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October 26, 2009
The Jews of China
Yours truly binding tefillin at The Great Wall of China.
As I wrote in a previous post, a few years ago I was in China conducting research for a script I was hired to write by one of the major Hollywood studios. The script turned out well—an unusual tale of love and loss in 1930's China—but typical for this town the film was never produced. It was horrifyingly expensive and shooting in China presented all sorts of logistical problems the studio wasn't prepared to deal with.
I was aware of the history of Jews in China, but did not have approval from the government to seek out and meet Chinese Jews. The Communist government kept a tight rein on us.
The morning we visited The Great Wall of China, our guides/government spies roused us in the middle of the night. The idea was to arrive at The Wall at sunrise. I wasn't able to daven, pray with my tefillin at such an early hour, so I shoved my tallit and tefillin in my backpack and prayed—very quickly—at The Great Wall of China.
There was a minor ruckus, a few hard-eyed and extremely suspicious soldiers wanted to know what the foreign devil was doing. My Spy leaped forward to explain that I was “praying to my ancestors.”
The soldiers watched me for a few minutes, then got bored and marched off.
My Spy kind of begged me to cool my Jewish jets in public.
Here's a wide view of The Great Wall. My Guide/Spy told me that slave
labor built the wall. When the slaves died—on the job—their bodies were mixed
with the mortar or just thrown into the foundations of the massive structure.
Here's a brief video that gives some background on the history of Judaism in China.
Here's the good news:
Ben-Gurion Airport was the setting for an unusual scene late Tuesday night, as seven young Chinese men wearing kippot arrived via Uzbekistan to make aliya.
The newcomers, who were brought here by the Shavei Israel organization, are all descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, which flourished on the southern banks of the Yellow River for more than 1,000 years.
Chinese Jews arrive in Israel.
It marked the first time that an organized group has moved here from Kaifeng.
"I am very excited to be here in the Holy Land," said Yaakov Wang, one of the new immigrants. "This is something that my ancestors dreamed about for generations, and now, thank God, I have finally made it."
Full story at The Jerusalem Post.
And hey, let's give a mazal tov to Shoshanah Li, recently married to an American Jew in Israel.
Fo those of you who don't know Hebrew the man speaking to the camera, Michael Freund of Shavei, explains that there are about a thousand Chinese Jews waiting to make aliyah to Israel and go through the Orthodox conversion process.
Note: There has been so much intermarriage among Chinese Jews that halachically—according to Jewish law—they are no longer Jewish. The conversion, which entails deep study for over a year, affirms their faith and commitment. Thousands of Russian and Ethiopian Jews have also gone through the conversion process.
The Jewish Chinese woman, also speaking Hebrew, has been living in Jerusalem for five years. She explains that when she was growing up in China her parents told her that they were descendants of Jews: “We lit Shabbat candles, drank wine, and read the Torah. That's all we could do.”
I am humbled by the commitment and faith of these Chinese Jews.
Also humbled in the presence of the great Chinese actress Gong Li. I use any excuse to post this photo.
Pearl S. Buck authored Peony a novel about the Jews of ancient China. Not a great novel, but interesting.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at October 26, 2009 09:02 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Has any government ever been able to stamp out religion? It's the same hubris that governments think they can change the earth's climate. Saudi Arabia has it figured out. Any religion there is acceptable as long as it is stuck in the 12th century.
Robert:
Anita Dunn wants to see you. Apparently there is a warrant for your arrest from China. But since her hero Mao is no longer in charge, don't bet on Dunn having any pull with the authorities.
Posted by: Johnny at October 26, 2009 11:07 AM
I may have missed the reference, but, I hope everyone is aware of the book, Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars (trans. compiled, ed., by Sidney Shapiro) 1984, NY: Hippocrene.
It seems Western reports of Jews in China came as early as the 9th century CE, in an Arab traveller's account. That would be Aboul Zeyd al Hassan (or, Abu Zaid). There was a massacre at a south China seaport, in which "120,000 Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Parsees" were killed by the rebel Huang Chao.
However, there are others who believe that at least the knowledge of the Hebrew G-d was in China from the most ancient times, even from the times of the Tortis Shell pictographs writing. Why? because the early writing figures of Chinese contain elements of the Genesis story. For instance, the character for boat comprised three separate elements: vessel, eight, and mouth (person). There are Chinese characters replete with such elements. The character for devil contains these elements: man (son), garden (field), secret (private), cover, and tree.
Posted by: David Yeagley at October 26, 2009 11:34 AM
I've been to China a few times. (In fact, I have been to the exact spot at the Ohel Moishe Synagogue in Shanghai where the gentlemen in the video is standing). If you just apply for a tourist visa and wander around, nobody does much to stop you as long as you don't go to anywhere terribly sensitive or appear to be anything dramatically different from a normal tourist. If you are going to say anything controversial, it's best not to do so until you have left the country, and if you then say anything really controversial then you should not necessarily expect to be allowed back. However, it is possible to go and look around and talk to people without much difficulty. That said, you are still certainly far less free than if you are in, say, India, where you can pretty much go anywhere you like and say anything you like with few if any consequences.
From my perspective, the Chinese communists don't appear to have any grudges against Jews, particularly, at least not compared to the grudges they have against some other groups. (They are scared of Christians, at least partly because Christianity is very appealing to many Chinese people and the numbers frighten them. Minority ethnic groups such as Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs have a very rough time of things. And the treatment of practitioners of Falun Gong has been unspeakable, to say the least). This may be partly about numbers - there are few Jews and they don't really constitute a threat, although I suppose this hasn't stopped discrimination against Jews in quite a few other places.
Posted by: Michael Jennings at October 26, 2009 12:29 PM
"our guides/government spies roused us in the middle of the night"
When was your trip? Judging from the photo with the actress it can't be too long ago. If 20 yrs ago you may meet up some errh, "spy". I seriously doubt it unless the author had already publicized some ilky words and got blasklisted.
Don't always imagine yourself as a victim of some sort; as far as I know the Chinese opinion about Jewish people is positive in general.
Posted by: gao at October 26, 2009 06:41 PM
Gao,
As recently as 10 to 15 years ago, the Chinese government was very very careful with foreigners entering and traveling around China.
Things are much "better" and less restrictive now in many areas, but not all.
Posted by: anonymous at October 26, 2009 06:52 PM
Interesting. Where do you get your information about the current situation in China? When were you last in China?
Given China's Taiping Rebellion was started by a man, who after meeting western missionaries thought himself Christ's brother, and resulted in 20 million deaths, I see nothing wrong in fearing Christianity.
Yes, the Taiping Rebellion was more than a century ago, but I think the "religious right" operates with more zeal than the 19th century missionaries did.
Posted by: Richard at October 26, 2009 07:37 PM
Interesting, Richard. Where do you get your information about the "religious right"?
Posted by: DrCarol at October 27, 2009 05:37 AM
The Chinese and the Jews are very similar in many ways. Chinese in South East Asia were often were called the Jews of Asia and many suffered the same fate. Both thrive in peaceful, leveled playing fields, using their brains to be successful in life. A lot of discrimination from outside because of the fear of competitions. The Chinese are of a deeper stock. Any surface stuff as excuse for prejudice/discrimination usualy see through by the common people right away. The Chinese are very stability conscious, one can understand why from their experience (most recently last 150 years). Any movement that threatens to distablizing the country looked with fear.
Posted by: Timur at October 27, 2009 07:10 AM