Contextual Jews: The Emergence of New Jewish Identity in the Post-Reformation Indonesia

Abstract

It has been argued that in contrast to the thriving Jewish life in the West Indies, the Jewish
stories of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), have had a silent history. The reality was more
complicated, even though indeed the Jews never had a strong visibility in Indonesian history.
The Jewish community throve in the end of Dutch colonialism and increased drastically with
the coming of European refugees but then silenced after the Indonesian independence in
1945. Most of them migrated to other countries, while the remnants survived below the radar among the Muslim communities. A new development testified the emergence a new Jewish identification in the Reformation era (1998 onward). The present undertaking discussing briefly the historical presence of the Jews in Indonesia. It further focusing on the
development of the aforementioned Jewish identification, and exploring its complicated
politics of identity, through which reclaiming the Jewish identity is also a mean to
reinventing it in Indonesian context. It will locate the issue within the interreligious tension
and other issues in the post-Reformation Indonesia.