History of the Jews in Indonesia

The history of the Jews in Indonesia began with the arrival of European explorers and settlers. In the present, there is only a small Jewish community in Indonesia with about twenty Jews, most of whom are Sephardi.

History

In the 1850s the Jewish traveler Jacob Saphir wrote the first report on the Jewish community in the Dutch East Indies after his visit Batavia. In Batavia he had spoken to a local Jew, who told him about twenty Jewish families in the town itself and another in Surabaya and Semarang. The majority of domestic Dutch East Indies in the 19th century Jews were Dutch Jews, who worked as a dealer or members of the colonial administration were. However, there were members of the Jewish community, who had immigrated from Iraq or from Aden.

In the interwar period, Israel Cohen estimated the number of Jews in the Dutch East Indies on the 2000. Indonesian Jews suffered greatly under the Japanese occupation. They were interned and forced to work in the camps. After the war, the formerly interned Jews were not given their expropriated again, which is why many emigrated to the United States, Australia or Israel.

At the end of the 1960s it was estimated that twenty Jews live in Jakarta, Surabaya and 25 more in Manado.

Population

The total number of Jewish community members in Indonesia is given by the World Jewish Congress at 25.

Assimilation and demographic changes

They were the same social and cultural characteristics of Indonesia that favored both the extraordinary economic, political and social success of the local Jewish community as well as their assimilation.

The number of marriages outside the Jewish community increased from about 55 % in 1944 to an estimated 90-94 % in 2004. Usually, the marriages resulting from these children educated non- Jewish, given the composition of the population of Indonesia ie mostly Muslim.

The Indonesian government only recognizes six religions, Judaism is not among them. This manifests itself, for example, that in the Indonesian identity card ( cartridge Tanda Penduduk ) is recorded in the field in which the religion of the owner, it is not possible to enter the Jewish.