Asian Jewish Life, a journal that documents the diversity of the Jewish experience in Asia via writings on history, profiles, personal experiences and even films and art, published a fascinating memoir in their October 2014 issue that has suddenly trended on social media the last few days.

Titled "Worlds Apart in Singapore - A Jewish Family Story", it was written by Lisa Ginsburg.

She pieced together her grandmother's memoir through interviews with her and other family members, which shed some light on how the Frankels came to be in Singapore in the 1800s, and subsequently, made a fortune and practically owned a good portion of Siglap to have the entire estate named after their influential Jewish family.

Writing from the point-of-view of her grandmother, Annetta Ginsburg, her recollection is in turn about her grandparents' rags-to-riches mercantile classic story interrupted by war, hints of identity and class struggle, survivor guilt, happenstance of the Jewish diaspora, as well as a visit from Albert Einstein who came to Singapore in 1922.

How the Frankels came to be:

The Frankels originally hailed from Lithuania and came to Southeast Asia in the 1800s to avoid persecution.

Annetta's grandparents, Abraham and Rosa Frankel (who are Lisa's great-great-grandparents, pictured seated side-by-side carrying toddlers in the centre of the photo above taken in Singapore), were living in a poor Jewish village called Drushkininkai in the eastern European country.

They travelled by sea with two children in tow and took two months to reach Borneo.

However, upon discovering there was no hint of Jewish customs being observed, Rosa initially actually U-turned with the kids and went back, leaving her husband Abraham alone -- only to come back again because it was a greater sin to leave one's husband behind than not being able to observe and follow Jewish culture.

To continue seeking out their fortune and put down their roots, the family reunited and picked Singapore as a place to reside as it was British-run then. They had assumed the British made fair colonial overlords.

Having settled down, Rosa then opened Singapore's first bakery, which went on to re-sell furniture bought at an auction. Business boomed.

Their future son-in-law (who is Annetta's father) Victor Clumeck was only in Singapore as a result of happenstance: He was literally left behind in Singapore by his own mother, who didn't bring him along on the next leg of her voyage after a grocer convinced her he was suited working as a labourer.

So, he ended up working for him and later shelved his dreams of emigrating to America as he met a Frenchman who ran an import business, partnered him and bought up and owned Clouet & Company, an import business that sold cans of sardines and building materials among other things.

By that time, it was up and up for the Frankels, with their privileged lives of leisure, helpers, land and houses. From the piece:

Clouet & Company sold cans of sardines, building materials, tiles and whatnot, all along the Straights [sic] Settlements. Clouet’s goods would come from France, then he’d have Chinese women stamp on his “Chop Ayam” (“Ayam” is rooster in Malay, and “chop” is mark) which meant it was a first class product from Clouet & Company. As a young man, my father became a partner with Clouet and did very well. Years later when Clouet retired, my father bought up the business from him and kept the name, Clouet & Company.

In 1903, when Victor was 26 and already successful in business, he asked Abraham and Rosa for permission to marry their eldest daughter, Marie. The Frankels were extremely well off and wouldn’t have said, “yes” to just anybody.

I remember their beautiful estate, “Siglap” which was right by the sea. It had over two hundred acres of coconut and rubber plantations. Of course, the rubber became extremely valuable during the wars and the Frankels became even wealthier. Every Sunday we would go to Siglap for tiffin (a British colonial term for a lunch or light meal). There was a grand dining room with a long table that seated twenty people. Servants would wait on us, bringing us the curries and Malaysian delicacies we loved so well. One servant, the punkah wallah, had to stand there endlessly, poor fellow, tugging on a rope which pulled the punkah (ceiling fan) across the ceiling to keep a breeze going for us in the hot humid air.

And later, meeting Albert Einstein:

When we returned to Singapore, the entire Jewish community was excitedly awaiting Albert Einstein’s visit on 2 November 1922. Einstein was on his way to Japan to deliver a series of lectures and Chaim Weizmann, a leader of Zionism, asked him to stop in Singapore to fundraise for the creation of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This was just before he received the Nobel Prize. Menasseh Meyer, the wealthiest Jew in Singapore, hosted a reception for Einstein and his wife at his grand estate, “Belle Vue”. Many of my family attended. When the Einsteins came back on their return trip, my grandparents gave them a tour of Siglap and he marveled at all the beautiful trees.

And when the war broke out, Singapore was actually a haven for the Jews compared to Europe:

Then the war came. When we lived worlds apart in Singapore, we weren’t aware of the horrors the Jews faced in Europe. The Holocaust caught us completely unaware. We were living the life of luxury, while so many were tortured and killed. I can’t bear the thought of it. Part of my husband’s family had been living in France and for years we couldn’t trace them. We later found out they had all perished in a concentration camp.

The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor too came as a complete shock. I remember my husband running to tell me with his face half covered in shaving cream, because the radio program had been interrupted with the announcement. Thankfully, there were only a few of our family left in Singapore when the Japanese invaded there.

Subsequently, the entire Frankel lineage moved on from Singapore to San Francisco:

Today, no one from our family lives in Singapore. I am told by relatives, who have gone back to visit the Singapore of our youth, that it has all changed. All of our houses and lovely estates are long gone. Singapore is now crowded with people and skyscrapers. They have filled in land to make room for more buildings. If the Frankel’s estate was still there, it would no longer be on the sea, but inland. Only the glorious Raffles Hotel is as it once was.

The entire charming piece is worth a read here.

All photos via Asian Jewish Life

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