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It is unclear when the Jewish community in Korea was established, but following Korea's opening to the West in 1882 there were a number of Jews who lived and worked in the country.
Siegmund Rosenbaum, an Austrian, arrived in Korea in 1883 to work for the newly-established Corean Customs Service at Wonsan. He remained in Korea for only a couple of years before returning China where he resumed employment with the Chinese Customs Service.
Surprisingly, he wasn't the only Rosenbaum in Korea at the time. Joseph Rosenbaum, a naturalized American, arrived in Korea in June 1883 to establish a glass factory along the Han River. Unfortunately, the Han River's sand was deemed unsuitable so he retooled his company to manufacture matches. At first he met with limited success but it soon grew obvious that the enterprise was doomed to fail. In 1886, Rosenbaum sold the factory and its machinery to a Chinese merchant who moved the factory to China. The factory wasn't the only thing to move Rosenbaum was made the new manager.
There were others. In 1888, C. Herzberg, a German national, was employed as the second machinist aboard the Korean government steamship Hairiong. He and his wife, Sarah, lived in Jemulpo and on February 6, 1890, were blessed with the birth of their daughter, Amalie. But their happiness was soon to end. Shortly after Amalie's birth the family seems to have moved from Jemulpo to Hong Kong and on October 28, 1890, the little girl was dead. The family's name then fades from history.
Yun Chi-ho, an important Korean politician from the past, recalled that his father was escorted to Jemulpo in 1895 by a Russian Jew unfortunately he never identified the individual but apparently there were quite a few Jews in Korea at the time.
An article published in 1902 (translation provided by Frank Hoffman) claimed there were some 300 Jewish families living in Korea the majority in Seoul. The Seoul community was led by an unnamed Austrian who lived in Korea for about 12 years and had succeeded in establishing a synagogue with a shohet and chasan. The article also noted that a Jewish community was being established in Masampo.
Almost nothing is known of the small foreign community at Masampo except that most of them were Russians and one Austrian named H. J. Houben. Houben arrived in Busan in the late 1890s as the representative for the Chinese Eastern Railway Steamship Company and purchased land in that city. In 1900 he established a store at Masampo and served on the city's council.
According to the article, the Jews in Korea were valuable assets who introduced a large number of crafts previously unknown to the country along with Russian sugar, kerosene, products from Lodz industrial complex and alcohol.
One Jew played an important role in Russian-Korean relations in the early 1900s. M.A. Mess was originally from Odessa, Russia, but fled from that country to avoid being conscripted into the military. He changed his name to Ginsburg and moved to Nagasaki, Japan, where he established his own company which was very successful and soon had branch offices in China, Singapore and Jemulpo. Ironically, part of his business involved provisioning the Russian navy which later gained him a pardon and a noble title.
M.A. Ginsburg may, in fact, have been Baron Gabriel de Gunzburg whose role in Korea was more than just a businessman. He bought a home in Seoul and became active in Korean-Russian ventures. He was involved in loan negotiations between the Russian government and Korea in 1902, tried to obtain the Seoul-Wiju Railroad concession, and a gold mining concession in 1903 all of which failed. He did, however, obtain timber concessions along the Yalu River and on Ullong Island. Of course, all of this was lost following Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.
But the Jewish presence in Korea remained. In September 1904, Victor Goldstien established a jewelry and watch-repair shop in the legation district (Jeongdong) of Seoul. His shop was later badly damaged by a fire that destroyed the French Hotel near Toksu Palace and we are left to ponder his fate did he remain in Korea?
Robert Neff is a columnist for The Korea Times. ― Ed.
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