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From: David Del Testa
Date: Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 6:43 PM
Dear VSG friends,
I wonder, does anyone know of a synagogue/temple serving the needs of Vietnam's pre-1975 (and especially pre-1945) Jewish community? If I recall correctly, there about 500 - 800 Jews in Indochina in 1940. If practicing, where did they worship, if outside the home? For French Indochina with the materials that I have, I can easily find Catholic Churches, Protestant Chapels, and Christian and Missionary Alliance meeting houses, but no synagogues.
Best wishes, thanks in advance, David Del Testa
David Del Testa, Ph.D.
Department of History
Bucknell University
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From: Robert Schuessler
Date: 2009/2/18
And any information as well about the fate of the community itself, please. On a visit to Shanghai I was introduced to a Jewish community there which seems to have survived the Second World War and all that has happened in that country since.
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From: Jean Michaud
Date: 2009/2/18
I remember that the wife of Frédéric Thomas (IRD, based in Hanoi), Rozenn, was writing her dissertation on anti-Jews legislation in Vichy-friendly Indochina during WWII. She must have interesting information on these issues.
Jean Michaud
Université Laval
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From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Date: 2009/2/18
There have been Jews in China for a long time, at least since the 7th century. Two main centers: Kaifeng and Shanghai. The latter in fact swelled in numbers during WWII as Jews fled from Europe. A conference was organized back in the 1990s about Jews in China, with two volumes edited by Jonathan Goldstein (1998 & 1999). Several Harvard profs came to say they were born in Shanghai, including Laurence Tribe.
The Jewish community in Vietnam only dated from the colonial period. I have not seen references to synagogues in Vietnam. Perhaps a look at guidebooks might yield information.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
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From: sv
Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:19 AM
Dear David, my research focuses on period of the Vichy regime. I discuss in my thesis on the fate of the Jewish community in Indochina. According to my research, there is no synagogue official in Indochina. If such a building exists, it must be present in the concessions or the French colony of Cochinchina. Only two foreign religions are recognized by the Vietnamese authorities (Catholic and Protestant). The Jewish community has about 200 people is linked to the colonial presence. See my article written with Eric Jennings : http://cfaj.club.fr/resume_a7_411.htm
Currently, a Jewish community is present in Saigon, not far Lê Loi Street :
http://www.jewishvietnam.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/449512/jewish/Address-and-Directions.htm
*******
Verney Sébastien
Doctorant Université jean Monnet - Saint-Etienne
Professeur HG-EC, Collège français Charles Nicolle - Sousse/ Tunisie
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From: Nir Avieli
Date: 2009/2/19
Hello
As an Israeli Jew working in Vietnam I have often wondered why there is no evidence for Jewish presence and influence as a community in Vietnam (and Indochina). Nowadays, there is a Jewish/Israeli community and a synagogue in HCMC - but this is a modern phenomenon.
I have met a few Jews who lived in Vietnam before 54 and were working for the French (a veterinary and a pilot) but I have never found evidence for a community and not even for individuals who were recognized as Jews.
I find it somewhat surprising as Jewish communities and individuals have left some kind of legacy almost everywhere, inclusive of China and the Malay peninsula, but not in Vietnam.
I wonder if any of the list members knows of Jewish presence in the region or read and thought about this topic
Nir
Dr. Nir Avieli
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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From: Shawn McHale
Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 4:38 AM
Nir,
Your question is an intriguing one. There must have been Jews in French Indochina -- during the Vichy period, the French colonial government passed laws (issued edicts?) expelling Jews from governmental posts, and I think some were actually expelled.
Jefferey Hadler, who teaches at Berkeley, was researching (some years ago) Jews of Basra in the Netherlands East Indies -- I wonder if he came across any material on Indochina?
Shawn McHale
Director
Sigur Center for Asian Studies
Associate Professor of History and International Affairs
George Washington University
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From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Date: 2009/2/19
I read that not only Decoux passed anti-Jewish laws, he did have Jews arrested. I'd have to go back through my notes to find the exact citations. The laws are easy to look up.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
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From: Frank
Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 5:52 AM
The website http://www.mortsdanslescamps.com/monde.html lists several Holocaust victims born in Saigon, Moncay and Sam Neua (Laos):
JO1992p03118-03122 Gabard (Pierre, Robert) né le 14 juillet 1922 à Saïgon (Cochinchine) décédé le 13 avril 1945 en Allemagne). .
JO1993p11712-11717 Gillet (Maurice, Marie, Albert) né le 21 août 1914 à Moncay (Cochinchine) décédé le 2 septembre 1944 à Natzwiller-Struthof (Bas-Rhin). .
