קהילת יהודי סינגפור

SASSOON, SASSON, ABEN SASSON, BEN SASSON

שמות משפחה נובעים מכמה מקורות שונים. לעיתים לאותו שם קיים יותר מהסבר אחד. שם משפחה זה הוא מסוג השמות הטופונימיים (שם הנגזר משם של מקום כגון עיירה, עיר, מחוז או ארץ). שמות אלו, אשר נובעים משמות של מקומות, לא בהכרח מעידים על קשר היסטורי ישיר לאותו מקום, אבל יכולים להצביע על קשר בלתי ישיר בין נושא השם או אבותיו לבין מקום לידה, מגורים ארעיים, אזור מסחר או קרובי משפחה.

שם המשפחה שושן יכול להיות קשור בשמה של שושן הבירה, עיר הבירה העתיקה של פרס (דניאל, ח,ב; אסתר, א,ב). אבן הוה תעתיק ספרדי ימי הביניים של המילה הערבית איבן שפירושה "בנו של".

בחלק מן המקרים, ששון הוא מטרונים, כלומר שם משפחה שנגזר משמה הפרטי של אחת מאמהות המשפחה, ובמקרה הזה קשור בשם שושנה.

אחד האיזכורים הראשונים של שמות המשפחה בקבוצה זאת מתועד עם שלמה בן יוסף איבן שושן, הנשיא של הקהילה היהודית בטולדו, ספרד, במאה ה-11. הרב יהודה הכהן בן שושן, המכונה הגאון החסיד, כיהן כרב ראשי בעיר פאס לאחר שהיגר למרוקו מבבל, ושימש כמורו של הרמב"ם. הוא הועלה על המוקד בשנת 1165 בשל סירובו להתאסלם. הוא היה בן למשפחת ששון הנודעת מבבל והגיע למרוקו קרוב לוודאי לאחר שקיעתן של ישיבות בבל ובתחילת שיגשוגה של יהדות מרוקו במאות ה-9 וה-10. הגרסה שישן מתועדת בספרד עם אסטרוק יעקב שישן (לפעמים שמו רשום גם בצורה שושן) בשנת 1262; ואברהם איבן שושן בנו של דון משה אבן שושן שהיה גובה מסים בטולדו בסוף המאה ה-13 ותחילת המאה ה-14. ששון מתועד כשם משפחה יהודי במאה ה-12 בספרד עם משפחת איבן שושן מטולדו אשר נחשבה כמיוחסת לבית דויד.

סר מנשה מאיר (1934-1845)' סינגפור, 1950 בקירוב.
היה איש ציבור ונדבן, מנהיגה של הקהילה היהודית בסינגפור.
(המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, בית התפוצות,
באדיבות "תלמוד תורה", סינגפור)

ראשי הקהילה בסינגפור, שנות ה-1920
עומדים משמאל: מר לוי, מר קלאני, מר עזרא אליאס, גב' קלאני,
יצחק מאיר (בנו הצעיר של סר מנשה מאיר), מר ג'ו אליאס
וגב' ראובן מנשה מאיר
(המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, בית התפוצות,
באדיבות משפחת איזאקס, סינגפור)

בית הכנסת "מגן אבות", סינגפור, 1972
צילום: אידה קואן, ניו יורק
(המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, בית התפוצות,
באדיבות אידה קואן, ניו יורק)

בית הכנסת "מגן אבות", שנחנך ב-1878,
משמש כבית הכנסת המרכזי של הקהילה היהודית,
סינגפור, 1983.
(המרכז לתיעוד חזותי ע"ש אוסטר, בית התפוצות,
באדיבות ועד הקהילה היהודית, סינגפור)

Rev. David Hai Jacob Cohen (1946-1957) Hazzan Maghen Daveed Synagogue, Calcutta, India, August 1946 –August 1957

By Abead Ezra Cohen (His son)

Rev. David Hai Jacob Cohen was born in Baghdad in 1901. He was the eldest of four children: he had two sisters and a brother. His father Yakov Abraham Cohen, who was a goldsmith by trade, was forcibly taken into the Turkish Army in WW1, and sent to the front, where he was mortally wounded.  The family found him with other wounded soldiers in a ward lying on stretchers, but when they left the hospital that night to go home, and returned the next morning to visit him, he was not there. They were told that he had passed away during the night and his body had been removed.  His family were not given the opportunity to bury him in a Jewish Cemetery. Not too long after that, David had to leave school to find work in order to support the family.

