Temple Emil Explained

Temple Emil
Festivals:-->
Organizational Status:-->
Consecration Year:1924
Functional Status:Destroyed
Location:Taft Avenue, Metro Manila
Country:The Philippines
Map Type:Metro Manila
Map Size:250
Map Relief:1
Architecture Style:Moorish Revival
Funded By:Emil Bachrach
Year Completed:1924
Date Destroyed:1945
Elevation Ft:-->

The Temple Emil was a former Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Taft Avenue, in Metro Manila, The Philippines. The synagogue was destroyed in 1945.

History

The first Jews known to have settled in the Philippines were Spanish Jews, during the 1600s, with further wave of settlement during the 1870s, from Alsace. Following World War I, Russian Jews settled, to escape discrimination in Russia.[1]

Consecrated in 1924 and completed in the Moorish Revival style,[2] it was the first synagogue in the Philippines.[3] [4] Its construction was funded by the family of Emil Bachrach, an American Jew,[5] at a time when the Philippines was technically an insular territory of the United States.[6] During the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of European Jews emigrated to the Philippines.[7]

The synagogue was destroyed in World War II during the 1945 Battle of Manila which led to the end of the Japanese occupation.[8] It was the only synagogue on territory of the United States that was destroyed during World War II.[6]

The Beth Yaacov Synagogue was built in 1982 to replace Temple Emil at another site in Makati.

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Saunders, Lee . The Philippines: A small Jewish community with a giant heart - opinion . . 20 March 2023 . 25 October 2024 .
  2. News: The Philippines: A distant haven from the Holocaust . 4 May 2023 . The Jerusalem Post.
  3. Web site: Philippines Virtual Jewish History Tour . Jewish Virtual Library . American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise . 4 May 2023.
  4. Web site: Philippines . . 4 May 2023 . EN.
  5. Harris . Bonnie . Manila Memories: History of Jews in the Philippines . Asian Jewish Life . 11 . January 2013 .
  6. Web site: Mooney, Ashley . The Little Known Holocaust Story of Sanctuary in the Philippines . Duke Today . . November 11, 2014 . 25 October 2024 .
  7. News: Falk, Leah . When The Philippines’ First Synagogue Burned to the Ground . . 15 May 2017 . 25 October 2024 .
  8. Web site: Harris . Bonnie . Cantor Joseph Cysner: From Zbaszyn to Manila The Creation of an American Holocaust Haven . UC Santa Barbara History Department . https://web.archive.org/web/20061018175531/http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/233ab/zbaszynmanila/HarrisCysnerZbaszynManila.pdf . 18 October 2006 . 62 . 4 May 2023.