Vol. 27 No. 3 A Publication of the Sino-Judaic Institute November 2012

AN ANTI-SEMITIC PERSPECTIVE ON INTERNATIONAL JEWRY, THE IN MEMORIAM CHINESE JEWS AND THEODORE CHINESE COMMUNISM “TEDDY” by Itsvan Bakony KAUFMAN excerpted from www.bamboo-delight.com [Editor’s Note: I hesitated briefly before deciding to run ex- cerpts from this monograph because of its virulent anti-Jewish perspective but I found it so incredibly and wildly inaccurate September 2, 1924 – July 15, 2012 that I just had to share it with you, our readers. This excerpt is taken from selected chapters of Bakony’s larger work entitled: Compiled from material in Haaretz, Aug.15, 2012, the Igud Imperialism, Communism and Judaism, the Three Forces Bulletin and Jewish Times Asia, Oct. 15, 2012 Dominating the World. While no date is given for the origi- nal, the translation of the Hungarian original was done in 1969 Theodore—”Teddy”—Kaufman was born on September 2, 1924 and updated subsequently by the author, although no date is in Harbin, Manchuria, into the secular Russian Jewish family given. I can only hope you join me in shaking your head in of Dr. Abraham Kaufman. His father is remembered for his bewilderment and sadness at his manifest and multiple distor- role as head of the Far Eastern Jewish Council, under whose tions.] auspices he helped save approximately 20,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by assisting their temporary resettlement in The Israelite leader Israel Joseph Benjamin II, Chacham of Is- Kobe, Japan and the Shanghai ghetto. rael, after his visit to China at the middle of the last century, says in his report on Chinese clandestine Judaism, presented Throughout his long life, Teddy Kaufman emulated his father to the western Israelite leaders, that in one epoch the Chinese by playing a very active role in Jewish communal affairs. His Jews mixed themselves with the population of the Mongolic first such position was as personal secretary to Harbin’s Chief race through mixed marriages…After this, the laborious Rabbi A.M. Kiselev, where he served as a conduit between Chacham referring to what a German Jewish magazine said, Kiselev, a staunch Religious Zionist, and the secular Zionist talks about a group of Chinese Jews that: “Only one had a real segment of the local community led by his father. Jewish type, but except for the religion and circumcisions, they are completely converted into Chinese by their language, He emigrated to Israel in 1949 and, though employed as a Tel dressing, customs and habits, they also have Chinese Aviv municipal employee in a variety of positions for some 35 names…they first remained secretly in Ning-hia, Hantcheou years, Kaufman’s focus in life was the preservation of the heri- and Peking, and later became established in Kai-fung-foo.”1 A tage of China’s Jewish communities and fostering the develop- dangerous fifth column of secret Jews had entered China, who ment of warm ties between Israel and China. as a result of their total adaptation through the centuries, to the racial and social characteristics of the Chinese people are In 1951, Kaufman established, along with 16 other former Jew- now dangerously confounded and diluted in the population of ish residents, the organization known as the Association of that country. It should be noted that although the Israelites of Former Residents of China - Igud Yotzei Sin. The organization the former Celestial Empire are considered among the most is comprised of residents and descendants from Harbin, Tianjin, mixed with the indigenous race, since the last century they Shanghai and Dalian. have kept the rigid custom of marrying only among themselves and the above mentioned Hebrew leader says that they have Initially the Association aided with the resettlement of Jewish kept their faith “with the characteristic tenacity that distin- immigrants from China in the years immediately following guishes the Hebrew race.” Israel’s birth. Once resettlement efforts were completed, the Association shifted focus to providing scholarships to the de- The historian of the Chinese Jews, Alexandre Wyllie, in his scendants of former China residents pursuing post-secondary valuable book called Investigations on the Existence of Jews in

(continued on page 3) (continued on page 3)6) 2 Points East

Points East TABLE OF CONTENTS FROM THE EDITOR Anson Laytner, Publisher  We wrap up volume 27 wishing our Jew- Points East is published by the Sino-Judaic Institute, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization. Featured Article: ish readers—and everyone else for that matter—best wishes for a healthy, happy The opinions and views expressed by the In Memoriam: Theodore Kaufman . 1 5773! contributors and editor are their own and do not necessarily express the viewpoints and positions of the Sino-Judaic Institute. We start this year with a new line-up on An Anti-Semitic Perspective ...... 1 the Sino-Judaic Institute’s Board of Di- Letters to the Editor and articles for Points East rectors. After controlling both the gover- may be sent to: From the Editor ...... 2 nance and the media of this fine organi- zation for 4 years, I decided to relinquish Preferred Form: e-mail:[email protected] control of the former and, in yet another Articles: peaceful transfer of power, Rabbi Arnie or to: Rabbi Anson Laytner 1823 East Prospect St. A Professor’s Visit to Nanjing & Belzer is SJI’s new president. Dr. Vera Schwarcz is the new Vice-President and Seattle, WA 98112-3307 Kaifeng ...... 6 Drs. Steve Hochstadt and Ondi Points East is published three times a year, in Lingenfelter, remain as Treasurer and Sec- March, July and November. Deadlines for submitting material to be included in these Interest in Shanghai’s Jewish retary respectively. We welcome Denise Yeh Bresler, Jim Michaelson, Rabbi issues are January 15th, May 15th and Past Grows ...... 8 Marvin Tokayer and Cynthia Zeiden as September 15th. incoming Board members and bid a gradual adieu to Dr. Wendy Abraham, Len My Two Diasporas ...... 8 FINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLE Hew and Dr. Al Yee, who are transitioning SJI members interested in receiving a to the Advisory Board. A summary of the copy of the annual financial report should Are All Jews White? ...... 