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28 Friday, July 17, 2009ARTS&LIFESTYLETheAustralian Jewish News ajn.com.au

arts&

lifest

yle

WHATcolourkippah areyouwearing? says KualaLumpurs (KL)62-year-oldGaryBraut.Ill sendsome-

one down tothe lobbyto getyou. Need-less tosay,it was a superfluousquestioneven if I were wearing one, Id be easy tospot.In a countryof 27million, only one,Braut, wears a kippah.

Soon Im sitting with Braut in a wait-ing room of the palatial Prince CourtMedical Centre private hospital. Brautdoesnt feel well. Hes telling me, quiteloudly, that his mum doesnt want himto wear a kippah and tzitzit in public.Such overt Jewish talk is unusual in KL,and Im feeling a little nervous.

I see a curly-hairedCaucasian womanto 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 her

card. Id be interested to hear what hetells you, she says, and goes off to herdoctors appointment.

Family, Religion, Company

BRAUTS business, PrecisionAutomotive Industries (motto:

Family, Religion, Company), which re-manufactures starters, alternators, A/Ccompressors and ball bearings for theautoindustry,employsabout 180 peoplespanningthe fullgamut of theMalaysianpopulace. In the delivery bay of his fac-tory area 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 carparts. As Iarrive, one of Brauts employees setsabout lighting the wicks.

Its hot, humid and easy to dehydratein KL, andI have theoddfeelingthatImhallucinating. Opposite the delivery bayis a marble plaque attesting to the com-panys philosophy, which is to adhere to

the values laid out by the Rebbe.Theres 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 Rebbes image againhangs alongside portraits of theMalaysian royal couple and a portrait ofthe former prime ministers, AhmadBadawi andDr Mahathir bin Mohamad.

The Rebbes image againhangs alongside portraits

of the Malaysian royalcouple and a portrait of theformer prime ministers.

Thats 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,what

about Dr Mahathir?Yes, the previous prime ministersaidthings, but I think a littlebitis 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.

Brauthas metDr Mahathir onseveraloccasions. A photo from one meetinghangs in his lunchroom. Once I saidYahya Cohen, he became very warm,Braut says. He said, Send him my best,hows thatfellow doing, hes getting old.I felt like saying if hes getting old, DrMahathir [born December 20, 1925],youre 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 Rabinto bringIsraelikids 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 21

years ago.Nu, so, how does Braut feel being aJew in Kuala Lumpur? Comfortable,he says. More comfortable thanBrooklyn, thats for sure. He thinks theextremely small community, if youcould call it that, attracts so little atten-tion, that its noproblembeingJewish 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 Brauts factory.

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29Friday, July 17, 2009 ARTS&LIFESTYLETheAustralian Jewish News ajn.com.auIts more due to his isolation that

its 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 Gods children. Still, Brautshouse (marked with ChabadMalaysia in marble) is fitted with amarble Aron Kodesh. It houses aTorah he purchased in Sofia,

Bulgaria, which he says was open tohisbar mitzvah parshahwhen he firstsaw it.

A fewtimes, Braut hasmanaged tohold a seder, with matzah fromSingapore, a brand-new oven, paperplates and fresh salmon, officiated by young Rabbi Nochi Goldschmid,who he flew in from Brooklyn. Othercurious attendees always outnumbertheJews, and its more of an outreachand public relations exercise than afull-on seder. Brautadvertises in localEnglish-language papers, and theenquiries trickle in.

Common ground in KL

TWO Palestiniansmadeit toone ofBrauts seders, one Christian and

one Muslim. Braut met them bychance in the lobby of the hotelwhere he wasputting up thetwo rab-binical students, who were to offici-ate. They spotted hismatzah,andoneread off Brauts kippah, and calledout Leibel ben Peretz, I havent 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, taughtBrauts 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-thingcute,you know.And he likedit.Because, thank God, there are lots ofPalestinians that are okay with us.

Braut says theres a rotatingcast ofthree- or four-year expat Jews in

town, andthenstarts 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.

Hecame toa coupleof myseders.Hemight be divorced from the girl now.They [the boys] were running a barhere.

My strength is trying to

be warm, recognise

everyone, whether

Jewish or non-Jewish, as

Gods children.Gary Braut

Jewish Kuala Lumpur resident

And theres a young Chinesewoman with a Yiddishe neshamah,who has a beezrat hashem on herbusiness card and hosts regularFriday night dinners.

Braut invites allthe Jewsto 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 in

Penang? It was alright. Only towardstheend, when therewas theGulfWar they started their rubbish over therebecoming anti-Jewish, and they knewI was Jewish and they started passingremarks and all that ... There were a

fewfanaticsin the office theythreat-ened me on the phone. She hadalready applied to move to Australia.

Ephraims paternal grandfathercame from Baghdad, and her motherwas born in Burma. She speaksEnglish, Malay, Hokkien and IraqiJudaeo-Arabic. Despite Ephraimsabilityto blend in,she steadfastly worea Magen David around her neck andthats largely what singled her out.

The only time her family had

issueswas inthe 1940s,andit wasdueto 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 afterEphraims father passed away, all thecommunal possessions the pray-

ing things were sent away. TheTorah resides at SingaporesWaterloo 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.Ephraims grandfather, AboodyEphraim Nahom, was also quitelearned. When he was alive, he usedto cut the chicken, he used to slaugh-terthe chickenfor us,she says. Oncehe passed away, it was very hard.

Ephraimscousin David continuesto live in Penang, and is tended to bya carer. She saw him last in May 2008when she went for a few weeks totendthe 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 Penangs Jewishheritage. Hes very forgetful, shesays. One day he knows you, thenext minute he doesnt know whohes talking to.

Meanwhile,things are changingin

Penang. Her childhood stompingground has been razed, and thecemetery street, which used to beJalan Yahudi, has beenrenamed. Itstheir country, Ephraim says, Whatcan we do?

The entrance to Brauts house in Kuala Lumpur.

Travel infoMALAYSIA Airlines (www.malaysiaair-

lines.com) flies direct from Perth,

Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and

Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur. Flight time

from Melbourne is eight hours. Kosher

food is now available on board, as are

a range of vegetarian options, the pick

of which is the Indian-style AsianVegetarian meal. Make sure you con-

firm your meal preference in advance.

Theres no problem with an Israeli

stamp in your passport, but you cant

enter on an Israeli passport.

The delivery bay of Brauts factory in Kuala Lumpur.