History of the Jews in Sri Lanka
The known history of the Jews in Sri Lanka (formerly
Ancient history
It has also been said that Jewish links with Sri Lanka could go back thousands of years. The city of Galle in southern Sri Lanka was said to be the biblical Tarshish where King Solomon, in 1000 BCE, once shipped elephants, apes, peacocks, jewels and spices. Cinnamon was exported from 1500 BCE.[2]
Modern history
In the 12th century,
These early Jews in Sri Lanka either assimilated into the local population over the centuries, or, upon the arrival of the Portuguese in the early 16th century, were forced to abandon their faith and identity (leading to an assimilation in more recent centuries) or slaughtered in an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition.[4]
Neither practising Jews, nor people who preserved a knowledge of being descendants of Jews, appear to have survived from that early period, although Jewish lineages may be present. Holders of the "de Fonseka" and the "de Alwis" surname in Sri Lanka may be the mixed descendants of "[Fonseca, de Olivera (surname)" surnamed people, which is commonly associated with
Contrary to the enumeration of Jews in the colonial census records of the neighbouring British India and their larger numbers, there was no big Jewish community on record in British Ceylon. The colonial census of 1911 recorded only eight Jews living on the island.[5] In Ceylon, Jewish administrators did not play a significant role unlike India. An important exception was, Leonard Woolf who worked in the Ceylon Civil Service between 1904 and 1911. However, Woolf was a known atheist and anti-religious during his time in the country.[6]
Their rituals and practices have mixed Hindu and Jewish elements and this can be witnessed in their marriages but as the community slowly thins out the Hindu element has taken prominence over the Jewish. Dr. Fiona Kumari Campbell, Deshamanya Tissa Devendra and Dr. Tuan Zameer Careem Khan are among the few academics who have done significant researches on the Jewish community in Sri Lanka, while author Carl Muller has researched on the Jewish connection of the Dutch and Portuguese Burghers in Sri Lanka.
Famous Jews in Sri Lanka
- Sir Chief Justice.
- Rhoda Miller de Silva, communist (sister of Howard Fast).
- Trotskyist(Jewish maternal grandfather)
- feminist and historian of Buddhism.
- Ven Buddhist monk, co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society
- Anne Ranasinghe, German-born poet.
- Hedi Stadlen Keuneman, Austrian-born musician and communist.
- Wilfrid Thomas Southorn, sister of Leonard Woolf.
- Leonard Woolf, British-born political theorist, author and civil servant, husband of Virginia Woolf.
- Baron Solomon Benedict de Worms (1801–1882), oversaw large plantations in Sri Lanka with his brothers Maurice and Gabriel.[7]
- Nathan Meyer Rothschild.[7]
See also
References
- ^ "Vol01chap04".
- ^ "Jews of Sri Lanka: An Untold Story".
- ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela".
- ^ Harris, Andrew (9 June 2011). "Secrets of Ceylon: What Happened to the Jews of Sri Lanka?". eJewish Philanthropy. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
- ^ Wettimuny 2023, 7
- ^ Wettimuny 2023, 8
- ^ a b c William D. Rubinstein (ed.), The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 [1]
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Cited Works
- Wettimuny, Shamara. “‘The Jews of Ceylon’: Antisemitism, Prejudice, and the Moors of Ceylon.” Modern Asian Studies, 2023, 1–25. .