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em>Sept. 27, ‘Weekender’

Indonesia and Israel became modern nations at about the same time, but have yet to establish diplomatic relations. The Mavi Marmara incident made headlines here in July, and Jakarta publicly condemned the assault.

The assumption then would be that Israel is the last place one would hear gamelan music. But, four times a year, a group of people gather to reminisce about Indonesia over a meal of Indonesian food. These are members of Yayasan Tempo Dulu, Jewish men and women from the former Dutch East  Indies who now reside in Israel.

It started in 1996, when two Dutch citizens visited Israel as part of their research on the Jewish community in Indonesia. They enlisted Austrian-born teacher Shoshanna Lehrer, herself a one-time resident of Jakarta, to help their research. They gave her a list of names of people who used to live in Indonesia. She contacted the people and invited them to meet. They became the 18 original members of Tempo Dulu, with Lehrer as president.

More and more people joined, although some have since died. Currently, the youngest member is 69 while the oldest is 104 (although no longer active due to age), and they come from all over Israel. “The foundation is a way to gather people from different backgrounds who are connected through our Jewish [faith] and Indonesia,” Lehrer says.

Your comments:

My grandparents, Stuart and Vera Royston moved to Java from Shanghai in 1929 and my grandfather worked for a company called Watties, which dealt with rubber and tin companies throughout Java. They had three children, Anthea, Bill and Malcolm.

My father, Joe Beckett, married my mother Anthea Royston in Java in 1954. My brother John Beckett and myself (then called Ellery Beckett — I have changed my Christian name to Lucinda) were both born in Java. I was born in Bandung in 1957.

My father worked for British American Tobacco in Jakarta, Cirebon, Surabaya and of course we had our grandparents there until they retired in 1961. Please can anyone send me an email and let me know if you knew us. I would really love to have some contact with anyone who lived in Java when we were there.

Lucinda Whymark
Bedfordshire, England

This was incredibly informative. I am so glad that this story was shared. My heart goes out to those who were so frustrated for not being able to share their experience.

To have been through something so horrendous only to be forced to keep quiet because nobody cares… I just can’t imagine it.

I have passed this information on to my family. I believe it is important to us. My mother is Dutch-Indonesian while my father is of Russian-Jewish descent. Both sides can relate.

Jamie
California