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| Most members of the tiny Jewish community in Muslim-majority Indonesia keep their identity under wraps |
Yaakov
Baruch is the rabbi at Indonesia's only synagogue but he keeps his religious
identity under wraps, like most of the tiny Jewish community living in the
world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.
A group of
men threatened Baruch with death and called him a "crazy Jew" as he
walked in a mall with his pregnant wife several years ago, prompting him to
limit when he wears his kippah -- a Jewish skullcap.
"It's
never happened again because I chose to hide my identity as a Jew in
public," he said.
There is a
similar ripple of concern among many of the estimated 200 Jews living in the
Southeast Asian country of 260 million people, with most centred in a remote
corner of the sprawling archipelago.
Manado on
Sulawesi island is one of the few places that Indonesia's remaining Jews --
mostly descendants of traders from Europe and Iraq who were once thought to
number around several thousand before World War II -- feel comfortable showing
their faith.
A
62-foot-tall menorah, possibly the world's largest, stands near the town of
Tondano -- around 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Manado -- where Baruch
holds regular services at a modest, red-roofed synagogue.
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Indonesia's
remaining Jews are mostly descendents of traders from Europe and
Iraq who were
once thought to number around several thousand before World War II
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'The
enemy'
The Shaar
Hasyamayim synagogue is Indonesia's lone house of worship for Jews after the
only other one in the city of Surabaya was demolished in 2013.
It had been
the site of anti-Israel protests for years, and was sealed off by religious hardliners
in 2009 and left to decay.
Indonesia
has long been praised for its moderate brand of Islam, but more conservative
forms of the religion have taken centre stage in recent years, driven by
increasingly vocal hardline groups.
Tensions in
the Middle East, particularly between Israel and the Palestinians, spill over
here and deepen religious divides.
Thousands
of hardliners demonstrated in Jakarta when US President Donald Trump announced
last year that the American embassy in Israel would be moved to the contested
city of Jerusalem.
"There
is still a lot of anti-semitic sentiment in Indonesia," Baruch said.
"Generally
speaking, Indonesians don't differentiate between being Jewish and Israel. They
think Jews and Israel are the enemy of their religion and state," he
added.
"There
is no denying that tolerance is fading in our country."
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The size of
the Jewish community makes it almost invisible so Jews have not
been the target
of Islamist militants like some of Indonesia's larger religious minorities
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The size of
the Jewish community makes it almost invisible so Jews have not been the target
of Islamist militants like some of Indonesia's larger religious minorities.
A wave of
deadly suicide bombings at churches in Surabaya last year highlighted the
threat to minority groups, while Shiites and Ahmadis -- regarded as heretics by
some majority Sunni Muslims -- have also been the target of violence.
Kosher
food shortage
Still,
Indonesia's Jews are on the radar of some groups.
Monique
Rijkers' efforts to bridge the divide with a TV programme about Judaism drew
the ire of the Indonesian Muslim Students Association, which she claims
reported her to government and broadcast regulators.
"They
demanded that I be fired and that the programme be cancelled," said
Rijkers, founder of Hadassah of Indonesia, a non-profit organisation that
offers cultural education programmes centred on Israel, Jews and the Holocaust.
Indonesia's
Jews face some practical challenges, too, such as finding kosher food in a
country where it's not widely available.
Another
hurdle is that Indonesia has long allowed for only six different religious
categories on all-important ID cards -- Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism,
Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
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Indonesia's
Jews face some practical challenges, too, such as finding kosher
food in a
country where it's not widely available
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The cards
are crucial for accessing government services, and for doing things such as
registering marriages and births, meaning most Jews lie and put
"Christianity" on the documents.
Even some
Muslim Indonesians learn that taking an interest in anything Jewish can raise
eyebrows.
Sapri Sale,
who started teaching a Hebrew class in Jakarta a year ago, has been studying
the language since the 1990s and compiled what he says is the world's first
Hebrew-Indonesian dictionary.
But his
interests got little positive feedback at home.
"I was
called Sapri the Jew," he said.
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