JO1994p12034-12044 Le Merrer (Odette, Marie) née le 17 août 1923 à Saigon (Cochinchine) décédée le 10 mai 1945 à Ravensbruck (Allemagne) .
JO1995p12379-12388 Meurinne (François) né le 11 janvier 1920 à Saigon (Cochinchine) décédé le 15 janvier 1944 à Lublin (Pologne) .
JO2000p09463-09467 Schneider (Tobias, Louis) né le 17 mars 1924 à Cholon (Cochinchine) décédé le 15 janvier 1945 à Buchenwald (Allemagne).
JO1995p12379-12388 Nivou (Gustave, Henri) né le 11 octobre 1912 à Sam Neua (Laos) décédé le 18 avril 1945 à Bad Liebenwerda (Allemagne)
as well as, intriguingly:
JO1995p11238-11244 Nguyen (Van Hoa) né le 2 janvier 1915 à Tan Phong (Annam) décédé le 30 novembre 1944 à Eisenach (Allemagne)
The site isn't easy to search, so there may well be other "Annamites" listed.
Best,
Frank Proschan
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From: Philippe Peycam
Date: 2009/2/19
Suzanne Kerpeles, director of the Buddhist Institute in Cambodia, was evicted from her position following the enactment of anti-jewish laws by the Decoux Administration. Georges Coedes, Director of EFEO in Hanoi, also a Jew, did not however suffer the same fate. Some 'adaptations' to the law were certainly the rule. The authorities suspected Kerpeles of being too close to the Cambodian nationalist circles. That wasn't apparently the case of Coedes.
Philippe Peycam
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From: Tai VanTa
Date: 2009/2/19
This is Tai Van Ta , adding a relevant detail about French Vichy government's power in Indochina--which, Professor McHale suggests, might have resulted in expulsion of Jewish from government position. In a year before 1944, I was just a kid of about 5 years old or so, and - I remember vividly now -- I sang the song "Marechal, Nous Voila!" ( Dear Marchal [Petain], we are there for you! ) [ I hope a kid's memory is correct in the right wording from a distant past] when my father replaced a French director of customs house in Mong Cai city, the farthest city on the frrontier of Vietnam with China, where international trade was important between the two countries.
Who knows? That French director might have been demoted for being Jew and replaced in this sensitive post by a Vietnamese guy, because the Vichy government in Indochina was rrunning out of "pure" French guy with knowledge of customs administration?
There must have been Jewish French in Indochina, because I remember I read that there were Jewish people in China who escaped the Holocaust in Eurrope for going to or being in China.
Tai Van Ta
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From: John Kleinen
Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 8:53 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Vietnam
John Kleinen Ph.D
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of Amsterdam
Department of Anthropology and Sociology
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From: Nhu Miller
Date: 2009/2/19
In the1990's (?) I wrote a story about Lubavitch Rebbe conducting a seder
in Ho Chi Minh City for the San Jose Mercury-News.
It was part of a worldwide effort of Lubavitch to hold a
seder in every country in the world. Now there is a CHABAD House in Saigon,
establishing a Jewish presence in what the writer of the following article terms:
//...the time is right for Chabad to establish its presence in Vietnam,
because it is emerging as a major player on the world scene. //
http://lubavitch.com/news/article/2015242/New-Chabad-House-Opens-in-Vietnam.html
So even if there was not a significant Jewish community before, perhaps there will be
one now.
T.T.Nhu
p.s. There were two Iraqi Jewish brothers from Baghdad who were merchants and lived in
a splendid garden house in Saigon on Phan Thanh Giang (which is now the International
School grounds) from the 1920's to the 1970's. I noticed the house
while I was growing up and this was confirmed to me by a great niece, Sharon Grimberg,
a producer at PBS who said they never married, loved Viet Nam and never left.
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From: Paul Sager
Date: 2009/2/19
The Vichy laws removing Jews from government (and various private sector) jobs were promulgated in Indochina in early 1941, so, Tai Van Ta, your father was most likely promoted or transferred for other reasons, including possibly Gouverneur-général Decoux's policy of opening some higher-level positions in state employment for non-citizens, if that was your father's case.
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From: pascal bourdeaux
Date: 2009/2/19
2 references relating to the topic:
- Odette Lang, Judaïsme en terre d'Asie, Safed ed., oct. 2003 (concerning Southeast Asia nothing mentioned on Vietnam but Burma, Malaysia)
- Have a look also on Lionel Obadia's Jewish-buddhist interreligious essay.
http://socio-anthropologie.revues.org/document151.html
PB
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