7 SJI Board meeting will appear in a future send a self-addressed envelope to: Steve issue of Points East. Hochstadt, Treasurer of the Sino-Judaic Institute, Illinois College, 1101 W Col- This issue features an obituary for the great lege Ave., Jacksonville IL 62650. Book Nook...... 11 Teddy Kaufman, longtime head of the Igud Yotzei Sin (the Association of Former Residents of China) and the Israel-China Sino-Judaic Institute c/o Rabbi Arnie Belzer Friendship Association; a man whose in- 34 Washington Avenue fluence was felt far and wide. His death Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A. represents the end of an era. SJI Officers Arnie Belzer, President SJI MEMBERSHIP Speaking about the end of an era, one era Vera Schwarcz, Vice-President I would dearly love to see end is that of Steve Hochstadt, Treasurer Country Total European anti-Semitism. The other fea- Ondi Lingenfelter, Secretary tured article in this issue highlights the Anson Laytner, Immediate Past President United States 179 perverse and paranoid nature of one part Managing Board China 19 of the European anti-Semitic tradition as Denise Yeh Bresler, Joel Epstein, Bev Friend, it pertains to, of all things, Jews in China Israel 16 Seth Garz, Mary-Anne Graham, Ron Kaye, Dana and our alleged plot to take over that coun- Leventhal, Den Leventhal, David Marshall, Jim Canada 14 try and add it to our global empire. All Michaelson, Art Rosen, Eric Rothberg, Marvin England 4 this was news to me. I am a rabbi and Tokayer, Tibi Weisz, Albert Yee, Cynthia Zeiden reasonably well-connected in the Jewish Australia 2 International Advisory Board world and no one ever told me about our Germany 3 Wendy Abraham, Jan Berris, Mark Cohen, Irene plans for world domination. And some- Eber, Avrum Ehrlich, Fu Youde, Jonathan Japan 2 how all this alleged Jewish wealth and Goldstein, Jerry Gotel, Judy Green, Len Hew, South Africa 2 power has somehow passed me by. Such Tess Johnston, Donald Leslie, Michael Li, is my mazal… Maisie Meyer, Mark Michaelson, Sonja Indonesia 1 Muehlberger, Gustavo Perednik, Andrew Plaks, Switzerland 1 Since its author is obsessed with “public Pan Guang, Shi Lei, Yitzhak Shichor, Elyse Silverberg, Josh Stampfer, Shalom Wald, Xiao Taiwan 1 and clandestine” Jews, he would surely Xian, Xu Xin, Zhang Qianhong, David Zweig have a fit (and I hope he does) over Diane Past Presidents Tobin’s article about Jewish racial diver- Al Dien, Leo Gabow sity. She makes a point that bears repeat- TOTAL: ing over and over again: that Jews come In Memoriam, z”l Marshall Denenberg, Leo Gabow, Phyllis Horal, 244 Teddy Kaufman, Rena Krasno, Michael Pollak, (continued on page 3) Louis Schwartz Points East 3 in all shades of beige from light to dark— In an official statement, the Chinese An Anti-Semitic Perspective just like the rest of humanity. Embassy in Israel lamented the death of on International Jewry Kaufman, lauding the instrumental role (continued from page 1) Add to these articles an account of a he played in promoting the development professor’s visit to China, a review of a of Sino-Israeli relations: new and important book by Jordan Pa- China, since the Most Ancient Times to These Days, notes that the existence of per, and several other pieces and you have “Mr. Kaufman, as president of the Israel- the Jews was hidden for the majority, but volume 27, number 3. Enjoy. China Friendship Society, had long been that, nevertheless, “some accidental ob- committed to promoting China-Israel servations in Marco Polo’s trips, show Anson Laytner exchanges in varied fields and maintained that Jews were sufficient enough to be friendly relations with the Embassy and able to exert political influence in China Chinese people,” said the statement. “He and Tartaria”2 It is natural that a clan- Theodore “Teddy” Kaufman was like the still water, running deep in destine Judaism as secret as the one func- (continued from page 1) his efforts to develop relations between tioning in China for the last eighteen China and Israel. studies in Israel. The Association also hundred years, was not easy for Marco Polo to identify, but the clandestine Jews became the main body dedicated to the “Mr. Kaufman represented the spirit of who themselves know the problem very preservation of the memory of the Jew- selfless giving back,” the statement con- well, can identify its existence better than ish communities that existed in 19th and tinued. “As an old Chinese saying goes, early 20th century China. Kaufman was anyone else, through Marco Polo’s reports ‘Don’t forget the well-diggers when drink- chairman for almost 50 years. in his writings. ing from the well.’ Mr. Kaufman never forgot his well-digger, by showing his Kaufman took a particularly active role Chinese Clandestine Jews: Manda- deep affection to China where he was over the years in maintaining regular cor- rins, Magistrates and Military born and lived for 26 years. He then be- respondence between the Association in Rev. H.H. Milman (a protestant) in his came a well-digger himself and set an Tel Aviv and its sister landsmanschaften History of the Jews, writes of the Chi- example for younger generations. Mr. located in New York, San Francisco, Los nese: “They were cultivated, and some Kaufman worked until the last hours of Angeles, Sydney, Australia and Montreal, of them, according to existing inscrip- his life promoting the Israel-China rela- Canada. tions, have been highly honored by the tionship.” imperial will and have obtained the rank Thanks largely to his efforts, today the of Mandarins. One of these inscrip- Igud Yotzei Sin maintains a head office Kaufman imparted much of his extensive tions—dated in 1515—praises the Jews in Israel, with branches in the United knowledge of the Jewish community in for their integrity and fidelity in agricul- States and Australia. It is an active orga- Harbin in his memoir, The Jews of Harbin ture, commence, magistracy and in the nization that binds the traditions of the Live on in My Heart. The book was pub- army, and for the adequate observance past history of the community in China lished in 2006 with editions in both of their own religious ceremonies”. This with the present needs of the communi- Hebrew and English. ties in Israel, the US and Australia and clergyman states—after saying that the Chinese Jews revered Confucio’s name continues the traditions established in Teddy is survived by his wife Rasha in and followed the Chinese custom of re- China, namely assistance to students, Israel and brother Isai Kaufman in San ligious revering their ancestors: “In other senior citizens and the distribution of the Francisco, USA. He will be missed by aspects they are strictly Jews…They only Bulletin that desiminates information on all who knew and respected him as a gi- past and present lives of the former resi- marry among themselves…They neither ant in understanding and promoting dents of China. It also maintains a highly do not attempt to do proselitism”.3 China- Israel relations. informative website. S.M. Perlmann, the