Jewish Gravestones in Kanatte

Today (6th March 2007) in the heat a friend and I walked through the Kanatte (Borella) cemetery. After showing mock pictures of Jewish graves stones - I have found 4 verified Jewish graves. So much for there not being Jews in Sri Lanka!!!!!!!!! I will be entering the data on the International Jewish Cemeteries Web site. For security reasons, to prevent these graves being desecrated I will not reveal on this site complex details. I can tell you there is [surnames deleted]... (all with Hebrew inscriptions, which need to be translated) and a [surnames deleted] ... (came via China) - all are early to mid 1800's. There are others - but their status is speculative at this point in time. A fruitful day indeed!

Update 2011: here are some photos. I have not identified where they are from, not to who's graves they are for security reasons.

Inscription of the Grave above.

A Quicky - Getting there with the research

I have nearly finished my article for publication in a journal - and will make it available online once it has been submitted to a journal. Unfortunately there are issues with people copying people's work, so one has to be careful. I have not had much luck with substantiating the matter of the building called "The Synagogue" - so will have to do some archival research. I will be putting in an advert in the English paper "The Daily News" to see if I get any responses. I do have some good historical material which is strong up till the British time. The British period at this stage is filled with colonials who came and went - and not so much on a community as such. The research conditions are a little difficult as there is some tension around the Israeli issue. Sri Lanka has broken off relations with Israel in the late 1960's and has resumed them in an offshore arrangment- does anyone have any information on this. The SL govt I understand buys Israeli military hardware.

I've arrived and open a book with a chapter on Sri Lankan Jews

I've arrived in Colombo (Jan 6, 2007) and will use the opportunity to visit gravesites and generally sniff around. But, a great surprise today - J. B. Mullers new book "The Burghers" has a chapter, yes a chapter called " Semitic Ancestors" on Sephardi Jews in Sri Lanka, Complete with family names. I will create a PDF version of this chapter soon. I am very excited because I had a email from Dr Nathan Katz who is an expert on Indo_ Jews and has lived in SL, but did not have lots of information.

De Worms Family : Rothchild Estate

I have come across an interesting report on the Worms brothers activities in the Rothchild estate in Ceylon:
http://www.rothschildarchive.org/ib/articles/AR2004ceylon.pdf

Responses Update

First, I would like to say thanks to all those people who emailed me on the web and directly. Your enthusiasm has been encouraging. The feedback has ranged from passing in anecdotal information about Jewish families and places to statements that there has never been a Jew in Sri Lanka … except jesus!?! I have also sent a Press release out to both Jewish and Sri Lankan web sources. I thought I would feedback some of the information – so the search and sharing continues ………. I have in most cases delated names for privacy reasons. If you are happy to be known, with or without contact details, let me know:

“ …do have one Jewish surname that I happen to know of and may help you add to your rich research - and that is the name HARMON or perhaps later changed to HERMON. I used to know a lady by the name of {…..} (nee Harmon) … (later married {……}) and they went as Dutch Burghers, who told me that they were from a Jewish family and went on to explain briefly about the Harmon name being changed to Hermon”.

“Nyanaponika Maha Thera, who was born in Hanau, Germany on July 21, 1901 as Siegmund Feniger, the only child of a Jewish family. He died 19th Oct 1994 in the Udawattekelle Forest Reserve, Kandy”.

“there must have been a significant community at one time--mostly pre 1939, I think, as on the main rd out of Colombo, to the South (Galle Rd but that bit is known as Kollupitiya Rd ) about a mile from the former central business district, is a house named "The Synagogue" from the days when it was used as such. I lived almost opposite that house from 1964 to 1973, when I came to Australia”.

“Family hearsay has it that there were Jewish families in Moratuwa”.

“Joe Simpson has posted more information on Justice Sidney Abrahams. I will upload the photo of him”.

Update 2011:
Since writing this, I have been forwarded to pictures taken in March 1966 by Zeev Raphael of the 'house' at 136 Galle Rd,Colombo 3:

“The Synagogue” ~ A house of Worship, just a house (or both) – or a Red Herring?

Fazli writes “The Synagogue – The house occupied for many years by Peter de Saram, a Retired Korale Mudaliyar at Galle Road (Sea-Side) Kollupitiya” . This is also referenced in M. Herath. (2004 ) Colonial Kollupitiya and Its Environs, Lions Club of Colombo, p 141. Is this the same building mentioned by Cecil Wikramanayake in “Jews of Old Ceylon” (reproduced as a Blog). The location appears to be similar – maybe the inscription that Cecil alluded to could tell us more. Was the building named The Synagogue because its style was believed to resemble such a building? Was it previously used for religious purposes? Walter Fischel again suggests in the Indian situation only very large Jewish communities had synagogues – most did not. So the non-existence of a religious building does not mean that there was not an observant community in SL. Any comments – can anyone photo the building and/or the inscription? Send it to me and I’ll post it up.

