Shaping Zionist Identity: The Jews of Manila as a Case Study
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13537120902983049
ISSN1743-9086
Autores Tópico(s)Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. George Kohut, ‘Jewish Heretics in the Philippines in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century’, Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Vol. 12 (1904), pp. 149–156; Henry Lea, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies, New York, 1908, p. 304. 2. Frank Ephraim, Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror, Urbana and Chicago, 2003, pp. 11–12; Lewis E. Gleeck, History of the Jewish Community of Manila, n.p., n.d., approx. 1989, p. 34; Email William Clarence-Smith to Joan Bieder, 4 July 2002, courtesy of Joan Bieder; Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 13, Jerusalem, 1971, pp. 395–396. 3. Annette Eberly, ‘Manila? Where? Us? The Good Life Out There’, Present Tense, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Spring 1975), pp. 162–163; Ida Cowen, Jews in Remote Corners of the World, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1971, pp. 129–138. 4. John Griese, ‘The Jewish Community in Manila’, unpublished MA thesis, University of the Philippines, 1954, pp. 21–22. 5. Israel Cohen, Journal of a Jewish Traveller, London, 1925, pp. 108–114; Israel Cohen, A Jewish Pilgrimage, London, 1956, p. 193; Cowen, Jews in Remote Corners of the World, pp. 108–114, 141–147. The absence of Jewish institutional development in Manila occurred simultaneously with social, albeit not legalized, anti-Semitism. The Manila Polo Club was founded by Philippine Governor General W. Cameron Forbes, according to one contemporary, ‘for white men only. It excluded Filipinos and mestizos. It frowned pointedly on Jews’. In cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, Jewish exclusion from overwhelmingly Christian clubs and institutions induced the formation of Jewish counterparts. This did not happen in Manila. Florence Horn, Orphans of the Pacific, New York, 1941, p. 132. 6. Jack Netzorg, Manila Memories, Laguna Beach, CA, n.d., ca. 1990, pp. 29, 66; Cowen, Jews in Remote Corners of the World, pp. 129–138; World Jewish Congress, The Jewish Communities of the World, New York, 1963, p. 49; Ephraim, Escape to Manila, pp. 14–15; Gleeck, History, pp. 16–17; Griese, ‘Jewish Community’, pp. 21–22. 7. ‘Jews in the Philippines Not Religious’, The Jewish Advocate (Boston), 25 March 1930. 8. ‘Memories of the Philippines: At Reunion, Bay Area Jews Recall Happy Times There’, Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, 14 September 2007. 9. Eberly, ‘Manila?’, p. 60. 10. Minna Gaberman, ‘Manila’, quoted in Eberly, ‘Manila?’, p. 60. 11. Manuel E. Quezon, Messages of the President, Vol. 5, Part I, Manila, 1941, p. 427; Ephraim, Escape to Manila, pp. 15-77; Griese, ‘Jewish Community’, p. 28. According to one contemporary, after Quezon suggested the admission of Jewish refugees, the Philippines’ indigenous Chinese minority ‘wonder, ironically, at this generous hospitality. For the Jews, like the Chinese, eventually, work their way into trade, no matter how they start their lives in any country’. Horn, Orphans of the Pacific, p. 146. 12. Netzorg, Manila Memories, p. 4. In a 1947 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Philippines Foreign Minister Felix Romulo reminded delegates that ‘during the dispersal of the Jews from Hitlerite Germany the Philippines was among the very few countries that opened their doors to Jewish refugees and extended to them a cordial welcome. We gave them a haven in our country, we accepted them among us, and today they live and work with us in complete harmony and understanding’, United Nations, Official Records of the Second Session of the General Assembly Plenary Meetings, 16 September–29 November 1947, Lake Success, NY, 1947, Vol. II, p. 1315. President Quezon donated seven and a half acres of his country estate at Marikina for the establishment of a working farm for Jewish refugees. Marikina Hall was dedicated on 23 April 1940 and housed 40 residents. Ephraim, Escape to Manila, p. 68. Alex Frieder, an expatriate American cigar manufacturer from Cincinnati, and his brother Philip Frieder were among the members of the Philippine Jewish community who helped persuade the Philippine government to admit Jewish refugees. Joseph Berger, ‘A Filipino–American Effort to Harbor Jews is Honored’, Points East, Vol. 20, No. 2 (July 2005), pp. 15–16. For a full-length memoir about the immigration issues and the Philippine Jewish community, see Ephraim, Escape to Manila. 