Even Thailand is witnessing fruits of Jewish assimilation
Re: “The Jews actually have religious courts”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
Good morrow, (Elizabethan English for good morning), Mr Martin.
I found your letter to be half-factual and just a wee bit snide.
The terms you mentioned were misspelled. Perhaps that was due to your carelessness, perhaps due to typos on the part of The Nation.
A BETH DIN is a Jewish religious court whose decisions are accepted by civil authorities only on an arbitration level. An ERUV is an enclosed area where religious Jews are allowed to carry items on the Sabbath.
I thought that your mentioning minor Jewish institutions in the West with even a hint of a link to the current conversation regarding Sharia, Jihad and the Islamist Caliphate was a stretch, to say the least.
You stated that “the Jewish community in Kaifeng China was the only one [in Asia] to assimilate”.
Really?
Perhaps you should study the Jewish community in India, which has lived side by side with its neighbours as Indians for hundreds of years. The Jews of India were instrumental in the development of Bollywood, and many of the early Bollywood stars were Jewish.
You might read up on the Young Turks, several of whom were Jewish or Jewish converts to Islam. They were instrumental in the making of modern Turkey.
You could take a look at the history of the Jews of Singapore, who were assimilated into Singaporean society. They lived as Singaporeans and were interred in Japanese concentration camps with their neighbours. Among those Jewish Singaporeans was David Marshall, the first Chief Minister of that city-state.
And if you take a close look you will see a Jewish community assimilating with its neighbours developing right here in Bangkok. Also note the deep links between Israel and Thailand, where 25,000 Thais work. At Israeli restaurants on Khao San Road, you will find mixed Thai-Israeli couples, and Israelis who speak the Thai language and Thais who speak Hebrew.
Ben Levin