Drawing Inferences from work of Walter J. Fischel on the Jewish Asian Diaspora

Notes derived from 2 pieces by Fischel:

• Leading Jews in the Service of Portuguese India, The Jewish Quarterly Review, 47(1), 37 - 57, year 1956 ; and
• The Indian Archives: a Source for the History of the Jews of Asia,The Jewish Quarterly Review, 57: 192 - 209, year 1967.

Ceylon is explicitly mentioned as part of a hub of Jewish activities and settlement from 16th cent. onwards. This is significant as usually India stands in for all south asia countries. Fischel mentions that the Jewish communities of Cochin, Bombay etc "are actually the remnants of survivors of a once much wider extent of the Jewish diaspora" (195).

There is a need to guard against assuming that persons bearing certain names of Jewish resemblance as actually Jewish. Merchants working under the various companies VOC, EIC required to register their religious background, ethnic/national affiliation. Common names to look for "joodsche coopman", "judeo", "a jew", "a hebrew", "de raca judaica" etc. Fischel also notes that in the 16th century Jews were employed by the Portuguese as letter carriers, translators, agents. I wonder whether these people travelled to Ceylon or indeed were employed by the Portuguese in Ceylon in a similiar capacity?

Fischel reiterates that the study of Jews in South Asia needs to be correlated with world Jewish history. Despite the fact that the Portuguese used Goa (India) as the base for the launching of the Jesuit missionising activity/and the Inquisition - that Jews nonetheless were valued for their intercultural skills and gained prominance in public life.

Finally, notes for any research:
There is a need to examine Jewish Internal records, e.g. (a) ketuboth (marriage contracts), (b) Mazaboth (Tombstone inscriptions) and (c) Zevaoth (last Wills). Let's go rushing off to the cemetary! Any Jewish burial grounds at Borella????? Fischel indicates that examining marriage contracts have no been that fruitful as most merchants were either lifelong bachelors or 'intermarried' with local (indigenous) women and thus erased from official records.

Notable Jews Post #1

I have given these posts # as no doubt there will be several as more names come to light.

The Jewish Encyclopedia, p 567 - facsimile online @ http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com identifies albeit briefly Baron Solomon Benedict De Worms, an English Financier (1801 - 1882). Baron Solomon and his brothers (Maurice and Gabriel) purchased a large estate which became known as the Rothschild Estate in 1841. When they sold their estate in 1865 they had no less than 2,000 acres under cultivation. Both brothers are recognised as major contributors to the Ceylonese economy at the time and as generous benefactors to Jewish Charities.

More Contemporary names:

Wikipedia: Names of S/L Jews

• Sidney Abrahams, Chief Justice
• Jeanne Hoban, political activist and trade unionist (Jewish maternal grandfather)
• Rhoda Miller, political activist
• Hedi Keuneman (nee Stadlen), political activist
• Anne Ranasinghe, poet
• Leonard Woolf, Administrative officer and author

Sidney Abrahams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Abrahams

Sir Sidney Solomon Abrahams (11 February 1885 - 14 May 1957), nicknamed Solly, was a British Olympic athlete and Chief Justice of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He was the older brother of famed Olympian Harold Abrahams.Born in Birmingham, England, Abrahams competed for Cambridge University from 1904 to 1906. At the un-official Olympiad, the 1906 'Intercalated Games' held in Athens, he finished fifth in the long jump with 6.21 metres. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics he finished in eleventh place in the same event with 6.72 metres. At the 1913 Amateur Athletic Association Championships in London, he won the long jump with 6.86 metres.[1] Abrahams served as Chief Justice of Ceylon from 1936-1939. The most celebrated case he presided over was that of the Australian Mark Anthony Bracegirdle, whom the British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs was attempting to have deported illegally; the court ruled against the Governor. He was founder-president of the Medico-Legal Society of Ceylon. Sidney Abrahams chaired a Committee on the Administration of Justice in Nigeria. He was later Senior Legal Assistant to the Commonwealth Relations Office, and played a major role in the suspension of the People's Progressive Party Government of Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana (Guyana) in 1953. He was elected president of Britain's oldest athletic club, the London Athletic Club founded in 1863. Abrahams was the first Jew to hold the post. Abrahams married Rebecca (Betty) Berkon (1913 - 2003) in 1937. They had two children, David and Sandra.

