JUDAISM

CASE STUDY: Manuel’s List

The first Jews in the Philippines were converts to Christians (called

Marranos or Conversos) due to the Spanish Inquisition. The first Marranos or
Conversos in the country were Jorge and Domingo Rodriguez, who arrived in
1590s, but were eventually tried and convicted. The more stable presence was
the Levy brothers and Leopold Kahn from Alsace- Lorraine. But during the
American regime, the name of Emil Bachrach and Merton Netzorg were
dominant Jewish in the country. But the last major migration of the Jews
happened in 1935 and 1941; what happened then?
The rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933 as a German chancellor and head of the
Nazi Party began a prolonged wave of Anti-Jewish activity. Hitler, fuelled by
several irrational notions, began plans to exterminate all European Jews. The
MANUEL L. QUEZON Jews were asked to wear a yellow star in public, and eventually deported via train
to concentration camps. Some camps are well-known- Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Maidanek, and Mauthusen.
This led to the death of about 12 million people, and was called the Holocaust (Greek: completely burned) or
Shoah (Hebrew: extermination). It is one of the greatest crimes ever committed against humanity.
But what many do not know is that during World War II, Jewish refugees escaping from the Nazi tyranny
in Europe sought a safe haven in Manila. The Philippine Commonwealth Government, under President Manuel
L. Quezon, as a matter of policy, opened its doors and welcomed Jewish refugees. Ten thousand visas were made
available to Jews. President Quezon even built a housing community for Jewish refugees in Marikina and allotted
a farm and large settlement area in Mindanao. We even expressed our indignation to the persecution of the Jews
by rallying on 17 November 1938 to denounce the Kristallnacht. These stories were documented in the book
“Escape to Manila” (2003) by Frank Ephraim. The book recounts the memories and experiences of the European
Jews who sought refuge in the Philippines and in the warm hospitality of the Filipinos during this difficult period
in the Jewish history.

WWII CONCENTRATION CAMP

Source:
Calano, Mark Joseph Tumada, Cornelio, Jayeel Serrano, and Sapitula, Manuel Victor Jamias. (2016). Introduction to World
Religions and Belief Systems. Rex Book Store, Inc. Manila, Philippines.