Colonial Mixed Blood: A Story of the Burghers of Sri Lanka

By Allan Russell Juriansz

COLONIAL MIXED BLOOD

The navies built by the Arabs and King Solomon plied the oceans long ago. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British followed suit, and eventually the oceans were mastered. The colonial age came into being and brought with it increased movements of people and the mixing of genes.

In Colonial Mixed Blood, author Allan Russell Juriansz, who was born in Sri Lanka, provides an account of this occurrence with reference to the Portuguese, Dutch, and British who colonized Sri Lanka for the period of the past five hundred years. The story begins in Riga, Latvia, in the late 1400s and centres on the Ondatjes and the Juriansz clan, their love story, their immersion in Christianity, and their struggles to survive the forces of colonialism and find happiness.

A blend of history and fiction, Colonial Mixed Blood provides a background of the religious forces at work during this time in Europe and outlines the genealogy and life experiences of Jurianszs family as part of the colonial activity of the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka. They inherited an adventurous spirit from their first Dutch ancestors, and this spirit inspired their diaspora. But it was one hundred and fifty years of intense British influence that transformed them into loyal British subjects.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491713655

Allan Russell Juriansz

ALLAN RUSSELL JURIANSZ was born in Sri Lanka. He obtained a Bachelor of Education degree from Avondale University in Australia and then earned a medical degree at Australia’s Sydney University Medical School. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He is retired from surgery but continues to see consultations in urology. He was married to the late Ruth Lesley O’Halloran for 49 years, and has four children and eight grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2013 Allan Russell Juriansz.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-1364-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1366-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1365-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013920844

iUniverse rev. date: 12/11/2013

CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Sri Lanka And The Burghers

Chapters:

1.   Riga

2.   Amsterdam

3.   Wittenberg

4.   Utrecht

5.   Tanjore

6.   Colombo

7.   Antwerp

8.   Seaman Jacobus Juriaansz

9.   Galle

10.   Sergeant Jacobus Juriaansz

11.   Jacobus & Petronella

12.   Malaria

13.   The Dutch & The English

14.   Peter John Juriansz And Elizabeth Margaret Baptist

15.   The Hudsons, Bowyers, Pates, Maloneys, And Poppletons

16.   Ebenezer Francis Ondatje And Alice Mary Pate

17.   Edith Ondatje

18.   Edith & Benjamin

19.   Life Together—The Early Years

20.   Pearl

21.   The Upcountry

22.   Gampaha

23.   Ellen Sophia La Faber

24.   Life Together—The Middle Years

25.   1939 Ad

26.   Aunty Clare

27.   Marguerite Elsie Juriansz

28.   Reginald Frank Juriansz

29.   Buddy

30.   Life Together—The Later Years

31.   The White Australia Policy

32.   Avondale

33.   Exodus

34.   1970 Ad

35.   Benjamin And Alcohol

36.   Edith & Religion

37.   Benjamin & Religion

38.   The Weaker Sex

39.   The Religious Rift

40.   Origins & Destinations

41.   The Cave Of Machpelah

42.   Requiem

Genealogy Ondaatje Genealogy

Bibliography

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife Ruth Lesley O’Halloran who took a chance on spending her life with me. As the most unselfish woman I have ever known she has filled my life with stability, romance, and love.

FOREWORD

This book was motivated by a son’s promise to his mother. Her original request was for material for publication in a church magazine to bring value to the tenets of that church. In her editorial absence, because of her death, it became more complex, and moved from a religious illustration to a very involved story of a family. It is titled Colonial Mixed Blood, which gives it a historical perspective. It is an adventure set within the search for colonial riches in the Indian Ocean. The players start as far back as King Solomon in 900 BC and Asoka the Great in 300 BC. The seafaring adventures of the Medo-Persians and the Arabs made an impact on the island before the Europeans. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British made territorial possessions a requisite in their search for wealth.

