money player

Grace Victor Sassoon and an old lady were walking hand in hand on the boulevard near the Meyer family residence near the St. No Synagogue.

The old lady is Moselle Nissim, the daughter of Manasseh Meyer, now 1930 years old. Since Manasseh Meyer's death in , she has become the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Singapore.

When they reached a tree, Moser stopped and said, "Grace, where are you and Adam going to hold your wedding?"

Grace took the coffee pot from her shoulder and poured a cup of coffee for Moser. "The Cohen family has decided to hold the wedding in the Holy City."

Moser chuckled and said, "This little guy Israel changed the tradition of the Cohen family. He no longer continued the name Israel and named his child Jerusalem. He also called his grandson Adam, which caused you a lot of taboos."

"It's nothing, just be careful with your words." Grace said calmly, "Moser, I want to join the Singapore Jewish Women's Union and help my fellow poor Singaporeans."

Mozer held Grace's hand and said, "I welcome your joining. Grace, I'm old now, so you should worry about the alliance in the future."

The Singapore Jewish Women's Union was established by Moser as a purely charitable organization aimed at providing practical help to the Jewish poor in Singapore. Initially, most of the funding was provided by Manasseh Meyer and its main activities were in the Jewish community. Later, Moser was often asked to help solve the wider community needs in Singapore, and she was happy to respond.

After Manasseh Meyer's death, most of the alliance's funding came from members bringing in money. When Grace joined the alliance, she not only had to work, but also had to continuously invest money.

"I will."

Grace poured herself a cup of coffee, took a sip, and looked out at the street view of Oxley Road.

When she looked out, she saw Xian Yaowen walking up the hill.

Fann Wong (Xie Jingchen), who was hiding in a tree, also saw it. She realized that her mission of following Moser had come to an end, so she slid lightly from the tree to the ground and disappeared in an instant.

Xian Yaowen walked up to a tree and stopped to look at a line of German words engraved on the tree, which literally translated into Chinese means "Albert Einstein and Elsa Einstein visited here."

In 1922, Einstein and his second wife, Elsa, the daughter of his cousin and aunt, were on their way to Tokyo for a lecture tour and stopped in Singapore to carry out a mission assigned by the World Zionist Organization - to urge the richest members of the Singapore Jewish community to donate to the newly built Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The fund-raising meeting had been arranged in advance by Chaim Weizmann, then-president of the Zionist Organization, who telegraphed Manasseh Meyer asking community leaders to arrange a reception.

Moser, “a most charming and able hostess,” arranged a reception for 300 people at the Mayer family mansion, complete with refreshments and a chamber orchestra.

The Jews in Singapore generally had great awe and respect for the Einsteins and responded positively to Einstein's fundraising requests.

Xian Yaowen felt that the old man supported Jews, respected science, and respected scientists. When he saw a scientist with real ability, he would stand up and toast to him even if he was paralyzed. The family raised many scientists, and their treatment was on par with the old man himself.

The old man's attitude towards science and scientists was all passed on to him. He also had great respect for scientists, including Einstein. When Einstein died, he would participate in the "brain slice battle" and strive for more slices of Einstein's brain.

After seeing the dog-skin plaster, Xian Yaowen continued walking upstairs. He looked up and saw the St. No Synagogue and the Mayer family’s mansion, one of the holy places for the Jews in Singapore and the meeting place of the Singapore Zionist Association.

There is only one Zionist organization, but there are Zionist associations everywhere. In the early years, the Sassoon family led the establishment of the Shanghai Zionist Association in Shanghai and founded the Zionist newspaper "The Israel Messenger".

In July 1920, after Britain obtained the Mandate for Palestine, Manasseh Meyer became interested in Zionism and established the Zionist Association of Singapore, of which he served as chairman.

Whether it is the Zionist Association in Shanghai or in Singapore, they both represent the attitude of Baghdad Jews towards Zionist organizations. After leaving Baghdad, most of the Baghdad Jews moved to Mumbai and Kolkata in India, and then spread to Hong Kong, Singapore, the British Concession in Shanghai, and the United Kingdom.

Without exception, they all belong to the British sphere of influence. The Jews in Baghdad have deep entanglements with Britain. Just like the Sassoon family, their family interests are deeply tied to the British national interests. They are definitely pro-British.

Before 1930, the Singapore Zionist Association remained strong, making donations to Jewish foundations and establishing secular and Talmudic Torah schools in Mandate Palestine.

In 1930, Britain's reversal of policy towards Palestine caused a deep rift in the Zionist movement, shaking the minds of wealthy Singaporean Jews and other pro-Anglophile upper-class Jews in the Commonwealth.

