Beyond CMIO: a Dive into the Singaporean Jewish Community (C1 NE Learning Journey)

Written by: See Hui Xin (26A14)

Edited by: Lei Yanyang (25S61)

Students posing in Maghain Aboth Synagogue's prayer hall. Publications Society/Hui Xin

On 25 February, C1 students from Hwa Chong Institution embarked on a national education learning journey in exploration of various themes, such as multiculturalism. One of these was a visit to the Jews of Singapore Museum. The museum, housed in the Jacob Ballas Centre, stands side by side with the Maghain Aboth Synagogue, forming the heart of the Jewish community in Singapore. 

Walking through the first Jewish Museum in Singapore, we followed the 200-year evolution of the local Jewish community from the Mizrahi and Sephardic merchants who settled here for trade, to their descendants who are Singaporean citizens today. The narrative, told through informational boards, videos and audio recordings, highlights key leaders of the Jewish community – our docent, Jean, recounted Sir Manassah Meyer’s crucial role in setting up two synagogues for Singapore Jews, the Maghain Aboth Synagogue and Chesed-El Synagogue. Other notable figures we learnt about include former Supreme Court judge Joseph Grimberg and Mr Jacob Ballas, a Jewish stockbroker whose philanthropy is memorialised by the Jacob Ballas Centre. A panel is also dedicated to Mr David Marshall, Singapore’s First Chief Minister, who pushed for immediate self-governance and founded the Workers’ Party. 

The history of the local Jews unfolded like a fable with an ambiguous maxim. We were silent, listening about how the Japanese interned most of the 1,000 local Jews during the Second World War, while wives and daughters struck deals with the occupiers to send rations and hope. We heard about lorry drivers shot down for aiding said women, and we began to understand the role of religion in fostering community resilience and support. 

Judaism teaches that human life, created in the image of God, is sacred; emphasising that "Anyone who destroys a human life is considered as if he had destroyed an entire world, and anyone who preserves a human life is considered to have preserved an entire world." This message formed the subtext as Mr Ben, another synagogue guide, answered questions on Kanye West’s antisemitism, explaining how hateful rhetoric often spills over into hostile action. The moral of the story, we learned, was that kindness and empathy should not be impeded by identity: that it should be a universal message applicable to all – the lesson found neither in the specific history of Jewish suffering, nor calls to address antisemitic hate speech, but rather the need for empathy to reach across social barriers, regardless of identity.

Perhaps Mr Ben’s teaching is inherently reflected in the Maghain Aboth Synagogue. The word “synagogue” finds its roots in the Greek word synagein which means “to bring together”. As the oldest surviving synagogue in Southeast Asia, Maghain Aboth has done exactly that. In the 1870s, it brought together the Jewish merchants and their families who settled in the residential areas of Dhoby Ghaut and Bras Basah; today, it serves as the meeting place of the Jewish community for weekly Sabbath services and festivals, such as Yom Kippur and Passover. 

Besides seating worshippers, the synagogue’s prayer hall features the ark, a sacred alcove safekeeping the Torah scrolls, veiled by an embroidered, dark blue curtain known as the parochet. As we sat facing it, Mr Ben introduced the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – as divergent branches of a similar monotheistic belief. He emphasised that the Torah does not mention the afterlife, so that Jews concentrate not on heaven and hell, but on living, as he said, “here and now”.

In the Nevi’im (Book of Prophets), the prophet Micah promises a vision of simplicity in the world to come. Everyone is free from fear, to “sit under their own vine and fig tree, with no one making them afraid”. The cream-coloured Maghain Aboth Synagogue, with its traditional Roman arches, pilasters and columns, as well as three Stars of David, sits on Waterloo Street, shaded by trees — perhaps not fig trees, but the synagogue nonetheless remains a symbol of peace, offering worshippers and non-Jews alike a welcoming hand.