28 Friday, July 17, 2009ARTS&LIFESTYLEThe Australian Jewish News – ajn.com.au

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WHAT colour kippah are youwearing?” says KualaLumpur’s (KL) 62-year-oldGaryBraut. “I’ll send some-

one down to the lobby to get you.”Need-less to say, it was a superfluous question –even if I were wearing one, I’d be easy tospot. In a country of 27million, only one,Braut, wears a kippah.

Soon I’m sitting with Braut in a wait-ing room of the palatial Prince CourtMedical Centre private hospital. Brautdoesn’t feel well. He’s telling me, quiteloudly, that his mum doesn’t want himto wear a kippah and tzitzit in public.Such overt Jewish talk is unusual in KL,and I’m feeling a little nervous.

I see a curly-hairedCaucasianwomanto my left, the only other non-Asian inthe room, eavesdropping. On a whim Iask her, “Are you Jewish too?” Yes, as amatter of fact, she is, and works at thenearby US embassy. I explain I am acurious Jewish writer from Melbourneand that Braut has offered me an insightinto life as Jew in KL. She hands me hercard. “I’d be interested to hear what hetells you,” she says, and goes off to herdoctor’s appointment.

Family, Religion, Company

BRAUT’S business, PrecisionAutomotive Industries (motto:

Family, Religion, Company), which re-manufactures starters, alternators, A/Ccompressors and ball bearings for theauto industry, employs about 180 peoplespanning the full gamut of the Malaysianpopulace. In the delivery bay of his fac-tory are a Chinese shrine, a gilt reminderof Muslim prayer times; and a hugephoto titled “Sultan of World JewryRabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,The Lubavitcher Rebbe”, waving benev-olently from behind a man-sized oil-burning menorah made of car parts. As Iarrive, one of Braut’s employees setsabout lighting the wicks.

It’s hot, humid and easy to dehydratein KL, and I have the odd feeling that I’mhallucinating. Opposite the delivery bayis a marble plaque attesting to the com-pany’s philosophy, which is to adhere to

the values laid out by the Rebbe.There’s a company van emblazoned

with “Mitzvah Tank” and “ChabadMalaysia”, and back at the entrance tothe delivery bay I notice that the stoneFeng Shui lion/dog guardians on eitherside of the gate are respectively engravedwith “Chabad Malaysia” and “MikvahMalaysia”. The Rebbe’s image againhangs alongside portraits of theMalaysian royal couple and a portrait ofthe former prime ministers, AhmadBadawi and Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad.

The Rebbe’s image againhangs alongside portraitsof the Malaysian royalcouple and a portrait of theformer prime ministers.

That’s not to mention the rooftopmural featuring the Kotel and a depic-tion of Rabbi Avraham Shemtov visitingUS President George Bush Snr, the hugeJewish library and the DVD room fes-tooned with Jewish paraphernalia pur-pose-built to enjoy Chassidic music.

Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad

ISIT down with Braut in his officemeeting room, and a chocolate cake

iced with “Shalom Andrew Harris”, todiscuss his unique situation. Firstly, whatabout Dr Mahathir?

“Yes, the previous prime ministersaid things, but I think a little bit is takenout of context,” he says. “At the end ofthe day, Yahya Cohen, the late presidentof the medical association in Singapore,told me he and Dr Mahathir were class-mates. And that actually, he was a swellguy.”

Braut has met Dr Mahathir on severaloccasions. A photo from one meetinghangs in his lunchroom. “Once I said‘Yahya Cohen’, he became very warm,”Braut says. “He said, ‘Send him my best,how’s that fellow doing, he’s getting old.’I felt like saying if he’s getting old, DrMahathir [born December 20, 1925],you’re also getting old!”

Cohen was a Jewish Singaporean-born surgeon, with a Yemenite fatherand Iraqi mother. He became a world-renowned professor and expert in hisfield, and died in 2003. Cohen and DrMahathir studied medicine together atthe then University of Malaya, inSingapore.

