{"id":3926,"date":"2017-12-15T10:41:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T15:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kulanuarchive.kulanu.org\/?page_id=3926"},"modified":"2019-04-05T08:11:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T12:11:54","slug":"anousim-indonesia-new-kulanu-community","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/communities\/anousim\/anousim-indonesia-new-kulanu-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Anousim in Indonesia: A New Kulanu Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>by Ari Greenspan<\/div>\n<div>Photos by Ari Greenspan<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3927\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3927\" style=\"width: 621px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3927\" src=\"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/anousim\/Aharon-Sharon.jpg\" alt=\"Aharon Sharon demonstrating his shofar-blowing ability\" width=\"621\" height=\"344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/anousim\/Aharon-Sharon.jpg 621w, https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/anousim\/Aharon-Sharon-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/anousim\/Aharon-Sharon-360x200.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3927\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aharon Sharon demonstrating his shofar-blowing ability<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On the western half of the island of New Guinea, in the Indonesian town of Jayapura, live 150 people who are part of a vibrant Jewish community called Kehilat Yehudim Torat Chaim. One thing that makes this community unique is that they are a proud and open Jewish community in the world\u2019s most populous Muslim-majority country. They are proud of their heritage and openly fly the Israeli flag and declare themselves as Jews.<\/p>\n<p>We were met at the border of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia by members of this community and we immediately drove to Jayapura, Indonesia, the provincial capital, where the synagogue is in the house of Aharon Sharon, the community\u2019s leader. We were welcomed by passionate singing\u2014with dancing and jumping\u2014for close to 30 minutes. This is a community of all ages, including many young people and kids. Everyone works; most of them work in the world\u2019s largest gold mine for 2 weeks on and then two weeks off. They explained that they arranged not to work on Shabbat when they are at the mine.<\/p>\n<p>Aharon shared this story about his family\u2019s history : his ancestors fled to Peru during the Inquisition. When the Inquisition followed them to Peru, the community sent some young people in a boat westward to a place their ancestors called the \u201cBlue Mountain.\u201d After a sojourn in Japan, where Aharon\u2019s unique last name comes from, they landed in Jayapura.<\/p>\n<p>They kept Shabbat and Jewish customs. When Indonesia required all residents to declare membership in one of the five official religions in the country, they chose to be called Christians. Yet they did not go to church. The missionaries caused them to dilute their beliefs and practice.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When asked about their customs and traditions, Aharon related how they were sung a lullaby with the words, \u201cOnce you were 12 brothers, now you are none.\u201d Discussing his ancestors, he did not remember first names as they would not call an elder by his or her first name. \u201cHowever,\u201d he explained, \u201cwe have a word we used to call the elders. That word is melamdim.\u201d He did not understand the word, nor did he know it was the Hebrew word meaning teachers.<\/p>\n<p>There were 3 different communities represented.<\/p>\n<p>The one from Timika, about 2 hours by plane, had an interesting story. They actually had a Torah that they brought with them. Around the turn of the 20th century, the missionaries took it and burnt their books. They, too, have now reemerged as Jews and have a synagogue as well. It is hard for the groups to get together as a community because the flights are expensive. One thing that bodes well for them is the interesting American-born Orthodox rabbi who lives in Jakarta. Rabbi Tuvia Singer, who is well-known as the director of a counter-missionary organization, moved to Jakarta and helps and supports the Timika community. I hope that with Kulanu\u2019s assistance one or two people will be able to travel there for a month. The community also desires to have a Sefer Torah.<\/p>\n<p>Time will tell where this story goes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Ari Greenspan Photos by Ari Greenspan On the western half of the island of New Guinea, in the Indonesian <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2553,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-template\/full-width.php","meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anousim in Indonesia: A New Kulanu Community - Kulanu<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Ari Greenspan Photos by Ari Greenspan On the western half of the island of New Guinea, in the Indonesian town of Jayapura, live 150 people who are part\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/communities\/anousim\/anousim-indonesia-new-kulanu-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anousim in Indonesia: A New Kulanu Community - 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