Singapore

Capital and seaport of the British dependency of Singapore. Jews commenced to settle in Singapore in 1840. For a number of years their services were held in a rented house near the business quarter, in a street since known as Synagogue street. About 1877 the community purchased ground in a more convenient situation and built on it the synagogue Maghain Aboth, which was consecrated April 4, 1878. It is attended by both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews. A second and largersynagogue, known as Chaised-El, was built in 1904, by Manasseh Meyer, one of the heads of the community. The present (the second) burial-ground of the community was purchased in 1902. The Talmud Torah has a roll of about fifty pupils. The most prominent Jewish firms deal largely in opium, rice, and gunny-bags, and the business of most of the Ashkenazim consists chiefly in liquor-dealing, hotel-keeping, and the selling of furniture. The total population of Singapore is 160,000; this includes about 700 Jews, mostly Sephardic and Ashkenazic, the former having come from Bagdad and India, and the latter from Germany.

J. N. E. B. E.