Jewish historian, in After the normalization of diplomatic his History of the Jews in China, Lon- relations between Israel and China in don, 1913, also tells of the existence of 1992, Kaufman founded and served as Readers: Visit our website: Chinese Jews in the army and of Manda- president of the Israel-China Friendship www.sino-judaic.org. rins, one of whom, called Chao-Yng- Association and was instrumental in Cheng, commanded a section of the army bringing a deeper understanding between and rebuilt the city of Kai-fung-foo. the two nations. The ICFS has played an Hebrew historians agree in ascribing great important role in people-to-people rela- SJI Members: Email military talents to the Chinese, Tartaric tions between Israel and China, main- and Mongolian Jews, and this may ex- taining ties with Chinese friendship so- [email protected] to re- plain their infiltration into the Chinese cieties, universities and academic insti- ceive the user name and pass- tutions. As president of the ICFS from its communist army, where they gossip founding until his death, Kaufman fre- word needed to access the against Chairman Mao Tse-tung and quently hosted Chinese diplomats, stu- plead for a reconciliation with the So- dents and visiting academics at ICFS “members only” section. viet Union, apparently to achieve world events and at his home in Ramat Gan. communist unity, but in reality to turn 4 Points East Popular China into a satellite dominated been known to World Judaism, up to the also these archeological monuments con- by the Jews who lead the Soviet Union. present day, as Chinese Jews Tiao-Kiu- firm—that Chinese Jews Tiao-Kiu-Kiaou Clandestine Jews infiltrated in the Chi- Kiaou…(that means those who remove were experts in agriculture. This has al- nese Communist Party and in the gov- the tendon)… lowed them to infiltrate among the peas- erning and social institutions of the coun- ants, just as their great military talents try, work in the same direction… In addition to the communities of clan- have also allowed their infiltration in the destine Jews spread throughout army, creating a fifth column of Israelite The distinguished Israelite historian con- China…there is another Israelite commu- Imperialism infiltrated at all levels in fesses something that is well-known, but nity in the city of Kai-fung-foo, former China. This must undoubtedly consti- which coming from a famous Jewish his- capital of Honan Province, which has tute a serious danger for the Popular torian has greater probatory value: that been operating in a more or less public Maoist China if it is not found and extir- it is not possible in most cases to distin- way for several centuries… pated, because both the public or hid- guish the Chinese clandestine Jews—be- den Chinese Jews, like all Israelites cause of their Chinese names and last Jewish encyclopedias and other books around the world, are in reality mem- names, their Chinese racial type and cus- produced by the Jews for the Gentiles, bers of a foreign nation and agents of a toms—from other Chinese. Although provide [what] the Jewish imperialists millenary super-imperialism. As such, they appear to be a part of the Chinese allow the Gentiles to know, but hide, their complicity with their Jewish breth- people, in fact they belong to a foreign minimize and even misguide the Gen- ren of the Kremlin in their struggle to nation and people—to the Jewish nation. tile reader on those affairs which Juda- turn Popular China into a satellite of the In other words, they represent an infil- ism considers to be POLITICAL SECRETS Soviet Union, just like the satellite so- tration of the Israeli nation and Israeli and which MUST BE HIDDEN from the cialist states of Eastern Europe, except- imperialism into the heart of the Chi- Gentile readers. This is why it is not ing Albania and Roumania. nese nation… strange that such encyclopedias and books when speaking of the very ancient Going back to the engravings of the Kai- How can it be explained that in China— Chinese Judaism, usually only talk about Fung Foo Synagogue, another inscription where the famous Jewish historian S.M. the communities that have operated pub- mentions the revolt that overthrew the Perlmann confesses that the Israelites have licly mainly those of Kai-Fung-Foo city. Mind dynasty that protected Jews…The never been persecuted, and readily de- About this community they give much engraving…refers to the fall of the nies any case of intolerance—the phe- information which is highly interesting; city…during the revolt and the destruc- nomenon of clandestine Judaism has ex- saying that it flourished in other times tion of the Israelite Synagogue and isted for many centuries up until our days, but is today in painful decadence. The slaughter of a number of Jews by the and Israelites hide their identity to ap- Jewish Encyclopedia, in addition to men- rebels in 1642…They also say that in the pear as part of the Chinese people?...It is tioning the Kai-Fung-Foo community also middle of this disaster a Jewish Chinese evident that they have chosen this path says that Catholic missionaries of the Mandarin appeared leading an army, and as a political strategy to enable them to Seventeenth Century found other public that this Jewish Mandarin rescued the infiltrate the society of the country in Israelite communities in Hangchao-Foo sacred writings (the Bible) that had been which they live in order to monopolize and OTHER CHINESE TOWNS without thrown into the water by the rebels, re- the leading positions and to bring the host expressly saying how many of them they constructed the city…and that this Man- country under their control…In China, found.5 The Encyclopedia adds that the darin and his brother rebuilt the Israelite as in other countries of the world, clan- attention of the Israelite historians has Synagogue in 1663…These engravings, destine Jews—as the mentioned autho- been concentrated mainly in the com- which constitute a historical monument rized sources confess—obtained high munity of Kai-Fung-Foo, and not on oth- of incontrovertible documentary value, positions as Mandarins, Magistrates and ers because of the archeological relics show the great political and military in- Chiefs of the CHINESE army… found in an old Synagogue, comprising fluence that Jews had in China in the marble tablets engraved in the Chinese XVII Century. Not only did they hold S.M. Perlmann…also states that these language which help clarify several un- senior positions in the Imperial Govern- immigrant Israelites turned themselves known aspect of the history of Chinese ment, but they had also Chinese armies