In human terms the book presents colonialism as a combination of gene pools, cerebral machinations, cultural determinants, religious upheavals, naval and military power struggles, superiority complexes and the eventual by-products of these factors. Into this raging sea, a family is tossed, tries to survive these forces and find happiness. The link with the Roman induced Jewish Diaspora is noted and is not incongruous with the religious trends in the family, steeped in Judaeo-Christian ethics. The book progresses into a unconfined religious polemic.

The theatre of action is the island now called Sri Lanka. The creation of the Burgher community was the human by-product of colonialism. The admixture necessary for this was the intermarriage of the European settlers with the native races, the Sinhalese and Tamils. However, the Burghers were not inclined to integrate into the rising nationalism that succeeded the colonial era. The desire to maintain their European roots, religion, and culture, resulted in their own voluntary diaspora, accomplished through tremendous hardship. The Burgher community reflects five hundred years of evolution in a milieu of several different cultures. Because the last force exerted on them was a hundred and fifty years of British influence, they became very British in identity and outlook. The diaspora occurred into English speaking countries.

This book is a look at the forces exerted on a family in the colonial milieu. As explained in the Preface the author insists it contains both fiction and nonfiction narrative. It involved laborious research and produced a surprising genealogy.

The author is the youngest offspring of the principal characters in the book, Edith Ondatje and Benjamin John Juriansz. He showed an aptitude in the English language and was commended for his writing skills in high school. He qualified with honours in English in both Sri Lanka and Australia. He obtained a Bachelor of Education degree in Secondary Education, with majors in English and History, from Avondale College. His primary ambition to be a medical doctor resulted in a medical degree from Sydney University Medical School in Australia. He subsequently specialized in urology and qualified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He practiced urological surgery in Toronto from which he retired in 2005. He continues to provide consultations in urology. His retirement enabled the writing of this book, which took six years.

He has authored two other published books in Judaism: THE FAIR DINKUM JEW—The Survival of Israel and the Abrahamic Covenant in May 2012, and KING DAVID’S NAKED DANCE—The Dreams, Doctrines, and Dilemmas of the Hebrews in August 2013. Until 1979 he was a devout adherent of Seventh-day Adventism. His discussion with theologian Desmond Ford led him to break with the SDA Church on doctrinal grounds.

The island of Ceylon has many names. The author uses Ceylon and Sri Lanka interchangeably throughout the book.

Anonymous

PREFACE

An appropriate title for this book would be The Tribe of Benjamin. But that would only encompass the latter part. It could be called, Is it Far to Canaan’s Land? This is the title of a hymn, which is all about two journeys: The return of historical Israel from diaspora to Canaan, and the journey of Spiritual Israel to their Heavenly Canaan. This encompasses the strong religious flavour of the story, difficult and controversial as it is. The hymn was one of many Edith sang at bedtime to her children.

But the title COLONIAL MIXED BLOOD places it in history. The term defines the Burghers of Sri Lanka. The purity of races is spurious. The mixing of blood across racial confines has occurred since ancient times. It has incurred many reactions, some derisive and prejudicial. But in my lifetime it has been shown to be a scientific enrichment of the genetic defences in the survival of homo sapiens. Pioneers in the medical field such as Sir MacFarlane Burnet have proved this fact. It has achieved magnificent heights in the splendid and admired President Barak Hussein Obama, the genetic and cultural product of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother.

Here is a story arising from colonial mixed blood in a corner of the globe.

