BOOK REVIEW: People apart in the Land of Smiles

BOOK REVIEW: Jews in Thailand

by Ruth Gerson and Stephen Mallinger

AS noted from the postscript to Jews in Thailand, “This book is not a definitive history of the Jews in Thailand but only an introduction.” 
Co-authors Ruth Gerson and Stephen Mallinger have researched and compiled what is probably the second published work about Jews in Thailand and the first ever in English, published in 2011 by River Books. This work will hopefully inspire more scholarly works about this fascinating community abroad.

The Jews number only 13 million worldwide, with most of them living in North America (46%) and Israel (37%), and another 12% in Europe. Only a very small percentage lives in Asia. Although a tiny segment of the world population, the Jews have had a significant impact on the world. And yet today, an amazingly large portion of the Thais have no idea who these people are. “A Jew?” I have often heard, “What kind of a Christian is that?”

The Jewish Diaspora (dispersion) began in 587 BC when the Babylonians conquered Judea (in present day, Israel), and it gained force in 70 AD when the Romans began driving the Jews out of their homeland of over a millennium. At first these Jews scattered throughout the Mid-East and maintained their religion, identity, and customs. As they migrated further into Europe, many began to assimilate. 

Before the 19th century, very few Jews had ever traveled to Thailand and author Stephen Mallinger obviously labored hard to find any mention of a Jew or anyone with a Jewish sounding name who had been here then Surprisingly he has uncovered a few as early back as the 1600s and even possibly some in the 1500s. Some were Jewish merchants from the Middle East and some came from Europe. As Mallinger notes, “There is no doubt whatsoever that when Jews came to Siam they would have encountered little prejudice, as the Siamese harbored no prejudice against any religion…”

The author also notes that as more Jews appeared in the 1800s, the Thais were not worried that the Jews would try to convert the local
Buddhist population, as they feared Christians would. A distinction should be made between Jews, a distinct ethnic group of people, and Judaism, the religion. As the Jews never actively recruited members through conversion, and only recently began to intermarry on a large scale, they have remained a distinct race of people in spite of their scattering throughout the world. Their belief in the religious teachings has run the gamut from ultra orthodox to atheism and conversion.

The first known Jewish resident of Thailand was Morris Rosenburg who came about 1885 and operated the Hotel Europe on New Road. The book tells how his daughter Elizabeth stayed in Bangkok, married a Jewish gem merchant from Holland, and became the benefactor of the present Jewish community in Thailand. It is interesting to hear the stories of these first Jews to settle in Thailand and how they built a life here so far from their own roots. Some came on their own and founded businesses. Some were sent to help with public health programs, engineering projects, and waterworks.

The author states that “Jews have never suffered any persecution in Thailand. The tolerant and peaceful nature of Thai Buddhism provides that the state and the king protect non-Buddhist religious communities.” Mallinger has noted that “King Rama IV’s government supported the Balfour Declaration (1917)…Siam was the first Asian and first non-Christian country to endorse a pro Zionist statement.” 

Although some European Jews managed to escape the Nazis by emigrating to Thailand,

it was a very faraway and foreign destination with little or no support for refugees. Among the Jews that did come before and during World War II were doctors, dentists, and lawyers who practiced in Thailand. Most of these Jews eventually moved on after the war, mostly
to Israel or America. The Thais also helped many Jews to escape the Holocaust by issuing visas, though most of these visa holders never
actually came to Thailand.

Co-author Ruth Gerson, an American Jew, married the son of Henry Gerson who arrived in Thailand in 1920 and became virtually “the father” of the present Jewish community in Thailand. She continues on where Mallinger leaves off documenting the growth of the Jewish community and the formalizing of that community as an association under Thai law in 1964. 
 
While her father-in-law, along with other prominent Jewish families like the Jacobsohns, Djemals, and Eubannis led an informal gathering of Jews and practicing of the customs for decades, they eventually formed an official community and opened the first synagogue in Thailand. Very isolated from the majority of the world’s Jews, this community benefited from the war in Vietnam when the American presence brought Jews, government support for these Jews, and supplies of Jewish foods and publications along with religious leaders (rabbis) for Jewish Americans in Bangkok.

At present, there are somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 resident Jews in Thailand and yearly over 100,000 Israeli travelers to Thailand. There are now three synagogues (Jewish temples) in Bangkok and synagogues in Samui, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. All of the organized
religious activities in Thailand are under the aegis of the Chabad rabbinate which is an orthodox Hassidic group which has a broad base of support for Jews worldwide. 

In addition to the religious services, there is a “sisterhood” of Jewish women supporting not only the Jewish community but the local Thai community as well.  Though few in number, Jews in Thailand have been responsible for founding the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the National Museum Volunteers along with running successful businesses, being members of charitable organizations, and active involvement in academics.

All of this information I found interesting, especially coming myself from a Jewish background, married to a Thai, residing in Thailand 25 years and holding Thai citizenship. I compared the lives and experiences of these emigrating Jews to the stories I know of my own family who traveled through Europe to America and now to Thailand. I read of Jews who chose to make Thailand their home in spite of the lack of a Jewish community. I read how many of these Jews embraced Thai culture, Buddhism, and even intermarried.

What I was left with was a curiosity about why Jews choose to live in Thailand, how much of the local customs they embrace, and how they deal with intermarriage into Thai culture. As the current religious life in Thailand is orthodox, how do Jews who are not religious fit into the established community? 

History can be so fragile. Gerson’s capturing of the stories of her father-in-law Henry Gerson, a prominent businessman and an outstanding citizen, before his death adds a wealth of knowledge of 20th century history of the Thai Jews and Thailand in general. I only hope that others who have bridged the cultures here in Thailand will record those experiences and share their stories.