why was this done so efficiently and so well and entirely by private Jewish self help?

I ascribe it to:

(1)            A powerful Jewish tradition of hospitality, to help fellow Jews. There is an older instance of this that exemplifies and shows that this was not a new phenomenon. At the Maghen David Synagogue in Calcutta, the charity box had openings to collect money for various purposes that the donor selected.

The synagogue was erected in about 1886, and arround that time an exodus of Jews from Yemen made the journey by foot from the Yemen to Jerusalem. One of the openings was for the poor Jews of Yemen in Jerusalem.

(2)            Family. Calcutta was the stopping point for Jews of the Middle East, on the way to Rangoon, Penang, Singapore, Hong-Kong, and Shanghai. The Meyers of Singapore and the Khaduris of Hongkong had resided in Calcutta and had family connections in Calcutta, which at the time was the capital of British India.  For the Jews of Burma, Calcutta was the mother city, for they were few in number, and scattered, over many towns. When I returned to Calcutta in December 1942, I found new family connections from my mother’s side and also those from my father’s side. This was not a unique instance. The Heritage Center requested me to provide names of persons who would be interested in this talk. One of the persons responded and I read from his reply to me… You will see that if a suitable girl for a marriage was not found in the home city, it was found in the other.

(3)            Business. The Jews of Burma were mostly in business on their own, some on a large scale, but mostly on a smaller scale as traders. Their counterparts and agents in Calcutta, were family members who shipped produce to and from Rangoon to Calcutta. At one time my mother’s uncles were the sole importers of Burma Teak wood in the city, shipped by their cousins the Meyers of Rangoon. And her Aunt’s husband, Albert (Abdullah) Meyer was the Sheriff of Rangoon under British rule.

Some families even owned property in Calcutta. There were members who were most enterprising. A relative of my wife, who had a grocery business in Rangoon, with a large family, was sought by a friend who had secured a job for him.  “What! A job? Don’t I have brains?” He would not hear of it. He set himself up as a small manufacturer of fruit juices, under the name of Bertrams Fruit Juices, and sold the produce to the US Army, which had a base near Calcutta for the China Burma India (CBI) war theatre.

(4)            Traditions were very strong, and the community was religious, and of the orthodox persuasion. Conservative and Reform Jewry was unheard of. Going back to (1) above, it was reported to me by a family member of the Rangoon Meyers, that insurance of shipments made by them, of a sequence of three, the first two were insured with British insurance companies, while the third was faithfully computed according to the previous premium calculations, and the money sent to the Ezra Sopher Charity of Baghdad. Although Englishmen, they did not stray far from their roots.

What was the end of the Burma Jewish community?

US Immigration Laws allowed entry by quota for each country, and a small quota was allowed the Burmese. For the Burmans, God’s own country was not for them, and they were not interested in emigration to the US. Their quota sufficed for the vast majority of the Jews of Burma to emigrate to the USA.

Their exodus was accompanied by that of the Jews of Calcutta to Israel, England, Australia and Canada. There are about thirty left in that city. This is the sad end of a once flourishing and colourful community.