The motivation for the book comes from the desire my mother had for me to write the story of the family. She had a lifelong friend named Alta Hilliard Christensen, the wife of a American Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) missionary to Ceylon. Alta wrote for SDA church journals. A very notable story she contributed to the Youths’ Instructor magazine was titled I Take This Woman. It is the story of a English SDA missionary to Ceylon in the very early days of the SDA Church in the island. This man married a Ceylonese Burgher woman who was not a SDA. The SDA church does not allow religious intermarriage. Their marital experience was a disaster blamed on the religious differences in their life together. He subsequently hanged himself, causing great sorrow to his family, the local SDA church, and the General Conference of SDA’s. Alta Hilliard Christensen slanted the story as a warning to SDA young people to not intermarry with non-SDAs. Alta wanted to publish my mother’s story. She was very impressed with the conversion of Edith Ondatje Juriansz to Seventh-day Adventism, because she brought all her surviving ten children into the church with her, despite a ‘unbelieving’ husband. Presumably she intended to slant Edith’s story as a great example of what a woman already coupled with an ‘unbeliever’ could achieve, despite great odds.

My mother wanted me to write the story for Alta and it was a great disappointment that I was not able to do it before Alta died. Despite that, she continued to urge me to write the family story. I had not been able to fulfil my mother’s wish until my retirement. The intensity of being a surgeon and bringing up a family of four children consumed all my time. Raising my family would not have been a success, since I regard it as such, without the unselfish devotion of my wife, who put her own vocation aside.

This book has two parts. The first Pre-Sri Lankan European narrative is built on a historical skeleton, which outlines the movement of people from persecution in Latvia to Holland where there was tolerance. The name changes from Shure to Jurie, Juriaan, and Juriaansz, are borne out in the Dutch and Latvian archives. This historical skeleton is fleshed out with a fiction narrative, as my research did not reveal the personal details I have filled in with my own creativity. The religion changes in the process of the assimilation of the Jewish forebears of the family, is apparent in The Netherlands. Some Jews intermarried with the Dutch and turned Christian.

The second part, the Sri Lankan narrative, is nonfiction and inspired by my knowledge of the day-to-day life of my parents during the time I spent at home with them, which is the first seventeen years of my life. Subsequently, my mother had a very close association with me for the last twenty-one years of her life. She provided me with the details of happenings in the family before I was born. While I was away from my mother she never failed to write to me once a week. So we were always in touch.

In the Sri Lankan story I have gleaned information where I had been deficient, from all my brothers and sisters. I must credit Dr. Frances Arndt (nee Ondatje), and Beryl Robertson (nee Juriansz) who are my first cousins, for much family information. Chester Robin Reimers, the son of my first cousin Roy Reimers gave me the Reimers genealogy. Roy’s father, Edmund Reimers, was the Chief Government Archivist in Sri Lanka in the early and middle 1900s and provided the original genealogical details for five generations. I also must credit Edwin Allan Ondatje, son of my first cousin Frank Ronald Ondatje, for his contribution of genealogical details. I am greatly indebted to the Sri Lankan Dutch Archives, the Dutch Burgher archives, the Dutch Archives of The Netherlands, and Ancestry.com. I have attached a bibliography at the end of the book.

The story starts in Riga, Latvia in the late 1400s for the origin of the Juriaansz name. Michael Jurie Jurgen Ondaatje was born in 1635 in Utrecht, in The Netherlands. He was the first one of our family to arrive in Ceylon, in 1659, via Tanjore, India. Jacobus Juriaansz born in 1767 in Antwerp arrived in Ceylon in 1786 as a seaman. He was elevated to a sergeant and returned to Antwerp. He returned in 1788 to marry his sweetheart Petronella Bougart who he had met in Galle, Ceylon, where he made his home.

There are some personal details not discussed in the book because they are private and must stay private. Everyone has a right to privacy, including the dead. These details are not necessary to the enjoyment of the stories included. If some of the revelations cause irritation to some, I crave their forgiveness. I have tried very hard to achieve veracity in the Sri Lankan story, and if some see things differently, I crave their forgiveness.

Allan Russell Juriansz

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

26711.png    Writing a first book is a presumption. It is my first effort although I have two books published ahead of this one. I thank my mother for the motivation. Her death made the desire to keep that promise very strong. The analysis of my parents’ relationship has given me a much clearer understanding of both my mother and my father.