into ferocious nomads and great warriors Judaism…Among them, however, there under their command.6 in Tartaria.4 These Tartaric Jews are at is an engraving mentioning the Chinese present the bulldogs of the Soviet Jewish Jews that reads: “They are outstanding The Jewish Encyclopedia, referring to the regime in Siberia, and it is well known in agriculture, commerce, in public po- Chinese Jews of Kai-Fung-Foo, also says that there are many Jewish-Tartaric offic- sitions (magistracy) and in the art of war” that many of them: “emigrated—during ers in the Red Army, for the Chinese and (army). In fact, it can be seen that Chi- the war between the Chinese and the Tartaric Jews differ from those of other nese Jews have stood out in trade, as the Tartars—to Kiang-su, Amoy and Peking; nations in possessing great military tal- Jews have in other countries, and had but they do not have synagogues in those ents. achieved leading positions in the govern- places, and that some Jews with English ment, as the Jews have in the Gentile protection, went to Shanghai and Hong These millenary Chinese Jews, who have nations. But it seems to be a special Kong, where they practiced the traffic of a Chinese racial aspect, practice Chinese characteristic of Chinese Judaism, as opium and cotton.”7 This…makes us see customs, and use Chinese names, have many Israelite historians have said—and that the opium traffic…not only benefit- Points East 5 ted British and Indian Jews, but also the Since 1840 China has experienced fur- Jews have also used their women in Chinese Jews Tiao-Kiu-Kiaou, who also ther migrations of Jews from different China to ensnare great leaders, follow- participated in the opium traffic in Shang- countries, mainly European…In 1850, ing the rules fixed in the Book of Esther hai and Hong Kong under the protection Elias David Sassoon, a rich Jewish trader in the Bible…which tells how the Jew- of the British government, which as we settled in Bombay, India, established a ish Esther, hiding her Israelite origin and all know was already a satellite under branch of his firm in Shanghai…he was religion, beguiled the Persian Emperor the control of Jewish Super-Imperialism. followed by the Kadoorie, great Jewish into falling in love and marrying her, thus Under Jewish control, the British gov- capitalists in Baghdad, and their big en- becoming the Empress of Persia. From ernment even sent…its own people to terprises—the Sassoons and Kadoories— this position, she engineered the appoint- built a synagogue in Shanghai, founding fight and die to protect and expand the ment of her uncle as the Prime Minister. Jewish opium trade, so that the Jews a new Israelite community which until In China the Song family of Tiao-Kiu- might make a profit out of poisoning the 1905, was mainly Sephardic. So this new Kiaou Jews obtained great successes in Chinese people, and Chinese Jews par- Jewish community had the honor of be- this century by the same means. One of ticipated in this trade at the expense of ing founded by the enterprise of a great the Song sisters married Dr. Sun Yat- their Chinese hosts. international Jewish opium dealer, who son, as millionary as him, used the Mos- sen…Another sister married Marshall …The revolutionary potential of the Afro- lem name of Abdula when in Baghdad, Chiang Kai-shek…Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Asian Israelite communities began to and used the Christian name of Albert widow became a member of the Maoist develop progressively during the XIX while in London. His Jewish name, the Popular China, where she presently lives Century, as Western Judaism sent expe- good one always, was David… and where, with the prestige of being the rienced leaders to train them in all as- widow of the national hero, she can un- pects in which they were backward in The Russian-Japanese war and the perse- doubtedly help the plans of international regard to Western Judaism. Regarding cutions it originated against the Jews, the Judaism, in ensuring that a clandestine the Chinese Judaism and the Kai-Fung- failed communist revolt in Russia in 1905, Tiao-Kiu-Kiaou Jew, or at least a Gentile Foo community, the Jewish Encyclope- that the Imperial Russian government Chinese easily manageable by the Jews, dia reports that the Western Jews formed justly imputed to the Israelites, brought will succeed Chairman Mao Tse-tung a special organization called the “Soci- as a consequence the arrival in China of when he dies. If this goal can be ety for Rescuing the Chinese Jews” whose fugitive Russian Jews. In 1917 Russian achieved, the Jewish Racist Imperialists task was the revival of the Israelite reli- Jews who arrived to Harbin and Mukden would seize power in Popular China and gion among those Chinese Jews that as in Manchuria were antagonized by White subjugate that nation to its yoke, recon- we have previously studied is the main Russians who accused the Russian Jews ciling China with the Soviet Union and generator of the Israelite Imperialism in in the country of being originators of the putting it at the Soviet Union’s vassal- China.8 Red Terror in Russia. When the Japanese age—as projected by international Juda- ism… The Jewish Encyclopedia adds that the invasion of China in 1931, many Rus- sian Jews living in China, who were flee- Jews of Shanghai cooperated with this 1 ing from the Japanese (who accused them Israel Joseph Benjamin II. Chacham of Israel. society. “Eight Years in Asia and Africa from 1846 to of being communists), were forced to 1855.” Hanover Editions 1863. Pages 206-209. According to Jewish encyclopedias, the move to Tientsin, Hankow and Shanghai, 2 Alexandre Wyllie. “Recharches sur l formerly flourishing Israelite community where they were reinforced by new im- ’existence des juifs en la Chine depuis les temps of Kai-Fung-Foo, fell into a painful deca- migrants of Polish and Roumanian Jews. les plus reculis, jusqu’a nos jours”. French trans- dence, diminishing the number of its In 1928 an Israelite community of lation. Paris edition 1864. 3 members to the point that they had to Ashkenazim Jews joined with the H.H. Milman. “The History of the Jews”. 3rd volume. London sell their Temple. We, as experienced Sephardic community, under the auspices edition 1868. Pages 166 and 167. of the lodge, recently formed in Shang- researchers of the history of clandestine 4 S.M. Perlmann. “The History of the Jews in Judaism, find and can prove that every hai, of the secret order of world Jewish China”. London edition 1913. Pages 29 and 30. time Israelite historians talk about deca- Masonry called B’nai B’rith, which was 5 Jewish Encyclopedia. Published in New York dence or disappearance of a Jewish com- in this way starting to extend its tentacles and London, 1903 edition IV volume. Word: munity in books which the Gentiles can into China… China. Page 34, 1st column. 