  Rev. David Cohen

 

Shortly after the British had captured Baghdad from the Turks in 1917, the family decided to leave Iraq for Burma, which was then under British rule, and had a sizeable Jewish community that was quite prosperous, with small businesses and trading in rice and cotton.  Rev. Cohen arrived with his family in Rangoon, Burma in 1918. Not too long after his arrival, he married Esther David. At the time, he did not speak any English, only Arabic and French, which he had been taught at school. He was already well versed in Hebrew.

In Rangoon, he had to take whatever employment came his way in order to support his family.  At one time, he went into business for himself as a cloth merchant. He carried quantities of material on his bicycle going from door to door. He also gave Hebrew lessons and prepared boys for their Bar mitzvah. For a short time, he owned a kosher bakery.

After living for thirteen years in Rangoon, he became a British Subject by naturalization. He took the Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty the King, Emperor of India, His Heirs and Successors on August 20, 1931. His wife having been born in Burma was a British Subject by right.

Rev. Cohen was a wise and intuitive man, a Torah scholar who came from a family of Hachamim (rabbis) in Baghdad.  His voice was powerful and harmonious. He was active in the Rangoon Jewish community.

In 1939 a representative of the Jewish community in Penang, Malaya came over to Rangoon in search of a Hazzan for their synagogue. He heard Rev. Cohen conducting services at the Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue and offered him the job.  Rev. Cohen arrived in Penang on June 13, 1939 and after being there for a few weeks, he decided to accept the job offer and to move there with his wife and six children. On August 20, 1939, they all arrived with great expectations at the beautiful island.

Rev. Cohen was formally appointed Hazzan of the Penang Synagogue. The synagogue was a converted shop at No. 18, Jalan Nagore. It was a small place and had twelve Torah scrolls. He had brought along with him a Sefer Torah made in memory of his deceased aunt who had passed away In Burma.  There were fewer than ten Jewish families living in Penang at the time.

On December 8, 1941, the Japanese invaded British Malaya. Just before the invasion, the British authorities had several ships in the harbor to evacuate the British subjects who wanted to leave.

Most of the Penang Jewish community left for Australia, but Rev. David Cohen decided not to leave Penang at the time. 

By the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941, he had two more sons, Abraham David and Abead Ezra.

On September 2, 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the allies. As there were hardly any Jews left in Penang, Rev. Cohen decided to move with his family to Singapore, where there was a relatively large Jewish community.

Upon the family’s arrival in Singapore, they moved into a transit camp established by the British Army for displaced British Subjects. They were there for eleven months when once again a representative from a Jewish community, this time from Calcutta, India approached him and offered him the job of Hazzan of the Maghen Daveed Synagogue, which he gladly accepted.

On August 4, 1946, Rev. Cohen and his family boarded a ship for India. After eight days of pitching and rolling, they arrived in Calcutta on August 12, 1946.                                       

 

Rev. David at the Maghen Daveed Synagogue at Simchat Torah's Hakkafot

 

In addition to being the Hazzan of the largest Synagogue in Calcutta, he was also appointed to the Beth Din, the Jewish Religious or Civil Court of Law.  He solemnized marriages and visited the sick. He was a certified shochet – a person who has been specially trained and licensed to slaughter permitted mammals and birds for food according to Jewish dietary laws. He was certified only to slaughter poultry.

Services at the Maghen Daveed Synagogue invariably lasted longer than at most of the other synagogues.  During the years when Rev. David Cohen was the Hazzan of the Synagogue it was customary for the other synagogues to end their services early on the morning of Simchat Torah so as to allow their congregants enough time to go to the Maghen Daveed Synagogue to participate with Rev. David Cohen in the joyous ritual of dancing around the Torah, known as the hakkafot.

Among the events for which Rev. Cohen represented the Jewish community at the Raj Bhavan Calcutta Government House was; “All Faith’s Day,” which was held annually on January 26, to celebrate the Indian Republic Day, and the Indian Independence Day celebration held annually on August 15.

By the 1950s, the Calcutta Jewish community was rapidly dwindling many families were leaving for the United States. England, Australia and Israel.                            

Rev. Cohen decided to immigrate with his family to Israel. It was a very difficult decision for him to make as he was by then in his late fifties and was well aware that it would not be easy for him to secure a job as a Hazzan in Israel.  Nevertheless, he felt that it was in the best interest of his family to do so.

In August of 1957 the family left Calcutta for Bombay from Howrah Station, his immediate family included his two married daughters and their families. From Bombay, they were flown to Bahrain and from there to a British military base in Famagusta, Cyprus where they stayed overnight. The next morning a DC-3 Douglas aircraft belonging to Arkia airlines flew them to Lod Airport, near Tel Aviv, now called Ben Gurion airport.  