26716.png    My sister Claribel has affected the book by her emphasis on privacy. Her husband Barrie helped to remove much, but not all of my verbosity. Their son John has provided me with a comprehensive analysis of the family story and my writing. As a psychiatrist he has appreciated the human dynamics involved. This has added to my satisfaction with the book.

26720.png    I wish to thank Gillian Ford, theologian, scholar and writer, and wife of Desmond Ford the eminent theologian, for kindly editing the chapter on The Religious Rift.

26724.png    Our children have all assisted me. Peter helped me reduce a large tome of information so that he rescued the human story. Andrew underscored the value of human relationships. John, with his literary bent, inspired some polish to my style. Frances Mae helped me with the illustrations. Finally, my wife put up with the odd hours of the day and night that I spent writing and rewriting this book over a period of six years. In addition she helped me with sentence structure and relevance of family information.

26728.png    Most of my family ‘editors’ desired to edit out the religious element of the book, but that is impossible considering how steeped the family has been in religion, from its beginnings in Judaism to the difficult doctrinal variances of Protestant Christianity.

26732.png    Last but not least—I wish to thank my editors at iUniverse for their meticulous help in preparing this book for the printing press.

26737.png    Cover Credit—The wedding photograph of Edith Ondatje and Benjamin John Juriansz was taken by Plate Studio after their marriage in the Cinnamon Gardens Baptist Church, on 26th February, 1914, in Colombo, Ceylon.

Intro1.IndianOcean.jpgIntro2_SriLanka.jpg

INTRODUCTION

SRI LANKA AND THE BURGHERS

The core of this book involves two families, the Ondatjes and the Juriansz clan. The principal characters are Edith Ondatje and Benjamin John Juriansz. Their love story led to a tumultuous and thrilling life together. It was tumultuous because they were always at loggerheads. It was thrilling because their love never failed through all the struggles they braved. Their life together was immersed in Christianity, and was sometimes incoherent, because of strong outside influences. They inherited an adventurous spirit from their first Dutch ancestors and this spirit inspired their diaspora.

Their life in Sri Lanka cannot be detailed without a basic knowledge of the island country. Therefore in the introduction it is appropriate to describe Sri Lanka in some degree. In order to highlight the human story it is necessary to provide some details of the country and the characteristics of the colonial systems of the Europeans and their interactions with the natives. This book was first drafted with abundant details and was too cumbersome, and too distracting from the family story. This book therefore does not educate the reader in an understanding of the nature and vicissitudes of colonialism, except as they impact on the family story. A scholarly work supported by footnoted research would be necessary if that was the objective.

Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean at the intersection of the 10 degrees north latitude and the 80 degrees east longitude. It is situated at the southern tip of India. It has a total area of 25,332 square miles. It has a mountainous central region with its highest peak Pidurutalagala rising 8281 feet above sea level. Extensive plains surround this mountainous region. The island is very fertile benefiting from the abundant rainfall it receives. The Northeast Monsoon brings rain to the northern part of the island during half the year. The Southwest Monsoon waters the southern part of the island during the other half. There are seventeen rivers running from the central highlands to the sea. The largest is the Mahaveli Ganga flowing into the sea at Trincomalee, nourishing the land on its way. The second largest is the Aruvi Aru meandering through the northwest side of the island and into the sea. The fourth largest river, and best known, is the Kelani Ganga, which empties into the sea near Colombo, the largest city.

Sri Lanka has had several names. The oldest is in the Sanskrit language and is mentioned in the ancient Indian epics, the Mahabarata and the Ramayana, dated astronomically to 7600 BC (P.V.Vartak). That name is Lamka, meaning Resplendent Island. Derived from this name, it is written in the Sinhalese language from Buddhist times, as Lankawa.