6 read (such as encyclopedias…)in most Jewish Encyclopedia. Published in New York and London, 1903 edition IV volume. Word: cases…what really happens when there A new Jewish immigration into China started in 1933; Israelites fled from Ger- China. Page 34, 2nd column. is a mass desertion from public Judaism, 7 Jewish Encyclopedia. Published in New York many and Austria harassed by the Nazis. the majority of “deserters” are just pre- and London, 1903 edition 3rd volume. Word: tending to abandon Judaism in favor of According to the Castilian Jewish Ency- China. Page 36, 1st column. a Gentile religion, while secretly remain- clopedia these new Jewish migrants of 8 Jewish Encyclopedia. Published in New York ing loyal to the Israelite nation and reli- German origin obtained positions in the and London, 1903 edition IV volume. Word: gion. In other words, they merely trans- administration of the Republic of China China. Page 36, 1st column. fer from Public Judaism to Clandestine [including Dr. Bernhard Weiss, Miriam 9 Castilian Jewish Encyclopedia. Mexico, 1948. Judaism… Karnes and General Moshe Cohen]…9 Word: China. Pages 328, 329 and 330. 6 Points East A Professor’s Visit to going to Kaifeng later that day and that China feel happy to receive the pearls of I’d be giving three lectures there. Little wisdom that issue from their teachers’ Nanjing and Kaifeng did I know that the lectures would be at mouths. At times, this leads to a certain by David N. Myers a conference on Holocaust studies and passivity in the classroom on the stu- excerpted from the August 15, 2012 Jewish history held at Kaifeng’s Henan dents’ part. But the overall effect, espe- websites:http://www.jewishjournal.com/ University! And not just that, but a con- cially for a short-term visitor from cover_story/article/ ference held at a relatively unknown, re- America, is wondrous. jewish_studies_flourish_in_china_20120815/ gional university of more than 40,000 and http://www.jewishjournal.com/ students, housed on a new campus graced Following the Kaifeng conference, I had cover_story/article/ by scores of new, architecturally designed the privilege of teaching a group of 25 the_jews_of_kaifeng_china_20120815/ buildings. This calls to mind one of the graduate students — again, a rather as- most striking impressions during my time tonishing number — in an intensive semi- I Jewish Studies in Nanjing and in China: the frenetic pace of building. nar on modern Jewish thought at the Kaifeng There is building everywhere, suggesting Glazer Institute in Nanjing. We spent not only the rapid growth of the country, three hours a day exploring thinkers as The last quarter century has witnessed a but also massive investment by the gov- diverse as Baruch Spinoza, Moses veritable explosion in the academic field ernment in infrastructure and higher edu- Mendelssohn, the Hatam Sofer, Samson of Jewish studies. During that time, Is- cation, in stark juxtaposition to the Raphael Hirsch, Franz Rosenzweig and rael solidified its place as the global cen- defunding of both in our own country. Hannah Arendt. We did close readings ter in the field, while in the United States of primary sources together in class. This virtually every university and college of Meanwhile, I was stunned to enter the was a novel experience for most. Gradu- note has established its own program, lecture hall in Henan University to see ate students in Jewish studies in China center or chair. In these two venues, the nearly 75 master’s and doctoral candi- write theses and dissertations on a vast growth of Jewish studies has been closely dates in Jewish studies, all of whom were range of subjects, from the Second Temple linked to the presence of Jews, though in Chinese. Assembling that number of period to Maimonides’ philosophy to the the United States an increasing number graduate students in Jewish studies in the Holocaust to contemporary Israeli of non-Jews have entered the field. In United States would be nearly impos- society. But their research is based not other parts of the world where the field sible. How much more unlikely in China! on an analysis of archival sources in the of Jewish studies has been expanding, But the students were eager, curious and original languages, which is the standard such as Germany, the field is populated attentive. About half of the lectures were in the United States, but on a survey of almost exclusively by non-Jews. given in Chinese by local professors and recent secondary scholarship on a par- graduate students, and the other half were ticular theme. In this sense, Chinese stu- Surely one of the most interesting sites given in English by conference organizer dents are somewhat behind their Ameri- of the new Jewish studies — and one of Jerry Gotel, a London-based American can, Israeli and European counterparts. the most promising in terms of growth and patron of Jewish studies in China; Nevertheless, they are quick learners and — is China. Glenn Timmermans, an Anglo-Jewish exceptionally hard workers. They will scholar of English literature and the Ho- catch on soon… Jewish studies in China? Yes, there is a locaust who teaches at the University of burgeoning Jewish studies presence in the Macau; and me. The students whom I Encountering these students made clear most populous country in the world. The met all read English and had a good pas- how remarkable and worthy an enterprise most established program in the country sive command of spoken English, though Jewish studies in China is. It’s impor- is based at Nanjing University, and it is they varied considerably in their ability tant for China, it’s important for the field celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. to speak. — and, it almost goes without saying, The founding director, professor Xu it’s important for Jews that the Chinese Xin…has been at the forefront of the Why, one might ask, do these students develop an informed understanding of growth of Jewish studies in China, rais- devote many years of their lives to study- their past and present in the 21st cen- ing several generations of students who ing Jewish history? As a number of them tury. now direct Jewish studies programs at told me, they sense an affinity between other Chinese universities. He is a dy- their people and the Jews. Both peoples II A Visit with the Kaifeng Jews namic, passionate and worldly man possess a noble ancient history, have whose savoir-faire