References: T. Perera, 'The Bracegirdle Saga: 60 Years After', What Next, No 5 1997; Abrahams, Sidney 'Solly', Jews in Sport Online; American Involvement in Guyana in 1953, History of Guyana.

Hedi Stadlen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedi_Stadlen

Hedi Stadlen, (6 January 1916 – 21 January 2004), better known in Sri Lanka as Hedi Keuneman, was an Austrian Jewish philosopher, political activist and musicologist. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka. She was born Hedwig Magdalena Simon in Vienna to Else Reis and Hans Simon, an eminent economist and banker. She was one of those whose life was deeply affected by the spread of virulent Fascism in Europe in the 1930s. Both her parents were assimilated, non-observant Jews, her father had her both baptised to make sure that she would have anti-Semitic shopkeepers during the starvation caused by the First World War. She was sent to a progressive school in Vienna founded by the Polish-Jewish feminist Eugenia Schwarzwald, at whose home Hedi met such figures as the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the architect Adolph Loos. When she was 14, as an atheist she elected under the Austrian Constitution to register as Konfessionslos (religionless). She studied philosophy at the University of Vienna. One of her lecturers, Professor Moritz Schlick was shot by a deranged student. The student was later paroled, acclaimed as a 'heroic Aryan' and, became a member of the Austrian Nazi party after the Anschluss. Incidents such as this caused Dr Simon to leave Vienna and take his family to Switzerland and later to the USA.

Through contacts in Whitehall, Dr Simon sent his daughter to Newnham College, Cambridge University, where she continued her studies, but switched to Moral Sciences (philosophy) under Ludwig Wittgenstein.She spent her weekends in London working for the cause of Indian freedom in Krishna Menon's India League - with Indira Gandhi among others. She later explained that 'the racial discrimination suffered by the Jews in Austria made me feel sympathetic to the victims of colonial rule and strengthened my determination to identify with the fight for the freedom and independence of colonial peoples.' The capitalist crisis, fascism and the Spanish Civil War attracted her to the Communist Party of Great Britain. The historian Eric Hobsbawm fell in love with Hedi Simon, but she, in turn fell in love with another Communist undergraduate, Pieter Keuneman who was President of the Cambridge Union and editor of the student magazine Granta. He was the son of a Dutch Burgher Supreme Court Justice in Sri Lanka. Hedi Simon graduated with First Class Honours in 1939, but as a woman, was excluded under university rules from the award of her degree. She married Pieter Keuneman in Switzerland in September 1939. The next year they went to Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, the Left had split in 1940, when the Trotskyists in the Lanka Sama Samaja Party expelled the pro-Moscow faction, which formed the United Socialist Party (USP). The Keunemans joined the USP, which was fiercely anti-colonial until the invasion by Hitler of the Soviet Union, thereafter advocating co-operation with the colonial regime against the common enemy, Fascism. Hedi Keuneman was elected president of one of the co-operative societies were formed to distribute affordable food, following the outbreak of war. She monitored food stocks and prices in central Colombo, popularising cheaper, local food cereals such as bajiri, a locally grown sticky grain, earning herself the nickname bajiri nona ('Bajiri Lady').Between 1940 and 1942, Hedi Keuneman taught at University College, Colombo and at the Modern School initiated by another Communist emigrant and India League veteran, Doreen Young Wickremasinghe. She was active in the 'Friends of the Soviet Union' and, with shoulder-length black hair and sometimes, barefoot in a red sari, distributed pro-Communist literature, and addressed meetings among English-speaking supporters. She also wrote a pamphlet publicising Hitler's tyranny, Under Nazi Rule. In 1943 when the USP was dissolved and became the Communist Party of Ceylon, Pieter became its first general secretary. He and Hedi subsisted on boiled breadfruit and sambol, living modestly near the CP office in Borella. Following end of the war in 1945, Hedi Keuneman returned to Europe to meet her mother – as a Communist, she was barred from entering the United States (where her father had died in 1942). In London in 1946 she met an old friend from Vienna, Peter Stadlen a distinguished concert pianist who had premiered the Webern Opus 27 Variations. She chose not to return to Sri Lanka, and divorced Pieter. While Hedi Stadlen never rejoined the Communist Party, she never renounced her socialist convictions. She subsequently married Stadlen, with whom she lived in Hampstead.