In the days of Israel’s King Solomon, the island was referred to as Tarshish, the old name of its chief port of trade, the Port of Galle. King Solomon’s navy traded with Galle. Serendib was the name given to it by Arab traders. Alexander the Great called it Taprobane, which was the name used by the Greeks. The Portuguese, who first colonized it, called the island Ceilao. When the Dutch took over from the Portuguese, they renamed it Taprobane. But the Portuguese name Ceilao persisted. When the English seized the island, they anglicised the Portuguese name to Ceylon. It was called this when the island was granted independence in 1948. However, when the island declared itself a Socialist Democratic Republic, the official name became Sri Lanka. This derived from the earliest Sanskrit name, the official native name in the days of the Buddhist Sinhalese kings.

Archaeologists find the first signs of life on the island belong to Palaeolithic times. There are also signs of life belonging to the Mesolithic period that followed. Neolithic excavational evidences are dated to 7000 BC. When the first wave of south Indian Tamils crossed the Straits of Mannar to land in Jaffna, there were stoneage people living in the island in caves. Subsequently when the great wave of Sinhalese invaders poured in from north India they were also met by the stoneage cave dwellers they called the Veddahs. Some Veddahs still live today in the mountains. Most of them intermarried with the invaders creating the island’s untouchable class called the Rodiyas. The Rodiyas were despised and took up begging as their occupation, being excluded from other gainful pursuits, by the caste system imposed by the Sinhalese. The British colonizers refused to recognize the caste system, but were forced to accommodate it.

The south Indian Tamils settled the northern Jaffna peninsula and northern hinterland. The Sinhalese settled the rest of the island. The Tamils brought a Dravidian language developed from Pali. They were Hindus. The Sinhalese brought an Aryan Language developed from Sanskrit. They adopted Buddhism, which originated from the philosophy of Prince Siddharta Gautama, a northern Indian Prince. He is venerated as The Lord Buddha. Buddhism was introduced into the island in the 3rd Century BC by Mahinda, the son of Asoka the Great, who himself adopted Buddhism. The succession of Sinhalese kings in Sri Lankan history is very colourful. The ancient ruins of Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, and Polonnaruwa are monuments to days of glorious dynasties gone by.

Trade has kept Sri Lanka in the limelight since the time of Solomon. He built a navy to trade with Tarshish. The Arabs also built ships to trade with the island. There are both Jewish and Arab communities remaining in the island from those times. Both communities isolated and insulated themselves by their religion. The Arabs were not initially Muslims but adopted that religion sometime after 700 AD.

The colonial period did not officially begin till the Portuguese arrived in 1505 AD. They named the island Ceilao. Territorial acquisition became a prerequisite to carrying away the riches of the island. The Portuguese were only able to gain maritime acquisition. They established settlements around the ports in the natural harbours, starting with Galle, then Colombo, Negombo, Jaffna, Trincomalee, and Batticalao. During this time the Sinhalese kings ruled the central part. The Portuguese who came to live in the island soon mixed with the native Sinhalese and Tamils, but retained a European identity in religion, language, and culture. Their skins grew darker and they developed as a separate community. The Portuguese motherland called them Burghers, meaning ‘Inhabitants of Towns.’ The Portuguese were Roman Catholics and built churches and proselytised many of the natives.

In 1658 AD the Dutch seized control from the Portuguese. The Dutch named the island Taprobane, the name given to it by Alexander the Great. They collaborated with the Sinhalese kings who ruled the native population in the central part of the island, while they controlled the maritime possession. There were mutual benefits. The Dutch expanded the Portuguese settlement in Galle and built the Fort. They made it their capital city. It became the central position from which they controlled the sea routes to India, Malaya, Indonesia, China and Japan. They also further developed the ports of Colombo, Negombo, Jaffna, Trincomalee, and Batticalao. Colombo eventually gained ascendancy and became the capital city replacing Galle. The Dutch settlers added themselves to the Burgher community. They were Protestants and built churches and the majority of the Burgher community embraced the Dutch Reformed faith.