Dr Mahathir kept up a correspon-dence with Yitzhak Rabin when he wasIsraeli prime minister, and helpedorganise a trip with Rabin to bring Israelikids to Malaysia to meet local Muslimchildren. He also runs the Global PeaceForum, and in 2006 invited Bar-IlanUniversity academic Dr Ben Mollov andmade special arrangements for him toenter the country. Dr Mollov went againto Malaysia last year.

Being a Jew in KL

BRAUT tells me he ended up in KLafter a search for cost-effective

skilled labour in South-East Asia. It wasto Thailand, the Philippines or Malaysia,and this is where he ended up, about 21years ago.

Nu, so, how does Braut feel being aJew in Kuala Lumpur? “Comfortable,”he says. “More comfortable thanBrooklyn, that’s for sure.” He thinks theextremely small community, if youcould call it that, attracts so little atten-tion, that it’s no problem being Jewish inMalaysia.

Jewish MalaysiaIt may appear to be an unusual place for Jews to live, but Andrew Harris finds Malaysia is host to a fascinating, if miniscule, Jewish population.

Gary Braut (right) with his staff. Braut is a Jewish resident of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, who runs an auto parts remanufacturing business. Photos: Andrew Harris

A rooftop mural depicting RabbiAvraham Shemtov (right) andUS President George BushSenior emblazoned on the sideof Braut’s factory.

29Friday, July 17, 2009ARTS&LIFESTYLE

The Australian Jewish News – ajn.com.au

It’s more due to his isolation thatit’s difficult for Braut to be fullyobservant in KL. He does what hecan. “My strength is not puttingtefillin on every day. My strength istrying to be warm, recognise every-one, whether Jewish or non-Jewish,as God’s children.” Still, Braut’shouse (marked with “ChabadMalaysia” in marble) is fitted with amarble Aron Kodesh. It houses aTorah he purchased in Sofia,Bulgaria, which he says was open tohis bar mitzvah parshah when he firstsaw it.

A few times, Braut hasmanaged tohold a seder, with matzah fromSingapore, a brand-new oven, paperplates and fresh salmon, officiated byyoung Rabbi Nochi Goldschmid,who he flew in from Brooklyn. Othercurious attendees always outnumberthe Jews, and it’s more of an outreachand public relations exercise than afull-on seder. Braut advertises in localEnglish-language papers, and theenquiries trickle in.

Common ground in KL

TWO Palestinians made it to one ofBraut’s seders, one Christian and

one Muslim. Braut met them bychance in the lobby of the hotelwhere he was putting up the two rab-binical students, who were to offici-ate. They spotted his matzah, and oneread off Braut’s kippah, and calledout “Leibel ben Peretz, I haven’t seenmatzah in a long time!” Two dayslater, they joined the seder.

The Palestinian-Malaysian-Jewishexchange went further. AnotherPalestinian, this time a tertiary stu-dent of hotel management, taughtBraut’s 12-year-old son, DavidMarshall Braut, (he has three olderboys in the US) his aleph-bet. “Wemade him [the teacher] a namecard,” Braut says, “‘Dr Yusuf,Yeshivah of Kuala Lumpur’ – some-thing cute, you know. And he liked it.Because, thank God, there are lots ofPalestinians that are okay with us.”

Braut says there’s a rotating cast ofthree- or four-year expat Jews in

town, and then starts to tell me aboutthe other permanent Jews he knows:a guy from New Orleans who runs afurniture export business, a Britishwoman who fell in love with a Malayarchitecture student and has livedthere for 40 years, and an art lecturerat one of the universities.

“Oh, and there are two JewishMoroccan fellas – cousins,” Brautsays. “One was, or is married to thedaughter of one of the royal families.He came to a couple of my seders. Hemight be divorced from the girl now.They [the boys] were running a barhere.”