References: B. Skanthakumar, 'Hedi Stadlen (Keuneman) 1916-2004: Indefatigable political activist', Sunday Observer, 11 July 2004; Alan Rusbridger, 'Hedi Stadlen: From political activism in Colombo to new insights on Beethoven' The Guardian, 29 January 2004.

3,000 Jews in 1170 CE

Judaism Sri Lanka (adherents) 3,000 - - - (year) 1170 C.E. ( Source) Gilbert, Martin (ed.) The Illustrated Atlas of Jewish Civilization: 4,000 Years of Jewish History. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. (1990), pg. 73.(qutes/notes): [Map, pointing to Ceylon]. "1170: Benjamin of Tudela reported some 3,000 Jews. "

Internet source: http://www.adherents.com/adhloc/Wh_309.html

The De Fonseka Surname

When the Roman Legions overran the Jewish nation, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the IBERIAN peninsula. The area became known by the Hebrew word SEPHARD meaning "far away". The JEWS in SPAIN and PORTUGAL became known as SEPHARDIM or SEPHARDI, and those things associated with the SEPHARDIM including names, customs, genealogy and religious rites, became known as SEPHARDIC. Many of the names were of Hebrew derivation. A much lesser number were composed of a first name and a geographic location, many times the result of conversion.

The 'de Fonseka' surname (spelled da Fonseca in Portuguese) is a Jewish (Sephardic) name. The name is listed in a well researched website as a Sephardic name and was confirmed by the creator/researcher of the site Harry Stein as such.

The names listed on this site have been identified as Sephardic by civil and religious records and creditable authors. Many of the names have been changed in the course of migration from one country to another, such as Pena to Penha. This could be the reason why the spelling has changed from 'da Fonseca' to 'de Fonseka'.

THE PIECE THEN GOES ONTO EXPLAIN THE NAME IN THE SRI LANKAN CONTEXT:

“The arrival of the Portuguese in the island and the subsequent events led to the spread of Christianity in the island. Members of the clan (now known as the Varnakula Additiya Arasanilayitta) embraced the religion and took on different names of Portuguese origins. The name most probably would have been the name of the 'sponsor' who took part in the baptism ceremony, or would have been a name assigned by the Portuguese Authorities…..Who lent the name 'de Fonseka'. Was he a military officer, a Priest or some other. It remains a mystery to date. The genealogical history we have traced so far has brought us much closer to the Progenitor, but the question remains unanswered. How and why the name 'de Fonseka' was chosen, is lost in history, but it can be said with certainty that the name was adopted on conversion to Christianity.

SOURCE: http://www.defonseka.com/pe0008.htm

BLOG OWNERS COMMENTS: WAS A JEWISH IDENTITY RETAINED BY THE ‘PORTUGUESE’ SPONSORS – EVEN IN A COVERT WAY? WE KNOW THAT THE PORTUGUESE MISSIONIZING WAS FAIRLY RUTHLESS TOWARDS OTHER CHRISTIANS AND OTHER SO CALLED ‘HEATHENS’

Jews of Old Ceylon

© The Island by Cecil V. Wikramanayake

I read in some newspaper recently the startling announcement that Father Abraham, from whom the Jews and the followers of Islam claim descent, was not a Jew: that his name was Abram and not Abraham; and that the Jews came to be so called from the tribe from which they originated — Judah. The news really shook me. Why? I’ll tell you why. A maternal ancestor bore the maiden name Schneider, which is Jewish.

My eldest daughter is married to an Englishman whose father was a Jewish pawnbroker settled in London, within the sound of the Bow Bells. He bore the name Scarfe, which is also Jewish. That’s why. Adrian Scarfe, when he was courting my daughter in Kandy, where we had taken up residence, positively refused to buy any souvenir in this country made of brass. Because, as he told me, he had, as a child, to polish all the brass in his father’s pawnshop!

The Jews were a thriving community in this country till the beginning of World War II. We had a Justice of the Supreme Court in the colonial days who was a Jew, name of Schneider. The story goes that once, when on the bench, a lawyer of Dutch-Burgher origin made a rather uncalled for remark, referring to His Lordship as a "Wandering Jew". Pat came the retort from the Jewish Judge "Or like the Flying Dutchman!"

I remember, as a child, seeing many Jews in this country, always dressed in the customary long white robe, head covered and kept in place with a phylactery tied round the head. Also, till recent times, there was a Jewish Synagogue at Steuart Place, Kollupitiya (as that part of the Galle Road was called ). The low parapet wall of the synagogue, almost opposite where the Hotel Oberoi now stands, had a stone built into the wall with the words "THE SYNAGOGUE" carved on it.

