VU Research Portal The Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits Kamsma, M.J. 2010 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Kamsma, M. J. (2010). The Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits: An Ethnographic Study of Jewish Businesses Across Borders. VU Vrije Universiteit. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 The Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits An Ethnographic Study of Jewish Businesses Across Borders Cover design: S. Nestorovski Printed by Ridderprint BV ISBN 978-905335260-1 © 2010 by Theo Kamsma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Contact: [email protected] All rights reserved. Save exceptions stated by the law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permisssion from the author, application for which should be addressed to the author. ii Vrije Universiteit The Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits An Ethnographic Study of Jewish Businesses Across Borders Academisch proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. L.M. Bouter, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen op woensdag 28 april 2010 om 15.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Mattheus Joseph Kamsma geboren te Nijmegen promotor: prof.dr. H. Dahles copromotoren: dr. J.B.M. Koning prof.dr. A. Reid iv Ithaca Your mind should ever be on Ithaca. Your reaching there is your prime goal. But do not rush your journey anywise. Better that it should last for many years, And that, now old, you moor at Ithaca at last, A man enriched by all you gained upon the way, And not expecting Ithaca to give you further wealth. For Ithaca has given you the lovely trip. Without her you would not have set your course. There is no more that she can give. If Ithaca seems then too lean, you have not been deceived. As wise as you are now become, of such experience, you will have understood what Ithaca stands for. Constantine P. Cavafy (1911) v vi Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................. xi 1. Introducing the Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits...................................................... 13 1.1 Academic Relevance .......................................................................................................................13 1.2 The Straits.........................................................................................................................................19 1.3 The First Line of Investigation; Allegories..................................................................................21 1.4 The Second Line of Investigation; Networks and Complexity ................................................23 1.5 The Research Questions and Chapter Outline of the Thesis ...................................................25 2. Theorising the Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits.......................................................29 2.1 Theorising Diaspora........................................................................................................................29 2.2 The Straits Jewish Diasporascape .................................................................................................30 2.3 When a ‘Terra Incognita’ Becomes a NoGo Area....................................................................34 2.4 The Complexity Turn: MovementDriven Social Science ........................................................41 2.5 The Spatial Topologies of Region, Networks and Fluids..........................................................46 2.6 The Topology of Fire and Matters of Absenced Otherness.....................................................49 2.7 ‘History Matters’ and Path Dependence......................................................................................51 2.8 Researching the Straits Jewish Diasporascape as a Complex System......................................53 3. Researching the Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits.....................................................57 3.1 Making up for Wasted Time..........................................................................................................57 3.2 Access: Hello, my Name is Theo and I am not Jewish..............................................................59 3.3 Tool Maintenance............................................................................................................................63 3.4 Multiple Identity and ‘Method Assemblage’................................................................................65 3.5 Startup of the Project ....................................................................................................................69 3.6 Multisited Research without Multisited Research Permits .....................................................72 3.7 Data Processing and Key Informers ............................................................................................75 3.8 The Research Process: Historizing and Mixing Methods .........................................................78 3.9 Methods: Where the Reflexive and Complexity Turn Meet .....................................................82 4. Depicting the Hinterland of the Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits ...........................87 4.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................87 4.2 Jewish Presence in between Myth and Reality ............................................................................88 4.2.1 Early Tracks and Traces........................................................................................................88 4.2.2 Jews in the Early Colonial Times.........................................................................................92 4.2.3 Marranos..................................................................................................................................94 4.2.4 Jews of Islam and Jews of Christianity................................................................................95 4.3 Central Node Singapore .................................................................................................................98 4.3.1 The Baghdadi Jewish Trade Diaspora.................................................................................98 4.3.2 Opium......................................................................................................................................99 4.3.3 A New influx: Ashkenazic Jews.........................................................................................101 4.3.4 Another New influx: Jews from the Homeland Israel ...................................................103 4.3.5 Modern time Jewish Singapore ..........................................................................................105 4.4 Oscillations between Messianic and Orthodox Judaism in Minahasa...................................107 4.4.1 Christian Minahasa and Jewish Progenitor Abraham Fontein......................................107 4.4.2 The Businesses of Abraham Fontein................................................................................108 4.4.3 Abraham Fontein’s Offspring............................................................................................110 4.4.4 The Manadonese Jewish Community ...............................................................................114 4.4.5 Israeli Jewish Presence in Manado ....................................................................................117 vii 4.5 The Jewish Cemetery and Penang Heritage ..............................................................................118 4.5.1 Penang, the Pearl of the Orient .........................................................................................118 4.5.2 The Jewish Cemetery at Yahudi Street .............................................................................120 4.5.3 Redirected Discussions......................................................................................................123 4.5.4 A New Re-direction.............................................................................................................125 5. Enacting the Jewish Diasporascape in the Straits: Diamond Trader Networks ......... 127 5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................127