About this talk

This is the story of the Burmese Jews — a community who mostly arrived from Iraq and India during the heyday of the British Empire — that once flourished but quickly faded into obscurity. In its brief history, the Burmese Jewish community experienced the archetypal Jewish narrative, marked by internal divisions and existential threats from the outside. Its members either emigrated or assimilated. But is there still hope for a revival of Jewish life in this distant Southeast Asian country?

As a photojournalist, I took the opportunity to document the remnants of the Jewish presence in Burma today, along with the rapidly vanishing traces of its past.

About Misha

My name is Misha Gulko, and I'm a photojournalist from Brooklyn, New York, born in Odessa, Ukraine. Odessa was once a vibrant center of Jewish life in the Russian Empire, and later in the USSR. At one time, the words "Jews" and "Odessa" were nearly synonymous. But under the Soviet regime, Jewish culture was heavily suppressed. Once emigration became possible, most Jews — including my family — fled the country and my city. The Jewish community rapidly shrank, and so did the sense of our presence and influence on the life and folklore of Odessa. That's why the story of Burma's disappearing Jewish community felt so close to home.