By Yonatan Menashe
This is the story of the Lost Jews of Manado and that of Eli, who has been recreating a Jewish presence in the Indonesian city of Manado. His is the story of the enduring faithfulness, perseverance, and ingenuity — a triumph of the Jewish spirit against all odds. The achievements of Eli are even more amazing given his youthfulness and the circumstances. Indonesia is a poor land, a country without diplomatic relations with Israe, and a place where being Jewish is potentially life threatening.
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, comprising 7,000 islands in the equatorial regions of the Far East straddling an area as wide as the Continental United States. It was known as the Spice Islands of the Far East or the Dutch East Indies. Indonesia was under Dutch rule from the 17th century to the late 1940s. It is a republic of over 220 million people with the world’s largest Moslem population; 90 percent of Indonesia’s population is Moslem, with the balance mainly Christian, Hindu and Buddhist.
Indonesia has had a Jewish presence for over 100 years, and a small Jewish community remains in the city of Surabaya. The Surabaya community was largely a Sephardic one, hailing mainly from Iraq. Over the years, a few families moved to Singapore while others have assimilated into the local populace. Some prominent local Jewish family names like Musry still crop up from time to time.
There were other smaller Jewish communities scattered throughout Indonesia, mainly Ashkenazi ones. One of them, Manado, is a city located on the northeastern tip of the large island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes). Manado has had a long history of Dutch settlement and is one of the few places in Indonesia where the Dutch have had a significant influence on the local community. Unlike much of Indonesia which is Moslem (or Hindu), Manado and the surrounding areas are mainly Christian, reflecting the strong religious inroads made by the Dutch and other Europeans who had missionized the locals. Along with the Dutch came along small numbers of Dutch Jews.
There was a small synagogue in the old Dutch part of the town that was badly damaged by the Japanese during World War II. It has since been partly restored through the efforts of a young local by the name of Toar Pailingan, who is only 22 years old. Toar, who has taken on the name Eli, after an ancestor, has Jewish blood on his maternal side. His great-great grandfather on his maternal side was Elias van Beugen or Eliyahu ben Eleazar, a Dutch Jew who passed away during the Japanese occupation in 1942. I met Eli in January 2006 during a visit to Manado, a 3 hour flight from Singapore. Manado is known for its diving with its crystal clear waters, beautiful coral and colorful tropical fishes. The countryside is beautiful as the land is surrounded by mountains and a couple of volcanoes which are still active, although there has not been a major eruption for many years. The land is fertile and dotted with coconut trees and rice fields, especially in the Minahasan highlands which are about an hour’s drive from the city and rise to elevations of 2-3 thousand feet above sea level (the peaks of the volcanoes rises to elevations of 6 thousand feet or more). Although the people are mainly Christian, the Moslem population has increased steadily over the years as Moslems moved in from other parts of the Indonesian archipelago. While other parts of Sulawesi are being torn by inter-religious strife between Christians and Moslems, Manado remains an island of calm.
Eli may be only 22, but he has achieved much in trying to re-create a Jewish presence in Manado. He has been practicing “Judaism” since about 15. He first learned about his Jewish heritage in his teens from his mother and granduncle. That seemed to ignite a spark of interest in his Jewish heritage that grew over time. He learned much of his Judaism through the Internet, including an impressive array of Jewish liturgy. We spent a Shabbat together and I was amazed at his command of the liturgy considering he had so little contact with the Jewish world.
In recent years, Eli has received several Jewish visitors from around the world, including three Israelis — impressive considering that Indonesia does not have diplomatic relations with the State of Israel. His visitors have brought him gifts of various Judaica, including menorahs, tallits, shofars and siddurs. He had a whole cabinet full of menorahs that he had received as gifts from his various Jewish visitors.
There are a few Jewish graves scattered throughout Manado but no single Jewish cemetery. Eli has recreated a “synagogue” located an hour’s drive from Manado in the rolling countryside of the Minahasan Highlands. The “synagogue” was purchased with funds donated by a wealthy Jew from the Netherlands who had heard about the plight of the Lost Jews of Manado. The synagogue was originally a house that had been built along Dutch architectural lines. Eli had the building remodeled by removing the floor that separated the lower and upper levels of the house to provide for a higher headroom. He had pews installed on both sides of the synagogue – one side for women and the other for men, with a bimah in between and a cabinet in front which served as the Ark for the Torah scrolls.
Eli learned about synagogue styles entirely from researching the internet at a cybercafe. (He has a desktop PC but no internet connection at home) He is the only child in his family and lives with his parents. Although they are middle class by local standards as both his parents and he himself teach law at a local university, they are poor by Western standards with a household income not exceeding US$1,000 a month. The “synagogue” he created comes complete with a “Jerusalem stone” façade on the front entrance. The stone comes from a local quarry with product resembling that in Jerusalem. The “synagogue” has two “Torah scrolls” housed in a cabinet. On closer inspection, I realized that they were actually makeshift versions. The “parchment” was made from flipcharts either glued together or joined by cellophane tape with pages of the Torah downloaded from the Internet and carefully glued onto the flipcharts in proper sequence. I had never seen anything like this before and thought it quite ingenious. Eli had the rollers and handles made by a local carpenter.
There was a plaque on the wall next to the rear entrance inscribed with Hebrew lettering on the top – Baruch Haba B’shem Adonai (Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord) and the rest in Dutch saying that a donation was made on 17 September 2004 by a J.P. Van Der Stoop on behalf of the Dutch Jewish Community to the “Jewish Community of Manado.”
There are other “lost Jews” like Eli scattered throughout Indonesia, particularly in areas where the Dutch had a significant influence like Manado and Ambon in the Moluccas. This happened over the years through intermarriage and assimilation, some becoming Christian and others Moslem. Apart from the Van Beugen family, other Jewish family names that remain today in Manado include Bollegraf, Meyer, Jacobs, Abraham, Schram, Rosenberg, and Joseph. There was even an Iraqi Jew with the family name Ezekiel who was buried in Manado.
I also met Eli’s granduncle, a Van Beugen, who told me he estimates there are around 100 Jewish family names in Manado and possibly up to a thousand descendants of Jews throughout Manado and the surrounding countryside. I am not certain how the “lost Jews” look, but suspect they probably look quite Indonesian.
On my last night in Manado, we drove by the old synagogue, which is now a home occupied by descendants of the Bollegrafs. It is actually a very humble building and couldn’t have been very grand even in its heyday. Eli has taught them Judaism and they have over the last few years been practicing again, at least in a limited way. I understand from Eli they have been keeping Shabbat. The family was not in when we visited but I peeped through the crack in the door and saw a menorah on the table and Judaic pictures on the wall. Eli brought to my attention that he had a hand in restoring the old building, complete with a “Jerusalem stone” façade like the “synagogue’s.”
This is the story of Eli, a young man of Jewish descent in a poor, distant and unlikely land who loves his God and heritage. The story of a man who is now known in Manado as the local “Yahudi” or “Jew” and who wishes to be reconnected with his Jewish brethren throughout the world.