major donors to Raffles College, now known as National University of Singapore, and one of the two institutions of tertiary learning that later formed the University of Malaya. Naturalized a British citizen, he was keen to display loyalty to the British Empire and be a public citizen. Meyer was a Municipal Commissioner from 1893 to 1900 and a member of the Currency Board. He also contributed generously from his fortune towards the war effort from 1915 to 1919. His greatest works were within the Jewish community where he was the Baghdadi Jews of Singapore's most generous benefactor. Jews responsible for erecting Singapore's two synagogues — Maghain Aboth Synagogue and Chesed-El Synagogue. Chesed-El, his personal favourite, was opened in 1905 for the use of his family and others Baghdadi Jewish families. Together with three other wealthy Jews, Meyer bought a large piece of land in Moulmein Road for $5,407.12 for the Jewish Cemetery. Meyer also bought the adjoining piece of land for $8,681.40 and, after reserving a plot for himself and his second wife, Rebecca, presented it to the community. His wife Rebecca died in 1915. Sir Manasseh Meyer was created a Knight Bachelor on 1 March 1929 by the British for his generous contributions to society. He died on 1 July 1930 in Singapore. Judaism and Zionism Though established in Singapore and born in Baghdad, he was part of the tightly knit transitional trade network of Baghdadi Jews in Asia united by language, family, trade and faith. However Meyer never lost his ties to the Middle East. Meyer remained closely tied to the Jewish religious establishment in Baghdad and underwrote the publication of one of the books of Rabbi Joseph Hayyim, known as the Ben Ish Hai, to whom he looked as his spiritual mentor. Inspired by the Ben Yish Hai's focus on supporting the growing Jewish community in Palestine, he became a committed Zionist. During his lifetime the proto-Zionism of the Baghdadi religious establishment such a shame the Ben Yish Hai was transferred into active support for the Zionist movement founded by Theodor Herzl. In 1900 he travelled to Jerusalem with his daughters to "inculcate them with a love of Zion." In 1922 Meyer became the founding president of the Singapore Zionist Organization. His home was known as a "beehive" of Zionist activity in Asia. In 1922 he hosted Albert Einstein as he travelled through the Baghdadi Jewish communities