By Jordyn Haime
PENANG, Malaysia — Scholars do not know exactly when Jews first came to Penang, one of the smaller states in Malaysia, located on the Southeast Asian nation’s western island.
The Jewish cemetery in the region’s capital city of George Town, on a street formerly called Jalan Yahudi — “Jewish Way” — gives an estimate: its first burial was of a Mrs. Shoshan Levi, in 1835.
Pages from The Last Jews of Penang.
By the turn of the 20th century, a census showed a Jewish population of 172.
But Jews no longer roam the streets of George Town, and haven’t in large numbers for decades. Jalan Yehudi has since been renamed for a Malay writer, Zainal Abidin, and the former synagogue around the corner has not been inhabited by Jews since it closed in 1976.
In recent years, Malaysia has been identified by the ADL as among the most anti-Semitic nations outside of the Middle East and North Africa.
Much of that hatred can be credited to its former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who famously declared himself proud to be anti-Semitic. Israel and Malaysia do not maintain diplomatic relations and Israelis are barred from visiting.
“The only thing that does exist [in Malaysia today] are people of Jewish origin, say, people who have a Jewish ancestry somewhere in the family tree, but those people converted to Islam in order to intermarry into the Malay community,” said Zayn Gregory.
Gregory, an American who is himself a convert to Islam and now lives in the Malaysian city of Kuching, has recently penned a book about Penang’s Jews.
The Last Jews of Penang, which was published last month, is a short, all-ages graphic novel, complete with colorful watercolor illustrations of old George Town streets and synagogue scenes by artist Arif Rafhan.
It profiles the history of the once-vibrant Jewish community that occupied old George Town, explaining Jewish ways of life for readers who may have never met a Jew, and highlighting some of its famous figures like David Marshall, who would go on to become the first chief minister of Singapore (under British Commonwealth rule).
“The book is sort of a requiem for the community that used to be. The hope is this book will bring more awareness to the rich multicultural reality of the Malaya that used to be,” said Gregory, who is a lecturer in landscape architecture at the University of Malaysia Sarawak and a writer and translator of Malay poems.
He became fascinated about the little-known history of Jews in Malaysia through stories he read in local news outlets, and was later approached about the idea by the book’s publisher, Matahari Books.
Gregory converted to Islam at age 17. He said he was caught in the middle of a mixed Jewish and Christian family.
He later moved to Malaysia with his wife, whom he had met in the US but was born and raised in Malaysia.
The country is more than 60% Muslim, with nearly 40% of people identifying with other faiths.
Judaism wasn’t a big part of Gregory’s life before moving to Malaysia, he said. “But being here, it’s a country where Judaism is not widely known or understood. Most people have never met a Jew in their life. And there’s unfortunately a lot of misunderstanding and prejudices born out of ignorance.”
The research and writing the book brought him closer to his Jewish roots. When he learned that there was once a Jewish community in Malaysia, “that really clobbered me. I was so amazed,” Gregory said.
Little research or significant writing has been done about the Penang Jews — Gregory used mostly local newspaper and magazine articles, in addition to one study written by Australia-based researcher Raimy Che-Ross.
According to that paper, the Zionist nationalist Israel Cohen paid a visit to Penang in 1920, then under British control, where he met a man named Ezekiel Aaron Manasseh, who claimed that he was until recently the only religious Jew there.
Trade interests, anti-Semitism in their home countries, and WW I had brought “a few other Jews from Baghdad, mostly poor peddlers claimed Manasseh.
Many Jews began leaving Malaysia during WW II with the help of the British. Those who stayed mostly left by the 1970s as anti-Semitism became more pervasive in everyday life.
In a 1970 book, Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister, wrote that Jews are “hook-nosed” and “understand money instinctively.” He was ousted from office in 2020 during his second stint as prime minister, by which time the Jewish population of Malaysia had all but vanished.
Those who fled Malaysia went to Australia, Israel and the US; many others would go to nearby Singapore, including Marshall.
The last known ethnic Jew in Penang was David Mordecai, a well-known hotel manager whose family first came from Baghdad in 1895 and who died in 2011.
He is buried in Penang’s only Jewish cemetery, which has been cared for by the same Muslim family for generations.
Scholars have said the loud voices of politicians do not necessarily reflect the opinions of everyday Malaysians; they argue that many who reject the country’s religious nationalism have begun to reject the country’s tradition of Jew hatred.
Gregory agrees, and hopes his book will help build bridges with the faraway Jewish people that he still considers a major part of his life, and who once called Penang their home.
“The many times that I have shared here with people about my own background, I have never experienced anything remotely hostile,” Gregory says.
