The First Jews in the Philippines
Levy Abad 12/ 29/2017
Adolphe Levy and Brothers
Adolphe Levy and Brothers
Adolphe Blum Levy (1849-1888) (Photo courtesy of Joelle Nordmann Lasserre) |
After fifteen years of research into
the founders of La Estrella Del Norte, I finally found pictures of two of the three siblings, Adolphe Levy and Raphael Levy. I still have to find one of Charles Levy. It was a relative, Joelle Lasserre, who shared the pictures that she found in her
research on the French side of Adolphe Levy’s family.
Adolphe Levy (1849-1888), the founder of La Estrella del Norte, together with his brothers, has been faceless throughout Philippine history, despite the contribution of the Levy brothers in pioneering business in the
Philippines starting in 1870's. I have communicated with the different branches of the Levy family
in the Philippines, but no
one can provide pictures. Several visits to the Philippine archives in 2000 to
2004 then online research and lastly, scouring Supreme Court decisions for clues, proved futile.
The Birth of La Estrella Del Norte
The Birth of La Estrella Del Norte
Adolphe, Charles
and Raphael Levy were from Alsace,
France. They left the country due to the impact of the Franco–Prussian War,
traveled to the United States, and eventually moved to the Philippines where they started
a business. They organized La
Estrella Del Norte (The Star of the North) and later added “Levy Hermanos”
to the company’s name. “The first business that they established was in Iloilo
where they sold religious medals, statues, gold chains, gilt eyeglass frames,
perfumes and later they expanded their trading business. Charles Levy opened
what became the main office at Escolta, the old central business street in
Manila. La Estrella del Norte began to diversify" (Frank Ephraim, Escape to Manila, From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror, 12). Adolphe Levy led the business in its early years. Unfortunately, he will succumb to illness in 1888 at the age of 39. With the death of Adolphe, Charles Weil, a relative, took over management, together with Charles Levy and Raphael. The company introduced the first bicycle, in 1894 the first phonograph, and in 1899 the moving picture machine. In 1904, they brought the first automobile ever seen in Philippine society” (Lou Gopal, La Estrella Del Norte, Manila Nostalgia, Facebook).
Contributions of the Levy Brothers
Raphael B. Levy (Photo courtesy of Robert Hermanos) |
The business that Adolphe Levy
and his brothers built catered to the taste of the aristocracy of the country.
In a way, the Levy brothers laid
down the foundation of the business presence of the Jewish community in the
country beginning in the 1870’s. According to a friend musician who attends a synagogue in Manila, Aryeh Meir Ben Avraham and online sources,
the office of La Estrella del Norte was even “used for high holiday services
until the first synagogue was built in 1919” (Lou Gopal, Manila
Nostalgia, Facebook). This synagogue will be known as Temple Emil. The book
of Frank Ephraim, Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese
Terror, tells of the story of how the Philippines welcomed German and
Austrian Jews (numbering around 1200) that escaped the Holocaust or what is referred
to nowadays by the Jewish community as the Shoah or Catastrophe. Frank Ephraim noted, “The Levy brothers befriended Dr.
Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. They were even supportive of his views” (p.12). This happened when Adolphe was still alive.
From the time Adolphe Levy and his brothers arrived in the Philippines in
the 1870’s up to
1888 when he passed away, and onto the 1960’s, Adolphe’s legacy lived on through his siblings who continued the business. Their business provided jobs that established goodwill especially
with those who were running the government. I do believe that this
goodwill created the atmosphere of being a welcoming country to the Jews who
escaped Germany to Manila. When the last of the Levy brothers left the
Philippines, there were already a lot of Jewish investments, and the relationships built over the years came in handy in the effort to save
their distressed brothers and sisters escaping the Shoah.
Descendants of Adolphe Levy
Courtesy of Lou Gopal , Manila Nostalgia |
Descendants of Adolphe Levy
Some members of the family
left the Philippines for the United States and others returned to France. The
descendants of Adolphe Levy, the oldest of the three and known to be the
founder of La Estrella Del Norte, are still in the Philippines. His early death will deprive him of the pride of seeing his achievements grow, leaving not only an imprint on the field of business but also on his descendants. He had a son with Benita Enriquez named Francisco Enriquez Levy (1883-1944). It will be Francisco, who was orphaned at the age of four, from whom a branch of the Levy of the Philippines will originate. Francisco is the grandfather of the famous Philippine movie star Susan Roces or Jesusa Levy Sonora”
(interview with Moises Levy, 2007 Toronto, Ontario included in Levy
Family History Manuscript 1870-2010, researched by Levy Abad) and wife of
the late Fernando Poe, also a famous movie star, who ran for President in 2004. To date, after 147 years, there are hundreds of descendants of Adolphe
Levy in the Philippines and others are residing abroad.
Legacy
Legacy
Courtesy of Lou Gopal , Manila Nostalgia |
From the time of Adolphe Levy and his brothers in the 1870's up to the time that there was a
relative number of Jews to form a community until the 1960s, their engagement in numerous businesses made an
impact and yielded positive results in lobbying during the war years and may have been instrumental in the decision of President Manuel L. Quezon to admit 1200 Jewish
refugees. All this positive outcome can
be traced back to the time of tireless building of goodwill.
The Research Continues
Part of the story of Adolphe Levy is
that he had a daughter named Mercedes Levy (1888-1967) born on March 1,1888, (five years younger than Francisco) with Irma Heymann Levy. Irma died in 1893 at the age of 30, leaving Mercedes totally orphaned.The descendants of Mercedes will be the source of the picture of Adolphe. Years and
years, the family of Adolphe in the Philippines wandered and yearned for the day
that they will have his picture. Lo and behold,
finally, Adolphe comes back to life in
the memory of his children in the Philippine diaspora.
I would like to end this
article with a quote from Eitz Chayim Hi: "Hashivenu Adonai eilecha v'nashuva, chadesh yameinu k'kedem" (Return us to you, God, so that we shall return, renew our days as of old).
(Some parts of this article were originally published in the Winnipeg Jewish Review, Levy Abad: From Kristallnacht to La Estrella Del Norte, November 9, 2015)
(Some parts of this article were originally published in the Winnipeg Jewish Review, Levy Abad: From Kristallnacht to La Estrella Del Norte, November 9, 2015)