Many Malaysians are not aware of the existence of the Jewish Settlement in Malaysia. History revisited and a quick search on Wikipedia reveal that Malaysian Jews consists mainly of Sephardic and Marrano Jewish descendents amongst the Kristag people, Oriental Jews from Baghdadi Jews, India’s Cochin Jews, Ashkenazi Jews and possibly Chinese Jews.
The first contact between Jews and inhabitants of Malaya dated back to 9th century AD on the riverbanks of Bujang Valley and 18th century AD in the bazaars of Malacca. British colonialism attracted Jewish trading families like the Sassoons and Meyers from India. During the Japanese invasion of Malaya, Penang Jewish community was evacuated to Singapore and a majority had emigrated to Singapore, Australia, Israel and USA. By 1963, only 20 Penang Jewish families remained in the country.
Penang’s only synagogue located at 28, Jalan Nagore, closed down in 1976 as the community could no longer fulfil the minyan, a quorum of ten or more adult Jews assembled for purposes of fulfilling a public religious obligation. The original Penang Jewish community has ceased to exist with the death of Mordecai (Mordy) David Mordecai, the former general manager for E&O Hotel on 15/07/2011.
David Marshall, a Jewish politician (Singapore) was instrumental in the negotiations leading up to the independence of Malaya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Marshall_
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