In addition, the publication of the 1930 Pasfield White Paper coincided with the death of Manasseh Meyer, which further weakened the cohesion within the Association and shook the Jewish community's commitment to the further development of the Zionist cause.

After 1930, the Singapore Zionist Association, like the Shanghai Zionist Association, slowed down its fundraising, became ambiguous about Zionism, and gradually faded from people's sight.

For a period of time that followed, Zionism in Singapore became low-key and even disappeared, while a large number of Revisionist Zionist organizations established by Russian and Eastern European Jews emerged in Shanghai.

Most of the members of these organizations come from the icy and snowy regions, and they are not that yearning for the holy city of Jerusalem. Some of them aim to establish Israel, while others just want a safe place to live, either in the northeast or in the south of the colorful clouds.

As a result, some Eastern European Jews were attracted by the Puffer Plan designed by Yasue Senhiro and others, and some also flirted with Sun Ke, because Sun Ke proposed a motion in February 1939 to designate a Jewish settlement area in Yunnan to accommodate the poor and homeless European refugees.

Both plans were submitted to the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, and were directly rejected. Ninety-nine percent of Jews around the world who advocate Zionism aim to return to Jerusalem, and other places are not considered.

Moreover, since the outbreak of World War II, the most vocal Jewish group has shifted from European Jews to American Jews, or more directly, to American Jews and the pro-American faction.

One side wanted to establish Israel, and the other side wanted to drive out the British troublemaker in the Middle East and replace it with a troublemaker whose interests were consistent with their own. The two sides hit it off, and the restoration of the nation that the Jews had been dreaming of for thousands of years was thus achieved.

When the Jews in Baghdad saw this, they immediately said “What Fuck”. Damn it, I didn’t expect it, I really didn’t expect it. How could I have thought that the founding revolution would really be victorious? Am I not a clown?
Having invested so much in the early stages, I must not be left out when the fruits of victory are shared. It is a great help to admit one's mistakes and then improve them. Since I know I was wrong, I will remedy it. This is how the marriage between the Sassoon family and the Cohen family came about.

The current patriarch of the Cohen family is Israel Cohen, Secretary General of the Zionist Organization. He has been working for Zionism for many years and has made a great contribution to the successful establishment of Israel. The Cohen family will definitely have a place in Israel's power system.

It takes several preparations to make a red heart, and in the 1930s, the Baghdad Jews in Singapore, like many Baghdad Jews in Shanghai, felt that they had to put their loyalty to Britain above their support for Zionism.

David Marshall once publicly condemned the actions of a fanatical Zionist emissary from Palestine who came to Singapore because he accused Jewish families on the island of not responding to his door-to-door fundraising appeal in his own newspaper, The Light of Israel.

During World War II, Singapore's Jewish elites joined the army to show their loyalty to Britain. When the Japanese invasion was imminent, David Marshall joined the Singapore Volunteer Force, an auxiliary militia organization formed by the British colonial government to defend Singapore.

TAD Sassoon, editor of The Light of Israel and a descendant of the Sassoon family in Singapore, was in London when the war broke out and subsequently joined the Royal Air Force.

Their loyalty to Britain cost them a heavy price, and during the Shōnan period, Marshall and other Jews who remained in Singapore were imprisoned in labor camps as enemy nationals, suffering from malnutrition, dysentery and malaria.

Some young people were assigned to work on the Death Railway from Thailand to Burma, and David Marshall was sent to Hokkaido to work in a coal mine.

After the war, faced with the wave of decolonization, the Jews in Baghdad, Singapore, had another plan in place: to wait for and strive for the possibility of Singapore's independent autonomy, and to have absolute or certain voice after autonomy.

David Marshall took the initiative to step forward and was also chosen by the Jewish community to bear the six-star flag.

As Xian Yaowen walked up, they got closer and closer. Grace, who was looking from afar, saw his face clearly. She was shocked, "Why is Adam dressed like this?"

Her brain was working at high speed, thinking about the purpose of Xian Yaowen's behavior.

Xian Yaowen has some not-so-obvious Jewish features in his facial features. HSBC has already done a thorough investigation on him, and Grace is well aware of his ancestry. HSBC included him in the list of supported personnel, not without consideration of his ancestry.

"Adam is a smart man, he must be aware of his ancestry. Is he trying to prove his Jewish identity by dressing like this to go to the synagogue? What's his purpose?"

"Grace, what are you thinking about?"

"Master, what are you going to do?"

When Grace's thoughts were interrupted, Narcissus, who had been walking all the way in confusion, finally couldn't help asking.

