Jews in Sri Lanka
Encyclopedia
Jews in Sri Lanka have had a presence on the island nation since at least the 9th century. In the 10th century, Abu Zeid al Hasan, an Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 traveller from Siraf
Siraf
Siraf is a city in the Central District of Kangan County, Bushehr Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 3,500, in 722 families....

, Persia, stated that there were ‘a great number of Jews’ in Serendib, as Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 was known to the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

s.

In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...

, a Sephardi Jew
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...

 (Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent) who was a medieval adventurer from Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, reported that there were 3,000 Jews in Sri Lanka.

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
Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 to fulfill the commitment of marriage with Maria of Aragon, but it was only after his death that the Pope...

.

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" surname in Sri Lanka may be the mixed descendants of "de Fonseca
Fonseca
Fonseca is a common Portuguese, Galician and Italian surname, whilst the variation Fonseka is common in Sri Lanka. A habitational name from any of several places named for a spring that dried up during the summer months, from fonte seca ‘dry well.’...

" surnamed people, which is commonly associated with Sephardi Jewish
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...

 origins.

Famous Jews in Sri Lanka

The people listed below were Jews, or descendants of Jews, who migrated to the island in the modern times, some of whom remained.
  • Sir Sidney Abrahams
    Sidney Abrahams
    Sir Sidney Solomon Abrahams , nicknamed Solly, was a British Olympic athlete and Chief Justice of Ceylon . He was the older brother of famed Olympian Harold Abrahams....

    , British
    United Kingdom
    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

    -born Chief Justice
    Chief Justice
    The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...

    .
  • Rhoda Miller de Silva, American
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

    -born journalist and Communist (sister of Howard Fast
    Howard Fast
    Howard Melvin Fast was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.-Early life:Fast was born in New York City...

    ).
  • Jeanne Hoban
    Jeanne Hoban
    Jeanne Hoban , known after her marriage as Jeanne Moonesinghe, was a British Trotskyist who became active in trade unionism and politics in Sri Lanka. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka.- Early years :She was born in Gillingham, Kent...

     Moonesinghe, British-born journalist, Trade Unionist and Trotskyist (Jewish maternal grandfather)
  • Edith Gyömrői Ludowyk
    Edith Gyömrői Ludowyk
    Edith Gyömrői Ludowyk was a Hungarian Jewish psychotherapist, poet and communist. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka....

    , Hungarian
    Hungary
    Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

    -born psychoanalyst, feminist and historian of Buddhism
    Buddhism
    Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

    .
  • Ven Nyanaponika Thera
    Nyanaponika Thera
    Nyanaponika Thera or Nyaniponika Mahathera was a German-born Sri-Lanka-ordained Theravada monk, co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society, contemporary author of numerous seminal Theravada books, and teacher of contemporary Western Buddhist leaders such as Bhikkhu Bodhi.-Chronology:*1901: born...

    , (Siegmund Feniger ) German
    Germany
    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

    -born Sri-Lanka-ordained Theravada
    Theravada
    Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

     Buddhist monk, co-founder of the Buddhist Publication Society
    Buddhist Publication Society
    The Buddhist Publication Society is a charity whose goal is to explain and spread the doctrine of the Buddha. It was founded in Sri Lanka in 1958 by two Sri Lankan Buddhist laymen, A.S. Karunaratna and Richard Abeyasekera, and a European-born Buddhist monk, Nyanaponika Thera...

  • Anne Ranasinghe, German
    Germany
    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

    -born poet.
  • Hedi Stadlen
    Hedi Stadlen
    Hedi Stadlen , better known in Sri Lanka as Hedi Keuneman, was an Austrian Jewish philosopher, political activist, and musicologist. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka.-Vienna:...

     Keuneman, Austrian
    Austrians
    Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

    -born musician and Communist.
  • Bella Sidney Woolf
    Bella Sidney Woolf
    Bella Sidney Woolf OBE was an English author, sister of author Leonard Woolf and wife, in her second marriage, of Hong Kong colonial secretary and colonial Ceylonese administrator Tom Southorn.-Early life:...

    , British-born author, writer of the first pocket guide book
    Guide book
    A guide book is a book for tourists or travelers that provides details about a geographic location, tourist destination, or itinerary. It is the written equivalent of a tour guide...

     to Sri Lanka, wife of Wilfrid Thomas Southorn
    Wilfrid Thomas Southorn
    Wilfrid Thomas Southorn , known as Tom, was a British colonial administrator, spending the large part of career in Ceylon . He was the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1925–1936 and he became Acting Administrator of Hong Kong on various occasions...

    , sister of Leonard Woolf.
  • Leonard Woolf
    Leonard Woolf
    Leonard Sidney Woolf was an English political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant, and husband of author Virginia Woolf.-Early life:...

    , British-born political theorist, author and civil servant, husband of Virginia Woolf
    Virginia Woolf
    Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

    .
  • Gabriel Worms, German-born planter, candidate for the Legislative Council of Ceylon
    Legislative Council of Ceylon
    The Legislative Council of Ceylon was the legislative body of Ceylon established in 1833, along with the Executive Council of Ceylon, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. It was the first form of representative government in the island...

    , brother of Maurice Worms, nephew of Nathan Meyer Rothschild.
  • Maurice Worms, German-born planter, established Rothschild Estate in Sri Lanka, brought first tea
    Tea
    Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

     plants to Sri Lanka from China
    China
    Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

    , brother of Gabriel Worms, nephew of Nathan Meyer Rothschild.
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