persuaded Los Ange- large dispersions outside their homeland ...My host in China, professor Xu Xin, les Jewish philanthropists Diane and and are marked by an entrepreneurial one of the founding figures of Jewish Guilford Glazer to endow his program. spirit. Perhaps most centrally, for both, studies in China took me to visit Esther education is an almost sacred pursuit. In Guo Yan, a woman of about 25 or 30 It was the Glazer Institute of Jewish Stud- fact, one of the most winning features of who preserves one of the seven Jewish ies that invited me to Nanjing to teach a the Chinese students is their unabashed family names. Esther is the granddaugh- concentrated seminar for its graduate stu- reverence for the teacher. The Confucian ter of the last renowned Jewish notable dents. I had very little idea of what to ideal, parallel to the Jewish precept of from Kaifeng, and she runs a tiny, rough- expect from my academic experience “kevod ha-moreh,” is alive and well to- hewn shrine to the history of Kaifeng there before arriving. I asked Xu Xin if it day. Unlike the consumerist approach to Jewry. She waits for the occasional tour- would be possible to visit Kaifeng, and education in the United States, where ist to find her home, which is located in he answered affirmatively. When I arrived students demand attractively presented the historic Jewish quarter. Her interests in Nanjing, he told me we would be products from their teachers, students in are both to recall the old Jewish com- Points East 7 munity and to bring knowledge about of symbols: the flag of the State of Israel After services, the entire group sat down Chinese culture to what she refers to as on the right, the flag of the People’s Re- to a potluck vegetarian Shabbat dinner, her “hometown,” Jerusalem. public of China on the left, and in the my first with chopsticks as the utensil of middle, the Shema prayer flanked by a choice. Dinner was tasty and spirited, but Indeed, a strong connection to Israel pair of Hebrew words, shemesh and a mere prelude to the memorable post- marks the larger group of Jewish descen- kamon. Shemesh means sun. Kamon’s meal singing. We sang the grace after dants whom I met in Kaifeng. I first vis- meaning is a matter of dispute; some meals and then spent several hours sing- ited them at the end of their weekly four- scholars believe it refers to an angel, ing zemirot and other Hebrew and Israeli hour study session of English and Hebrew while others maintain that it connotes songs at the top of our lungs — aided, it with their ebullient, chain-smoking Is- moon. In any case, this pair of words must be said, by a potent Arak-like bev- raeli teacher, Shulamit Gershovich, who seems to have served a sort talismanic erage native to the region. One member had been sent by Shavei Israel, an inter- function for the community. of the community — not herself a Jew- national group that seeks out lost Jews. ish descendant, but married to one — She is concluding a six-month stint teach- After candlelighting, Gao Chao, the had assumed the Hebrew name Netta. ing the Kaifeng group and lives in one of leader of the small community, began to She seemed to know virtually every He- the two rooms that now serve as a kind sing “Yedid Nefesh,” the medieval poem brew song sung. She had an infectious of community center under the name Beit sung at the outset of Kabbalat Shabbat. smile, beautiful voice and a true sense HaTikvah (House of Hope). This name Typically enough for this community, of oneg Shabbat — the joy of the Sab- was bestowed by the center’s founder, a Gao Chao is not of Jewish descent. He bath. Other members did not know many young American Jew named Eric is married to a descendent, but has taken of the songs, but added their own enthu- Rothberg, who began to work with and on the responsibility of learning Hebrew siastic and well-timed rhythm by clap- teach the group two years ago. and Jewish prayers so as to serve as the ping and pounding the table. prayer leader on Friday nights. He led the The one song that all knew was the one On a Thursday evening, I met with a community through Kabbalat Shabbat, whose name adorns the current Kaifeng group of eight students, some of them with members joining in their Chinese- community: HaTikvah. At a certain point bearing the ancient names of Kaifeng Jews inflected Hebrew (which was rendered in the midst of the cacophonous frivol- who, thus, are “descendants,” and oth- into Chinese characters for them to fol- ity, the group rose as one to offer a sono- ers who have no Jewish blood but are low). The degree of ritual fluency for a rous version of “Hatikvah” — in Chinese! married to descendants. Here in Kaifeng, community that does not include a single Those of us who knew followed in He- as in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, the most halachic Jew and has been studying He- brew. It was another stunning moment important criterion of Jewishness is not brew intensely for only two years was in an evening of stunning moments. Few the rabbinic standard of matrilineal de- remarkable. The community chanted with of the community members are likely to scent. Rather, it is the willingness and gusto and competency many of the stan- make aliyah, but somehow they have desire to be a Jew. Against remarkable dards of Jewish liturgy and custom on managed to develop a strong bond with odds, the members of Beit HaTikvah are Friday night: “Lechah Dodi,” “Ve- and sense of pride for Israel. There was assiduously studying what it means to shamru,” and “Shalom Aleichem.” It was also a strong sense among all of us present be a Jew. Though a small number of particularly moving when the congrega- of the past and future shared by Jews. younger family members have been sent tion joined with Gao Chao to sing the Assembled at a long Shabbat table in off to Israel or the United States to study penultimate line of the Friday night Kaifeng, we experienced, in the rawest and undergo formal conversion, the ma- Kiddush: “For You have chosen us and and purest form I’ve ever witnessed, the jority of the 25 or so attendees at Beit sanctified us from among all the nations, unbroken spirit that links Jews scattered HaTikvah are on their own path of Jew- and with love and good will given us over the four corners of the world, from ish self-discovery in China, where they Your holy Shabbat as a heritage.” California to China. likely will remain. (I should add that, in the ancient and venerable ways of the Jews, there is another group of a similar size studying at a different locale in Kaifeng with a Messianic Jew named Tim Lerner, though I did not get to meet them.)

