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Jews are a minor ethno-religious group in Vietnam, presently consisting of only about 300 people.[1] Although Jews have been present in Vietnam and Judaism has been practiced since the late 19th century, most adherents have been, and remain today, expatriates, with few to no native Vietnamese converts.[2]
The first Jews to visit Vietnam likely arrived following the French colonization of the country in the latter half of the 19th century. There are a handful of references to Jewish settlement in Saigon sprinkled through the pages of the Jewish Chronicle in the 1860s and 1870s.
The Jewish Encyclopedia mentions a French merchant and ship-owner named Jules Rueff being active in Indochina in the 1870s, becoming "one of the pioneers of French influence in that country." Per the Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge,[3] "in 1872 [Rueff] became one of the pioneers in the development of French Indo-China." He is also credited in other sources to have been both the "originator of the plan for the railroad of Saigon-Mỹ Tho, in Cochinchina, and the founder and general director of the 'Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine,' which greatly facilitated the spread of French trade in Indo-China by the route of Mekong."[4] A steamship that traversed the Mekong was later christened the Jules Rueff to recognize his role in the region's maritime activities.[5] Rueff was still active in regional trade as late as April 1889, when he co-signed a petition to the French government requesting relief on duties being charged on cotton imports from Indochina.[6]
Between 1883 and 1886, Jewish soldiers and officers fought in the French army in the Tonkin Campaign. One such soldier, from a family of multiple members in the French military was Louis Naquet. Naquet, who eventually achieved the rank of Captain and was killed in action during World War I, received the Medaille du Tonkin[7] for his actions in Tonkin and Annam, becoming chevalier of the 'Ordre Royal du Cambodge.[8][9]
According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Sylvain Lévi was the (one of the) founder(s) of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (French School of the Far East) in Hanoi.[10] The École française d'Extrême-Orient's website notes that the school was founded in Hanoi in 1902.[11]
The Alliance Israélite Universelle appears to have had some activity in Haiphong during the 1920s.[12]
According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, between 1929 and 1932, the U.S. Consul in Saigon was a diplomat named Henry Samuel Waterman, who was Jewish. In 1930, Waterman reported back to the United States about the growth of communism in Vietnam, but his superiors at the State Department discounted his report, saying that the "French authorities have been stuffing him with a lot of hot air about the communistic menace."[13] It turned out however, that Waterman's reports describing the Cong San were accurate, and referred to the Dang Cong San Viet Nam (Vietnamese Communist Party), directed from Moscow and Canton, and indeed there was a "growing threat to colonial rule in Southeast Asia."[14]
As late as 1939, the estimated combined population of the Jewish communities of Haiphong, Hanoi, Saigon and Tourane in French Indochina numbered approximately 1,000 individuals.[15] There were also reportedly eighty Jews in Tonkin during the period of Vichy rule, of which forty-nine were in the military and twenty-seven were in the foreign legion.[16]
In 1940 the École française d'Extrême-Orient (French School of the Far East), who was deemed useful by the resident superier of Tonkin – an exemption to the discriminatory laws could be made.[19] The anti-Jewish laws were repealed in January 1945.[20]
In 1954, with the dissolution of
In 2006, Chabad opened a center in Ho Chi Minh City, which is considered to be the economic center of Vietnam. A documentary about the Rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Hartman of the Chabad Center was put online by Chabad.[24] The film, (mostly in Hebrew with Russian subtitles) provides a look at the challenges faced by the emissaries upon their arrival, as well as a glimpse of the makeup of the Jewish community that existed upon their arrival. According to the Jewish Telepgraphic Agency, the Chabad Center is reportedly used largely by business people and tourists from Israel and the United States, and of as of 2007, there are some 100 Do Thai, or Jews in Hanoi and about 200 in Ho Chi Minh City.[1]
In 2005, the U.S. State Department's "International Religious Freedom Report" noted "There were no reported anti-Semitic incidents during the period covered by this report. The country's small Jewish population is comprised almost entirely of expatriates."[2]
The discovery of the wild saola species in Vietnam in 1993 made note in the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society's Fall 1999 issue. Although the "odd, elusive creature... possibly on the verge of extinction" was not being considered for consumption, it was noted as an example of an animal that exhibited both kosher indicia but lacking a "mesorah" – an oral tradition required by many halachic decisors to declare the animal kosher.
Gradually, as the communist government began accepting economic reforms, the number of Jewish visitors to the country increased.
In 1971, about 12 French Jews still remained in Jack H. Jacobs won the Medal of Honor for heroism for his service.[23]
. The 1956 American Jewish Yearbook listed the Jewish population of French Indochina at 1,500, as noted above, but in its 1957 printing, there is no mention of a Jewish population in the region. French-Indochina War, was killed while on assignment covering the Omaha Beach landing on Allied, a photo journalist made famous for providing the first photographs of the Robert Capa On 25 May 1954 [21]
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