The Jews who lived in Ceylon observed the Sabbath as all Jews do around the world, from Friday evening till Saturday evening, while the Christians called Sunday the Sabbath day. I learnt that the Jews observed the Sabbath from Friday evening because the book of Genesis — the first book in the Bible as well as in the Torah, the Jewish Bible — states, whether in English or in Hebrew, that when God created the Earth in six days, each day was "the evening and the morning" It did not say "Morning and the evening".

I also learnt that on the seventh day God rested. And then He made man (Adam) and gave him a companion (Eve). And ever since neither God nor man has rested. In parenthesis I must apologise to my female readers for this joke, in poor taste doubtless. But to get back to the Jews of Ceylon. They were, as I said before, a familiar sight in Colombo, in Kandy, in Galle and perhaps elsewhere. But they were a rather close society, rarely fraternising with the Gentiles of this country, nevertheless contributing to the common weal.

Then came World War II and I lost sight and trace of the Jews. Perhaps they returned to Israel with the formation of that country in 1948. But more recently, in 1973 I was able to renew contact with the Jews. Or rather with a Jewish couple, settled in Australia, who were budget-travelling to England. Danny Kidron, born in Telaviv and Jeannette his pretty wife were our guests in Kandy for a couple of months before they moved on to get to England eventually. The last I heard from them was a few years later, when they sent us the good news that "Unto us a son is born. Unto us a child is given" for they had been married for several years without children.

Source: http://www.lankalibrary.com/cul/jews.htm

Blog Owners comments: This is the first piece I came across that mentions a Synagogue. The information needs to be verified. Any takers or additions welcomed! P.S. I have not changed the author's spelling or grammar, but have extracted the piece verbatim.

Boer War Jews held as POW's in Ceylon

Over eighty Jews are listed as having been captured during the [Boer] war and the majority of those were held in POW camps, some in Cape Town and Natal and the remainder in Ceylon (14), St Helena (9), Bermuda (7) and India (7). Three Jews, Simon Gettleson, ‘Sunday’ (possible ‘Sender’ or ‘Zundel’) Davidson and E Cohen, died in captivity. Gettleson left a number of painted seashells, made during his last days on Ceylon, and these are now housed, in the Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein.

Extracted from Source: http://www.jewishgen.org/Safrica/commando.htm

"How come there are no Jews in Sri Lanka": A Beginning

I am often asked "how come there are no Jews in Sri Lanka, when every other faith tradition is represented"? So began my search into the Jews of Taprobane ..... We know that Ceylon (as the country was called before 1972) has experienced waves of colonial invasions - the Portuguese, Dutch and later the Brits. There must have been Jews on board the imperialist's ships - in the service of the VOC or indeed fleeing persecution in Europe. We may want to consider if there was any contact with Jews in India given that the countries are close by?? Did Jews come to our shores in World War I and II? What do observant ex-pats do - for festivals, shabbat and kosher supplies? What about Jews who came to Sri Lanka - fell in love with the Isle and their prospective marriage partners and stayed. The poet and short story writer Anne Ranasinghe (Anneliese Katz) is one publically known Jew.

One of my very distant descendants (in a complex roundabout way) - Leopold Immanuel Jacob van Dort was a Jew (he converted to Christianity). He was appointed Professor of Hebrew at the Christian Theological Seminary at Colombo in 1758 (he studied at the University of Leipzig in 1744 Hebrew and oriental languages) and although he was converted, he was still interested in his Jewish background. He had contact with the Jewish community of Cochin in India and copied some scrolls from the patriarch there, unknown to European Jews. He translated them and gave them in 1757 to Marcellus Bless who worked as a clerk for the VOC in Sri Lanka. He also translated one of 3 existing Hebrew language editions of the Islamic Koran. I am not suggesting that Van Dorts are Jewish; some are and other modified their name to hide their religious ancestry.

I understand that there was (or is?) a synagogue on Galle Rd, opposite the Cinnamon Gardens Hotel.

In my day job I am an academic based at a university (in Brisbane Australia).  I identify Jewishly and have started using my research skills and interests to pull together the missing Jews in Sri Lankan history - but this is very hard to do. So in true Jewish style, let's make this task a communal one. At this stage to am hoping to come to Colombo for 7 months as a visiting scholar from January 2007. But let's not wait till then, this is a global project! On the Blog I will post any findings (as I get used to the technology) and 'cut and paste' snippets from web pages etc.

Shalom,