Xian Yaowen turned to look at Narcissus and said with a smile: "Today is a festival. I will go to the church to report to Jehovah. I will eat some glutinous rice balls later."

"Do you believe in Jesus?" Narcissus asked in surprise.

"Jehovah and Jesus are not the same thing." Xian Yaowen did not explain much, but said, "I'm almost there. I'll go into the church by myself later. You wait for me outside."

"Ah."

Narcissus knew that the master understood what she was asking, and since he did not give a direct answer, she did not dare to ask further.

Continuing to go up, Xian Yaowen, who was keeping an eye on all directions, discovered Grace's presence. He quickly looked away to avoid meeting Grace's gaze.

He knew that Grace was here today, but he "shouldn't" know that she was here, and he didn't want to communicate with her here. It was enough for his behavior to fall into her eyes.

He quickened his pace without looking around and soon arrived at the door of St. No Synagogue. He asked Narcissus to wait while he pushed open the door and walked into the church.

There is nothing special about the synagogue. There are no gorgeous decorations, nor pictures or statues of God. The Jews believe that God has no entity. The biggest function of the church is to provide a place for adult men who strictly follow Jewish law to complete three prayers a day when more than 10 people gather together.

There is no unified style for synagogues. Although the architecture of the synagogue is basically based on the Temple in Jerusalem, due to the lack of historical images to emulate, synagogues around the world are of various shapes and sizes, integrating local culture and the designs of other churches.

Xian Yaowen came to the area in the church where Bibles were stored for believers to use, took out a Torah, sat down in the men's seating area, opened the Torah to the Exodus section, and silently recited in Hebrew.

At this moment, there was no one in the church, but Xian Yaowen knew that there must be someone there. The person might be in the corridor on the second floor, and his every move would be seen by others.

So since he entered the church, his eyes have been very honest, he didn't look around, and his mouth was opened just right when he was reciting silently. People who can speak Hebrew can tell that he is reciting Hebrew by looking at his mouth shape.

They all lived on Oxley Road, and the wedding had caused such a big fuss that it was easy for anyone interested in him to target him.

"After many years, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out because of the forced labor. Their cry came to God. God heard their cry and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God cared for the Israelites and knew their affliction..."

After silently reciting a long passage, Xian Yaowen closed the Torah and his performance came to an end.

After leaving the church, Xian Yaowen took off his kipah and tallit, and walked down the slope holding Narcissus.

When they reached halfway up the slope, Xian Yaowen said, "You can stay here tonight."

Narcissus felt a little moved, but also a little worried. She looked up and said, "Will my sister be unhappy?"

"It's okay." Xian Yaowen patted Shuixian's arm, "You two should get to know each other formally. You stay in Singapore, and Jin Man travels between Hong Kong and Singapore. You two will have to help each other in the future."

"I have no problem with that. I'm just afraid my sister won't be happy about it."

"Don't talk nonsense. Jin Man is a reasonable person and knows his limits."

"Oh."

The two chatted all the way back to No. 999. Xian Guangli was the only one in the living room, no one else.

Xian Yaowen pulled Shuixian to sit on the sofa and said to Xian Guangli, "Dad, where are Mom and Ms. Li?"

"In the kitchen."

Xian Guangli's gaze stayed on Narcissus for a long time, and then he gave Xian Yaowen an inquiring look.

"Dad, she is Yi Xin, He Yi Xin, your other daughter-in-law." Xian Yaowen looked at Shui Xian and said, "Call someone."

Narcissus hesitated for a moment, then stood up and said shyly to Xian Guangli, "Dad."

"Okay, okay, Yi Xin, sit down, sit down quickly." Xian Guangli pressed his hand with a warm face, and after Shui Xian sat down, he asked: "Yi Xin, where do you live?"

"Dad, I live in Grange Road."

"Not Hong Kong?" Xian Guangli glared at Xian Yaowen.

"Dad, the master and I met in Singapore." Narcissus said generously.

After glaring at Xian Yaowen again, Xian Guangli asked, "Yixin, where are you from?"

Xian Yaowen let Narcissus deal with Xian Guangli. He picked up the newspaper on the coffee table and turned to the people's livelihood section, trying to find out if there was any news about throwing oranges.

The Baba Nyonya people, whose ancestral home is in Fujian, have a saying that "throw good tangerines and marry a good husband". On the Lantern Festival, when the moon is full, they will go to the beach or river and throw tangerines into the water, wishing to find a good home.

Although the customs of Baba Nyonya have become more open, most Nyonya still stay at home. Tonight is a good opportunity for young men to get to know and pursue Nyonya. It can be considered a blind date night. (End of this chapter)