My strength is trying tobe warm, recogniseeveryone, whetherJewish or non-Jewish, asGod’s children.

Gary BrautJewish Kuala Lumpur resident

And there’s a young Chinesewoman with a Yiddishe neshamah,who has a be’ezrat hashem on herbusiness card and hosts regularFriday night dinners.

Braut invites all the Jews to Sundaybarbecues at his home. “And some-times,” he says, “they even show up”.

The last Jews of Penang

ONLY two Jews carry Malaysianpassports. One is the 87-year-old

David Mordecai, the last remainingJew in Penang, a causeway-linkedisland 300 kilometres north of KL.The other is his 71-year-old cousinTefa Ephraim, who lives in Bondi,and left Penang 15 years ago. Before Ileft for KL, I spoke to Ephraim overthe phone, from Melbourne.

How was it growing up Jewish inPenang? “It was alright. Only towardsthe end, when there was the Gulf War– they started their rubbish over therebecoming anti-Jewish, and they knewI was Jewish and they started passingremarks and all that ... There were a

few fanatics in the office – they threat-ened me on the phone.” She hadalready applied to move to Australia.

Ephraim’s paternal grandfathercame from Baghdad, and her motherwas born in Burma. She speaksEnglish, Malay, Hokkien and IraqiJudaeo-Arabic. Despite Ephraim’sability to blend in, she steadfastly worea Magen David around her neck andthat’s largely what singled her out.

The only time her family hadissues was in the 1940s, and it was dueto their relatively fair complexions.“During the Japanese occupation, Iwas five or six years old,” Ephraimsays. “Every time they used to cometo the house, my father would pushme and my younger brother out theback door.”

The Penang Jews never had arabbi to officiate anything. In the1990s, when the community had vir-tually disappeared, Ephraimobserved what she could by herself.Nonetheless, from the 1940s, a syna-gogue was situated at 28 NagoreRoad. It closed in 1976 and afterEphraim’s father passed away, all thecommunal possessions – “the pray-ing things” – were sent away. TheTorah resides at Singapore’sWaterloo Street Synagogue, andother items ended up in Israel.

Even at the peak of the commu-nity, there were never many Jews.“When I was living there with myfather and mother, there were 15 or20 of us.” Everybody, Ephraim says,kept kosher and kept Shabbat.

For a while, there was a shochet inPenang, Hugh “Hayawi” Jacobs.Ephraim’s grandfather, AboodyEphraim Nahom, was also quitelearned. “When he was alive, he usedto cut the chicken, he used to slaugh-ter the chicken for us,” she says. “Oncehe passed away, it was very hard.”

Ephraim’s cousinDavid continuesto live in Penang, and is tended to bya carer. She saw him last in May 2008when she went for a few weeks totend the Jewish cemetery, which con-tains 106 graves, the earliest from

1835 to the most recent in 1978.Despite her Bondi address,

Ephraim, rather than Mr Mordecai,is the custodian of Penang’s Jewishheritage. “He’s very forgetful,” shesays. “One day he knows you, thenext minute he doesn’t know whohe’s talking to.”

Meanwhile, things are changing inPenang. Her childhood stompingground has been razed, and thecemetery street, which used to beJalan Yahudi, has been renamed. “It’stheir country,” Ephraim says, “Whatcan we do?”

The entrance to Braut’s house in Kuala Lumpur.

Travel infoMALAYSIA Airlines (www.malaysiaair-lines.com) flies direct from Perth,Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney andBrisbane to Kuala Lumpur. Flight timefrom Melbourne is eight hours. Kosherfood is now available on board, as area range of vegetarian options, the pickof which is the Indian-style AsianVegetarian meal. Make sure you con-firm your meal preference in advance.

There’s no problem with an Israelistamp in your passport, but you can’tenter on an Israeli passport.

The delivery bay of Braut’s factory in Kuala Lumpur.