Names of Myanmar Burmese pronunciation (compare with what happened in India with Calcutta/Kolkata and Calicut/Kozhikode). These renamings took the form of the "Adaptation of Expressions Law", passed on 18 June 1989. Thus, for instance, Rangoon was changed to Yangon to reflect the fact that the "r" sound is no longer used in Standard Burmese and merged with a "y" glide. As for the country's name, the commission decided to replace the English name "Burma" with "Myanmar", for three reasons. First, "Myanma" is the official name of the country in the Burmese language, and the aim of the commission was to have English place
History of the Jews in Myanmar Israel came from India. Under British rule, the local Jewish community prospered as merchants developed small businesses, and traders worked in cotton and rice. The Baghdadi Jews established Musmeah Yeshua synagogue in Rangoon; it is the only synagogue still standing in Yangon or the country. It was first built in the 1850s as a small wooden structure, then rebuilt in 1896. The Jewish cemetery, containing 700 graves, is about six miles away. A Jewish school, for children up to middle-school age, had 200 students at its peak in 1910. After that some parents sent their children to secular schools, especially