Without a doubt, the highlight of my time in Kaifeng, and a reflection of the group’s indomitable spirit, was the Shabbat I spent at Beit HaTikvah. I was brought to the Friday night gathering by Ari Schaffer, an Orthodox undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, who is con- ducting research on the community. The small, nondescript room was filled with some 25 people, ranging in age from 16 to 75. On one wall was an unusual array From left: David N. Myers and Jerry Gotel at a seminar at Henan University 8 Points East Interest in Shanghai’s tours there briefly before his death in friendships with Jews lasted a lifetime. 2008. Wang’s old house still stands and Jewish Past Grows occasionally receives tourists, though “My father got along very well with by Barbara Demick there’s little trace of the former Jewish them,” said Wang’s son Wang Jianmin. excerpted from the Los Angeles Times, occupants. “After the Cultural Revolution, his old 17 Sept. 2012 friends started to send him letters. They In March and April, a theater company would come to Shanghai to visit him.” SHANGHAI — The family always knew performed a play about a romance be- there was something mysterious about tween a young Jewish woman and a Chi- Wang Kaiyan, an English-language ma- Wang Fanglian, secrets he dared not share nese resistance fighter, with funding par- jor in college, says she regrets she was with even his closest relatives. tially provided by the Israeli Consulate. too young to hear more of her grandfather’s stories before his death. But Although he was just an ordinary worker There are now more than half a dozen she’s pursuing his legacy just the same: at a diesel engine factory, he spoke four academic programs at Chinese universi- as a volunteer tour guide at the museum. languages, among them English with a ties — in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and guttural German accent. His narrow brick- Nanjing among others — devoted to Jew- “Jewish people come to the museum faced house had a flush toilet, a gas stove ish studies. The Shanghai Jewish Studies who still remember my grandfather and and a balcony for drying clothes, all Youth Forum, for Chinese students study- ask about him,” Wang said. “I feel bad strange luxuries in his rickshaw-wide ing Jewish history, held a conference here saying that he’s dead and I didn’t spend Shanghai alley. in July. as much time as I should have listening to his stories.” Only late in life did Wang explain him- The government-owned Shanghai Film self, when it was safe to talk about his Studios is developing a television More recently, Chinese tourists have friendships with Jews…Under Japanese miniseries about the Jewish emigres in started visiting the old Jewish quarter. occupation, they were squeezed into one partnership with “Black Swan” producer of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, liv- Mike Medavoy, who was born in Shang- “When we first opened, 90% of the visi- ing cheek by jowl with working-class hai to Ukrainian Jewish refugees. tors were foreign, but now increasingly Chinese such as Wang. we get Chinese tourists and students who “We want something like ‘Schindler’s want to learn the history of the Jews in “They were good friends. They lived to- List,’ “ said Pan Guang, an advisor to the Shanghai,” museum director Rita Tan gether. They played together. They suf- project, who heads the Center for Jewish said… fered together under the Japanese occu- Studies in Shanghai. pation,” said Wang Fanglian’s 21-year- old granddaughter, Wang Kaiyan. Pan says Chinese awareness about the My Two Diasporas: On Holocaust is a natural offshoot of rising Being Jewish and Chinese The old man learned English and French interest in World War II and in the from his Jewish neighbors — and Japa- Nanjing massacre in 1937, when hun- by So-Han Fan nese from the occupiers. He bought his dreds of thousands of Chinese were killed excerpted from the September newslet- house, the one with the Western luxu- by the Japanese...”This is a very hot topic ter of Be’chol Lashon. Originally pub- ries, at the end of the war from a depart- among graduate students right now,” Pan lished at http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/ ing Jewish family… said… my-two-diasporas-on-being-jewish-and- chinese/ To call it a revival would be an over- In 1939, when he was 2, the artist Peter statement, but the Jewish history of Max and his family fled Berlin for Shang- Diaspora. A fine word, a Greek word, Shanghai is gradually coming out from hai. At first the family lived in a large full of grandeur and romance. It sounds the shadows. house, but they were later moved to desperate and aspirational. “I am the Hongkou, which he remembers as a cha- product of… diaspora.” In my particular The old Jewish quarter is in a quaintly otic, colorful neighborhood… case, two diasporas: Jewish and Chinese. ramshackle neighborhood called My father, a Chinese immigrant, met my Hongkou with red-and-gray brick houses, Max attended an English-language school mother, the descendant of Ashkenazi many of them with patterned gables and funded by the Kadoorie family and Jews, in the United States, a place that fluted turrets, a weird fusion of Asian and learned rudimentary Chinese from kids neither was native to but, that both had European architecture that is uniquely on the street. More important, he learned been dispersed to, by various historical Shanghai… Most of the neighborhood has to draw from his baby-sitter, a Chinese forces, both political and economic. since been rebuilt, the European cafes girl who was a few years older and the demolished or turned into Chinese res- daughter of an artist. Growing up I had limited contact with taurants. both cultures, learned languages of nei- Now 74, Max is planning his first return ther, and, in a rather peculiar turn of The only remaining Jewish landmark, a trip to Shanghai this fall and has launched events, was unaware that I had Jewish onetime synagogue that had been turned a search for the baby-sitter, though he heritage at all until the age of 21. How into a psychiatric hospital, reopened in doubts she is still alive. and why this part of my ancestry was 2007 as the Shanghai Jewish Refugees hidden from me is an entire story unto Museum. Wang Fanglian conducted For Chinese such as Wang, some of the itself, one that I’m not entirely clear on. Points East 9 For the purposes of this tale, what is rel- eat dog but that donkey is incredibly de- Chinese, half American, never having a evant is that my mother is descended licious. I learned that you can make a lot distinct cultural identity or peer network from Galizian Jews, but I spent most of of money in China if you’re foreign, even – it was nice to be fully included in some- my life thinking that she was a curious if you have no talent, provided you also thing. blend of Cajun, Welsh, Irish, and Ger- have no self-respect. I learned that I, as man. the oldest male child in the family, am Over the next few weeks I spent a lot of to inherit a book of names of all the fam- time at the Chabad house. I learned a After I found out the truth, I considered ily patriarchs going back through history little bit of Hebrew, learned to say Shema my Jewish roots a curious foible of fam- for dozens of generations. Israel, learned to lay tefillin, and even ily history, but didn’t quite understand got Bar Mitzvah’ed (nearly 30 and a man that this particular foible makes me a Hebreween at last!). Jew. It took me some time to come to Less predictably, it was also in China that the realization that I was now part of I became interested in Judaism. This is A few months later, I was in Israel. some sort of ancient, global, proto-tribal another story for another