Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Keeping Kosher and Shomer Shabbat in Singapore

Singapore is a small-but-prosperous island nation, both a city and a country, located just off the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia.

The first Jewish settlers came to Singapore over 200 years ago, most originally from Baghdad, Iraq.

Today, over 2,000 Jews call Singapore their home. How do they observe their Sabbath and where do they find kosher food products? 

What happens when national duty conflicts with the religious customs of a Jew in Singapore? Do Jews in Singapore experience any anti-Semitism? 

Here’s how one orthodox Jewish family fit into Singapore society while keeping to their traditional customs. 

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.  

Hava Nagila Around the World: Singaporean Laurance Tan in a Ukulele Version

Featured in film, theater and on CD, Laurance Tan is an international artist whose diverse career began in his native Singapore at the age of six. 

He studied ballet, jazz and conservatory singing into his early teens and began performing in musical theater. At the age of 22, Laurance directed and choreographed original musical productions for the Music and Drama Company. 

During this time, Laurance toured and performed throughout South East Asia and the Western Pacific. In his last two years with the Company, he appeared extensively on television shows as an actor and pop singer.

In his comments on his YouTube posting, Laurance writes:

This is a song that I have always wanted to perform ever since I was 15 years old but I have never mastered the confidence in doing so. I felt that being Asian, it would be inappropriate for me to sing this. Now that we coexist in multicultural cities, such Toronto, we should embrace and sing songs in celebration of each other's culture.

The background footage of the dancers is borrowed from Добавлено SGroup Corporation. They have such wonderful dancers.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.


 

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places - A Rosh Hashanah "Cheerleader" Parody Music Video From Singapore

What song drew the most cheers this summer? OMI's Cheerleader, as the Jamaican reggae/pop artist's smash hit was voted Billboard's No. 1 song of the summer of 2015.

The buoyant single headed Billboard's annual Songs of the Summer chart, which tracks the most popular hits based on cumulative performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

So what does this have to do with Rosh Hashanah? The United Hebrew Congregation of Singapore created a music video called Sound a Tekiah, a parody of Cheerleader, in which their members dance their way around the island.

There have been Jews and Orthodox synagogues in Singapore since the 1840s, but Reform Judaism did not make an appearance until 1991, when a small group of expatriate Jews founded The United Hebrew Congregation. It is made up of a Jewish Diaspora of many nationalities of Reform, Conservative, Progressive and Reconstructionist backgrounds.

Here is the UHC's Tekiah video, just in time for Rosh Hashanah. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)