The Dutch and the English fought for control of the Indian Ocean beginning about 1600 AD. Napoleon invaded The Netherlands in 1795 weakening that country. The English destroyed the Dutch sailing fleet at the Battle of Camperduin in 1797. The English then became masters of the Indian Ocean. The British imposed themselves on the island to some extent in 1797 in small skirmishes with the Dutch.

At the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, between the English and Napoleon, Sri Lanka was ceded to the English. They took the island from the Dutch without any bloodshed. The Burgher community swelled with the British settlers who mixed with them. However, a significant number of the white British colonials kept their distance and maintained a sort of benign apartheid. They had their own private clubs and latterly even a private bus service reserved for pure whites only, in Colombo and Trincomalee. These measures caused only a minor local irritation. Those Burghers who strongly considered themselves Dutch tried to maintain a separate identity of their own by establishing the Dutch Burger Union. But the British and the majority of the Burghers ignored them. The entire Burgher community adopted English as the mother tongue and the majority religion became Church of England. Many natives were converted to Christianity and joined the Burghers culturally.

The British built roads, railways, and bridges, which were needed for trade and transport of spices, tea, coffee, copra and other commodities of major demand in Britain and Europe. They set up a justice system and enforced law and order. They built private schools where the medium of instruction was English and the curriculum the same as in Britain. They made native education free and school attendance compulsory to the Junior School Certificate, equivalent with the current grade eight. Universities in Britain opened their doors to islanders who wanted a tertiary education. The British built hospitals where western medicine was practiced. They sponsored the major sports, namely cricket, boxing, tennis and soccer. Horseracing became a consummate preoccupation. All in all British colonialism was very intense and pervasive, transforming the island with all the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. At first the island was governed autocratically. British Governors were supreme and were assisted by a white hierarchy. In 1909 a constitutional democracy was introduced in the Westminster tradition. The Burgher Community had already been supplying the civil service. The Burghers were intensely loyal to the British Crown. By 1920 a parliamentary system with partly elected and partly appointed parliamentarians was in place. In 1931 universal suffrage was established. A justice system had evolved over the colonial period, with courts, judges, and prisons. Law and order was established by a white supervised native police force. Western music, dancing, and entertainment flourished. The Burghers became very prominent as civil servants since they were loyal to the British and spoke the native languages. British Armed Forces were based in the island and Burghers and natives were voluntarily enlisted.

The British initially totally subjugated the Sinhalese and put an end to the rule of their kings, annihilating the Sinhalese royal family. They ruled the whole island powerfully. Colombo the capital was enlarged and fortified with expansion of the fort and the harbour. It became the centre of trade in the island.

In British times the island was a prosperous place. British architecture made Colombo on the coast and Nuwara Eliya in the mountains look like English towns. In both cities beautiful colonial mansions were built. Britons, rich Burghers, and rich natives occupied the mansions in Colombo. The central heart of the city of Colombo is still graced by beautiful British and Dutch official colonial buildings, now somewhat spoiled by crowding by less elegant structures, recently built in between. ‘Temple Trees,’ the official residence of the President of Sri Lanka, is one such beautiful edifice surrounded by a luxuriant garden, still meticulously maintained. Many hotels are former governors’ mansions, with very tasteful in-character additions. These still reflect the splendour of the colonial past. The Galle Face Hotel in Colombo is one such gem, exquisite in its reflection of the traditions and glory of British colonialism. It should be declared a world heritage site. The glorious day of the British Empire is monumentally well preserved in Colombo. The British spent lavishly on the Botanical Gardens in Gampaha and Peradeniya. These could be considered Gardens of Eden in the east. Fortunately they are well maintained by the successive indigenous governments.

In 1948 Sri Lanka was granted independence and became a Dominion within the British Commonwealth. With independence the Burghers lost their privileged position. With the enshrining of Sinhalese as the State Language and Buddhism as the State Religion they were displaced. They could speak the native languages but had neglected to read and write them. They were no longer favoured for government jobs. But more importantly, the Burghers considered themselves British, and were left behind with the rise of the native nationalism they refused to embrace. Then began the diaspora of the Burghers to the English speaking countries of Britain, America. Canada, and New Zealand. Belatedly, they also migrated to Australia after the ‘White Australia Policy’ was rescinded.