The next eleven months were spent in “Sha’ar Aliyah” a transit camp for new immigrants near Haifa. Initially Rev. Cohen and his family were extremely unhappy and wanted to either return to India or go to England to join their eldest son Jack, who had settled there several years earlier. Eventually they decided to settle in Israel.  They finally bought an apartment in Kiryat Yam, a suburb of Haifa. His two married daughters and their family each bought an apartment near his.

Their apartments in Kiryat Yam were about a five-minute walk from a beautiful beach on the Mediterranean Sea.  The majority of the inhabitants of the town were new immigrants from Egypt, Iraq, Morocco and Turkey.

Rev. Cohen and some of his neighbors eventually established a small synagogue in Kiryat Yam to which he was appointed Hazzan. His Sefer Torah proved to be very useful. His fluency in Hebrew, Arabic and English enabled him to communicate easily with his new friends and neighbors.

Rev. Cohen and his family with the exception of his two sons, Abraham and Abead, who soon after moving to Kiryat Yam left for London, settled comfortably  into their new life in Kiryat Yam and were quite contented. He was often heard to comment that he should have moved to Israel sooner than when he did.  When he passed away in Israel in 1979, he had nine children and eighteen grandchildren.    

 

שלום רונלי-ריקליס (1922- 1994), מנצח. נולד בתל-אביב, למד באקדמיה למוסיקה בתל-אביב, וניצוח אצל איגור מרקביץ' בזלצבורג. ב-1950 הקים את התזמורת הסימפונית של צה"ל ואחר כך ניהל ופיתח את תזמורת הגדנ"ע. בשנים 1970-1961 היה המנהל המוסיקלי של תזמורת קול ישראל (שנודעה לימים כתזמורת הסימפונית ירושלים). בעקבות תפקיד זה מונה עוזר למנצח הבית של התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית והופיע אתה פעמים רבות, הן בישראל והן בחו"ל, עד לפרישתו לגמלאות ב-1987. בתקופה זו ניצח על התזמורת הפילהרמונית הצעירה וניהל את המחלקה לניצוח של האקדמיה למוסיקה על שם רובין באוניברסיטת תל-אביב. ב-1964 סייע בהקמת התזמורת הלאומית של סינגפור, ומונה ליועץ המוסיקלי שלה. ניצח גם בוונצואלה ובקוסטה ריקה. נפטר בתל-אביב.

Tom Stoppard (born Tomáš Straussler) (1937-), playwright, screenwriter, translator and human rights activist, born in Zlin, Czech Republic (then in Czechoslovakia). The family fled to Singapore in 1939, where his father could work for the local branch of the Czechoslovak shoe company Bata. His father volunteered with the British army and died as a prisoner of war in Japanese captivity. The family was evacuated to Darjeeling in India. At the end of WW II, his mother remarried a British officer named Stoppard and settled in England. Tom Stoppard began working as a journalist and theater critic for the Western Daily Press in Bristol, England, at the age of seventeen. He started writing short radio plays in the 1950s and A Walk on the Water, his first stage play was produced in 1960. During the 1960s he became a well-known playwright, particularly after the success of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, regarded by many as his best work. During the 1970s he continued to write scripts for television, radio and film – his most famous work was probably the play Shakespeare in Love, that was turned in a movie with the same name in 1998.

At the same time, Stoppard was involved in human rights issues in Eastern European countries and published several articles in support of the anti-Communist dissidents there. As a member of Amnesty International, he visited the former Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, where he met Václav Havel in 1977. His commitment to human rights continued after the fall of the Communism in Eastern Europe, Stoppard collaborates with and is a patron of the magazine Index on Censorship published by the British homonymous organization and dedicated to denouncing attacks against freedom of expression throughout the world. Following his visit to Minsk, Belarus, in 2005, Stoppard became a protector of Free Theater of Belarus, a company forced to produce underground due to political pressure and censorship by the government.

Stoppard wrote over 35 plays, including The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour – a play written at the request of the conductor Andre Previn and its performance requires a full orchestra (1977), 15-Minute Hamlet (1976), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock ‘n’ Roll (2006), The Hard Problem (2015), Leopoldstadt (2020). He is the author of numerous film and television adaptation of plays and books including Three men in a Boat (after Jerome K. Jerome, 1975), The Human Factor (after Graham Greene, 1979), Empire of the Sun (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (final rewrite of the script, 1989), The Russia House (after John le Carre, 1990), Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (dialogue-polish of the screenplay, 2005), and Anna Karenina (after Lev Tolstoy, 2012). Stoppard translated into English plays by Vaclav Havel, Slawomir Mrozek, and Arthur Schnitzler.

His screenplay for Shakespeare in Love won an Academy Award in 1998 and his plays and screenplays were acknowledged by over twenty awards. Stoppard was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 and in 2000 he received the Order of Merit, the highest British personal award.