13. Netzorg, Manila Memories, p. 3. 14. German Jews were arrested in Manila on 9 December along with non-Jewish Germans but were quickly released after the intervention of Jewish Refugee Committee secretary Morton Netzorg. The classic story of a Jew passing with a Filipino passport is that of Ernest Simke, who was interrogated by a Japanese officer on Negros Island. After examining Simke's papers the astonished officer remarked ‘You put chicken in oven, out should come chicken, not fish’. Eberly, ‘Manila?’, pp. 62–63. On the Philippines in general during the Japanese occupation, see George M. Kahin, Governments and Politics of Southeast Asia, Ithaca, NY and London, 1969, pp. 695–697. On the fate of Jews in particular, see S[olomon] S. Seruya, ‘The Jews of Manila’, The Jerusalem Post, 11 April 1979, p. 8; Ephraim, Escape to Manila, pp. 39, 55–56, 71–72, 84, 92; Warren Freedman, ‘The Jews of South-East Asia’, Jewish Post, 20 September 1979, pp. 74–75; Gleeck, History, p. 34; and Griese, ‘Jewish Community’, pp. 31–33. 15. Ephraim, Escape to Manila, pp. 140–150; Moshe Yegar, ‘A Rapid and Recent Rise and Fall’, Sephardi World, No. 3 (July–August 1984), p. 10; and Cowen, Jews in Remote Corners of the World, p. 131. 16. Eberly, ‘Manila?’, p. 61. 17. Cohen, Journal, p. 110. Cohen called his Manila sojourn ‘the least lucrative gathering in the whole of my tour’, Cohen, Jewish Pilgrimage, p. 193. 18. The Philippine Jewish community planted 300 trees in Quirino Park in the ‘Forest of Freedom’ in Israel's Upper Galilee. An additional 300 were planted, as Ernest Simke stated, in a ceremony attended by the Philippine President, to honour the Republic of the Philippines, as an expression of gratitude for the human and just attitude taken by the Philippine government in voting for the partition of the Holy Land and thereby joining the majority decision of the United Nations to establish a new democracy, the State of Israel. Ephraim, Escape to Manila, pp. 175–176, 188–190; Eberly, ‘Manila?’, p. 64; Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 13, pp. 395–396. 19. Letter: Ernest E. Simke, Manila, to Central Zionist Executive, Jerusalem, 28 May 1951, S5/12.170, CZA. 20. Letter: Ernest E. Simke, Manila, to Office of the 24th Zionist Congress, Jerusalem, 20 February 1956, S5/12.165, CZA. 21. Manila Chronicle, 29 September 1956; Manila Times, 29 September 1956; The Evening News (Manila), 3 October 1956; Moshe Sharett, Traveling in Asia: A Travel Diary, Tel Aviv, 1964 (Hebrew). 22. On 7 February 2006, this author asked Mrs. Sally Eubani of Bangkok about the post-war destinations of her friends and relatives among the Manila Jews. According to Mrs. Eubani, David Hallac, originally from Beirut, may have moved to Israel. His wife is her cousin. Joseph Zetounee, originally from Beirut, may have left for America. A Mr. Nasser, originally from Aleppo and then from Israel, may have returned to Israel. See also: Letter from Dina Thischby, Manila, to Mrs. Gordon of WIZO, Jerusalem, 23 November 1958, CZA; World Jewish Congress, Jewish Communities, pp. 48–49; Susan Bures, ‘Behind the Headlines’, Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin, 12 September 1984, p. 4; ‘Tiny Jewish Groups’, Forward, 3 April 1987; Asia-Pacific Survival Guide, Melbourne, Vic., n.d., ca. 1988, pp. 85–88; Ephraim, Escape to Manila, p. 190; Seruya, ‘Jews of Manila’, p. 8; Griese, ‘Jewish Community’, pp. 21–22; Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 13, pp. 395–396. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJonathan GoldsteinResearch Associate of Harvard University's John K. Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. This article was originally presented as a lecture entitled ‘The Jews of Manila and Holocaust rescue’ at a Holocaust seminar held at Shorter College, Rome, Georgia, on March 6, 2007.
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