In 1657 Michael Jurie Jurgen Ondaatje from Utrecht was the first one of the family to arrive in Colombo at the invitation of the Dutch Governor Adriaan Vander Meiden. It was during the waning days of Dutch rule in 1786 that Jacobus Juriaansz of Antwerp, the family’s other progenitor, arrived in Galle. He was promoted to a Sargeant in Galle and returned to Antwerp. He came back in 1788 to marry his sweetheart and live in Galle permanently. The Ondaatjes and the Juriaansz clan had intermarried in The Netherlands. They intermarried again in Sri Lanka. After 1948 the two branches of the family, almost totally migrated abroad. So did the vast majority of the Burghers of the Island.

The family story started in Riga, Latvia, then moved to Holland, which was the nucleus of the country that became The Netherlands. The Jewish Juries became the assimilated Juriaansz family. They mixed with the Dutch and converted to Christianity. The Ontjis who traced their ancestry to the Frisians were similarly assimilated into Dutch life as the Ondaatjes. The story of the migration of the original Shure/Jurie ancestor from Latvia will now be told.

COLONIAL MIXED BLOOD

Chapter 1

RIGA

It was 1482. They had lived in Courland (Latvia) for generations. It was the place of their birth and their great grandparents’ birth. They loved the land. They loved its seasons. But it was not their home. Deep inside their hearts was the knowledge that their home was far away. Their homeland was Canaan. Caleb was one of eight children in the Jewish Shure family. He had five brothers and two sisters. He and his brothers all worked in their father’s business. They were furriers, and as the eldest son he was charged with the business of buying the treated fur. They made garments and sold them in Riga, Latvia and exported them to other cities in Europe. His wife Lia, also Jewish, was a twin. They had six children. Lia’s twin sister Nomi was married to Gunter, a Latvian of German extraction. Gunter had one of a few government licences to import raw furs from outside Latvia, chiefly from Russia. Gunter was Caleb’s chief supplier. As a relative it gave Caleb an inside track in obtaining the best furs. Caleb and Lia socialised with Gunter and Nomi, since Lia and Nomi were twins and Caleb and Gunter were business associates. But there were big barriers between them.

The most important thing in the lives of Caleb and Lia was their Jewish heritage. Nomi was brought up Jewish but when she fell in love with Gunter, it was the end of her Jewishness. She became a Christian and had a different life. Gunter and Nomi had a large house they owned in the town and were parishioners in the Roman Catholic Cathedral. Caleb and Lia were not allowed to own a home and were domiciled by law, with other Jewish families on the outskirts of the city in plain dwellings for which they paid high rents. There were many other disadvantages to being Jewish in Riga. They could not build synagogues so they worshipped on Sabbaths in rented halls. They could not have Jewish schools so their children, were home schooled in groups until ready for high school. Then their parents felt it safe to enrol them in Catholic schools. Jews could not have their own burial ground and had a section in the city’s cemetery where no distinguishing headstones were allowed. Jews paid higher taxes and could never become citizens of Latvia.

Nevertheless they were reasonably happy, and were strict with their children. Rabbis worked within the limits of the laws of the land and were not only religious leaders but functioned as teachers of the Jewish Law and Hebrew language in the group home schools. Intermarriage was discouraged, but like Nomi there was a continual loss by the Jewish community. In Riga, despite the strictures, Jews earned a comfortable living. But they longed for real freedom. Caleb’s father’s youngest brother was a cantor and sang the songs of Zion, which brought tears to Caleb’s eyes. One particular chant was eerily melancholic and recalled sadness from a thousand years gone by:

Here by Babylon’s wave, though heathen hands have bound us.

