JHSSD-Cantor Joseph Cysner Collection

Collection Highlights

Please respect the JHSSD's copyright to these images

Cantor Joseph Cysner, seen here in a rare photograph taken inside Temple Emil in Manila prior to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941, left a unique collection of photographs and documents that chronicle his extraordinary life. Born in Bamberg, Germany of Eastern European Jewish heritage, he was arrested by the Gestapo during the Polenaktion of 1938 and deported to the Polish border en masse with 10,000 other displaced Jews and confined in the Polish border town of Zbaszyn. His memoir of this experience, which is contained in his collection, is a very rare testimonial to the suffereings of the victims of the Zbaszyn Deportation. He was rescued from the camp and an uncertain fate by a telegram from the Philippines asking if he would like a job as a Cantor for the Jewish Community of Manila. After arriving in the Far East in May 1939, less than two years passed before he was arrested and incarcerated by the Japanese at Santo Tomas in Manila during WWII. His collection tells of his esacpe from both imprisonments and his post war service as Cantor in San Francisco and finally here in San Diego for Tifereth Israel 1951 to 1961.

This photograph may be the only one of its kind, showing the beautiful detail on the facade of Temple Emil, the synagogue of the Jewish Community of Manila from 1920 until its destruction by the Japanese in 1945. This synagogue was the only American Jewish synagogue to be destroyed in WWII.

This photograph documents a memorial being held to honor the Jewish victims killed by the Japanese during the liberation of Manila and The Philippines by American Armed Forces personnel, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who can be seen here assembled in the bombed out hull of Temple Emil. The American liberating forces were amazed to find a community of Jewish refugees from Europe residing in this Far Eastern archipelagos. The American Military Personnel of the Far East raised $15,000 and assisted the Jewish Community in Manila in rebuilding their temple over the next year. The new temple was dedicated in early 1947.

This photograph, and many others on loan to the JHSSD Archives by the Cysner Family, documents an event of extraordinary logistics - the High Holidays of 1945 being held in the ruins of the Rizal Stadium in Manila. Thousands of Jewish GI's assembled from all over the Pacific to attend the High Holidays that were conducted by Cantor Cysner and Jewish Chaplains of the Pacific theater.

Shortly after the liberation of The Philippines in February - March of 1945, the season for Pesach arrived and for the first time since the invasion by the Japanese, all members of the Jewish Community of Manila could assemble for the Seder. American forces in The Philippines assisted the Jews of Manila is gathering their members for this Seder conducted by Cantor Cysner (seen standing on the right) in company with Rabbi Schwatz and US Jewish Chaplains

If you are interested in obtaining copies of images, please contact Bonnie M. Harris of the JHSSD.