History of the Jews in the Philippines

Recorded Jewish history in the Philippines started during the Spanish period.

The Spanish Inquisition in the 16th Century forced many Jews in Spain to convert to Christianity or to flee. These Jewish "New Christians" were known as "Marranos" or "Conversos", a term which included converted Muslims. Sephardi Jews are those Jews coming from the Iberian Peninsula and settled in the Philippines, particularly, in Northern Samar. Some, called Crypto-Jews, observed their Jewish rites in secret. The Inquisition investigated and persecuted many of the Conversos, accusing them of practicing in secret, some without substantial basis. Thus many of the original Jews and Marranos fled to the new Spanish colonies including the Philippines. Two "New Christian" brothers, Jorge and Domingo Rodríguez, arrived in the Spanish Philippines in the 1590s. By 1593 both were tried and convicted at an auto da fe in Mexico City because the Inquisition did not have an independent tribunal in the Philippines. The Inquisition imprisoned the Rodríguez brothers and subsequently tried and convicted at least eight other "New Christians" from the Philippines. Such was the precarious status of Jewish settlers in the Philippines. Jewish presence during the subsequent centuries of Spanish colonization remained small and unorganized. Spanish Christianized laws would not have permitted the presence of an organized Jewish community.

The first permanent settlement of Jews in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial years began with the arrival of three Levy brothers from Alsace-Lorraine, who were escaping the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. As entrepreneurs, their business ventures over the years included jewelry retail, a general merchandising business, and import trade in gems, pharmaceuticals, and eventually automobiles. Along with them was another notable Jew from the Alsace region, Leopold Kahn, who became President and General Manager of La Estrella del Norte and Levy Hermanos, Inc. Kahn also held positions such as the French Consul-General to the Philippines, and President of the French Chamber of Commerce. The opening of the Suez Canal in March 1869 provided a more direct trading route between Europe and the Philippines, allowing businesses to grow and the number of Jews in the Philippines to increase. The Levy brothers were subsequently joined by Turkish, Syrian, and Egyptian Jews, creating a multi-ethnic Jewish population of about fifty individuals by the end of the Spanish period. It was not until the Spanish–American War at the end of the 19th century, when the United States took control of the islands from Spain in 1898, that the Jewish community was allowed to officially organize and openly practice Judaism.

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