Though afar from our land, the pains of death surround us.

Zion, thy memory still in our hearts we are keeping.

And still we turn to thee, our eyes are sad with weeping.

Chap1_ViewofRiga.jpg

View of Modern Day Riga

Chap1_Riga.jpg

Ruins of the first synagogue built in 1832 which was torched by the Nazis with 345 people inside. It remains as a monument.

There were always suppressed sighs and emotions and moist eyes and an occasional shudder from Caleb as he sat alongside his brothers in the rented hall, when his uncle sang those words. Deep inside him he felt a longing to go back home, to his real home.

It had long been lost. Caleb and Lia often talked about returning but knew it was impossible. They had six children and they knew they were anchored to the Latvian soil.

They dreaded the possibility of any of their children being lost to the world. And yet Nomi seemed to have a good life. She was clearly materially better off. But then Caleb remembered the day he saw her at the markets, buying pork quite openly. He had avoided her. She no longer attended Jewish services and she disregarded the Sabbath. How could she turn her back on her sacred heritage?

When he went home he spoke seriously to Lia. They needed to be in a strong Jewish community with synagogues and Jewish schools. He had an idea. He had a Jewish customer named Holbien from Amsterdam, who visited once or twice a year to arrange supplies of furs. He had a major outlet in Amsterdam. He told Caleb how happy life in Holland was for Jews, with their own homes, synagogues, schools and burial grounds. They were also full citizens. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, had controlled Holland, Zeeland, Freisland, and Brabant, which at that time constituted the nucleus of the future Netherlands. Philip had granted the Jews full citizenship in his jurisdiction. Caleb could work with Holbien, and be the broker between the shop in Amsterdam and his brothers’ factory in Riga.

Caleb and Lia talked late into the night and the decision was almost made. They both went to work thinking of moving to Amsterdam. Their eldest son Ezra had been attending the Catholic school for a year and loved it. That very day in the afternoon, Ezra at the age of fourteen, came home with a non-Jewish girlfriend who stayed for supper. That night Caleb and Lia consolidated the decision to move to Amsterdam. It was easy to move. They owned nothing except their household effects and these were easily sold or given away. The fur business would continue in the hands of his five brothers. He would see them from time to time. Caleb and the family would travel by ship from the Port of Riga, in the Daugava River Delta, on the Baltic Sea, to Amsterdam. The trip would be expensive and arduous but they were brave and well off. Breaking the news of the move to the children resulted in enthusiasm by all except Ezra who did not want to leave his girlfriend behind. But he acquiesced without too much fuss. His father assured him he could visit her in the future. There was sadness all around as the family said farewell to all their relatives and friends and the eight set out with all their transportable baggage. There was a regular sailing to Amsterdam in the summer months. The Dutch were good sailors and built seaworthy ships. They were all seasick, but rested in the stopover port. It was an experience none of them had had before, and the Baltic Sea was a wonder to them. In Amsterdam they were processed as immigrants and Caleb had money for all the fees incurred. He had converted his German marks, Latvia’s currency at the time, to French francs, the preferred currency of Holland. Holbein had rented a place for them and they soon were settled. The community welcomed them. On the same street were a synagogue, and a Jewish school. Caleb and Lia were absolutely elated. When the next day the children registered at the school, they discovered their name was spelled in Dutch as Jurie, and no longer in the Hebrew as Shure. Being in a new land with a fantastic new freedom was marvellous. The children could speak Latvian and German and were learning Hebrew. But they did not know Dutch. Dutch is a Germanic language and before long all the children were fluent in Dutch as well. Caleb and Lia attended Dutch language classes and were slower than the children.

Life in Holland was marvellous. Caleb fitted into Holbein’s business very well. He enjoyed travelling, especially back to Riga, to buy the furs from his brothers and to see all the relatives and friends they left behind. Lia was very homesick for a while, but soon got absorbed in the social life of the Jewish community. She did not want to go back to Riga but