time, but suf- brotherhood that accepts me as one of fice to say that it involved my much more, The Land their own unconditionally – I didn’t have shall we say, Jewy cousin visiting and tak- My decision to travel to the Holy Land to convert or pray or even believe in God. ing me to a Purim party held at the local had little to do with my nascent Jewish No matter what I do, I am and always Chabad house. I went dressed as Com- identity and more to do with my innate will be a Jew in the eyes of the Jewish munist Mario – all I knew about the holi- love of travel, and my desire to visit my people – because it’s my mother who is day is that it is kind of like Jewish Hal- family. I say little, but not nothing – as a Jew. That’s the catch – apparently it’s loween. We read the Megillah Esther and much as 5% of my motivation had to do kind of an all-or-nothing situation. ate hamantaschen; I shared my unusual with being a Jew who had never been to story, everyone found it very interesting Israel. I felt like I had given a fair shake Some people will tilt their heads and indeed, and then we all drank – heavily… to discovering my Chinese roots and that squint and tell me they can see the Jew I owed my Jewish half at least a few in me – usually in profile – but it’s not So Purim was a nice, gentle introduction weeks on my way back to America. My what people think when they first see to Judaism for me because it first and fore- long-held fondness for Israeli women may me. They mostly only see someone Chi- most satisfied my “animal soul” with the have also played a small role. Mostly, nese. I remember being teased for being three C’s – Costumes, cookies, and the however, I wanted to visit my relatives, Chinese, but at least I was always ac- consumption of alcohol. I became fast most of whom I had never met or even cepted as Chinese by Chinese people friends with the young rabbi, Dovi, and heard of, and one of whom is an octoge- because of the Chinese surname I inherit his wife Sarale, who had just moved to narian Holocaust survivor. from my father. This makes me “Chi- Chengdu a week or two prior. He was the nese” in a way that a half-Chinese per- first person to drive home to me the idea My time in Israel was brief – two and a son with a foreign surname is not. that I AM a Jew, completely a Jew, with- half weeks to my two and a half years in out having to do anything religious. It was the Middle Kingdom – but what it lacked I was interested in my Chinese heritage a fact before I even had the knowledge of in duration it made up for in intensity. I from a young age but never had any it. Had he been preachy or tried to imme- spent the entire time traveling with my friends who were Chinese or even Asian. diately draw me into an observant Jewish young cousin Eli, who speaks Hebrew I was interested in kung fu and Chinese lifestyle, I probably would not have gone and spent his high school years in Israel. art and Taoism, but I didn’t learn the back. But he didn’t; he was more inter- We visited his friends and our mutual language growing up and, besides eat- ested in drinking and dancing and sing- relatives all over the country, beginning ing a lot of Chinese food, I didn’t have ing songs, which are all things I can get in the West Bank and backpacking to a very traditional Chinese upbringing. behind. Jerusalem, Haifa, Tzfat, and everywhere in between…Over the course of my visit, The Middle Kingdom The Accident of Birth I acquired a kippah, tzitzit, a siddur, and In 2009 I received my economic stimu- I went back to the Chabad house every was given a beautiful set of tefillin by lus money and two tax returns at the day that week, not out of a newfound my rabbi at his brother’s wedding, which same time, amounting to about $1100. sense of religious zeal but because I my visit just happened to coincide with. I used the money to buy a one-way ticket wanted to hang out with my friend Dovi. to China and 8 months later, armed with We drank and smoked cigarettes. I talked I can’t say I’ve seen all of Israel, but I’ve half a Rosetta Stone’s worth of Manda- to him about my life and he talked to me seen a lot of different sides of Israel, and rin, moved to Chengdu, hometown of about his, which, because he is a rabbi as many different expressions of Judaism. the Giant Panda and capital of Sichuan who was raised in a Hasidic household, Understanding my diasporic roots is a province. I lived there for two and a half ended up being mostly about Judaism. He journey that I am still on, both literally years, learned to speak Chinese, and did never tried to tell me what I “should” do and figuratively. At the moment I’m in research for an environmental NGO as a Jew, but rather made me aware of New York…a beautiful city and the whole among a slew of other odd jobs. I vis- what he “should” do as a Jew and also world is here, including both my ancient, ited my relatives in Hong Kong and trav- reinforced to me that that world, his inscrutable diasporas. On this leg of the eled all over the Southwest. As intended, world, is fully accessible to me, should I trip I have stayed in Crown Heights, just I learned lots of neat things about China choose to embrace it, simply because of down the street from 770, and visited and my heritage along the way. I learned the accident of birth. Having lived my the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s tomb. I’ve spent that most Chinese people don’t actually whole life in a world of halves – half as much time at tea shops and temples 10 Points East in Chinatown as I have at shul, I’ve eaten The problem with a category designated ish thinkers of all time, Rabbi Moses ben fried chow fun and I’ve eaten chopped for “White/Jewish,” but no other Jewish/ Maimon, better known as Maimonides, liver and pastrami on rye. Rather than racial combination rests on the assump- knew nothing of central and eastern Eu- having one foot in either culture, I have tion that Jewish identity is restricted to rope or the Ashkenazi Jews who lived both feet in both, and at the same time or only an identity of import for white there but was well familiar with the I’m completely an American. In that people. This assumption is widely held Moorish culture of the Iberian Peninsula sense, I have six feet, like an insect. And both outside and inside the Jewish com- where he lived. The assumption that Jews as I continue to crawl the surface of this munity and the inaccuracy of it is what are white is a relatively new phenom- earth I learn more about what it means sparked the game of “telephone” and is enon and has to do with the success of to be all of the above. The main thing fueling the continuing backlash. Jewish assimilation and the history of that I know now, that I didn’t know be- privileging whiteness. Moreover, in the fore, is that Jewishness and Chineseness I affectionately call this limited under- shadow of the Holocaust, racializing aren’t things that you can go and simply standing of diversity, race and Judaism Jewishness has highly problematic over- pick up and put on, like a hat – you have the “Woody Allen Syndrome.” In other tones. to create them, and it’s a process that words, a well meaning person might think never ends. to him or herself, “Well, I don’t know much about Jews, but I know Woody If the CUNY flap tells us anything, it tells us that it is time we engage in an honest Special thanks to my cousin Nathana and Allen is Jewish, and Woody Allen is discussion about racial and ethnic diver- my rabbi Dovi Henig of Chabad white, so all Jews must be white.” Ab- sity in the Jewish community, as well as Chengdu, without both of whom this surd, right? As funny and emblematic of a certain kind of neurotic Jewish mindset the broader issue of multi-layered iden- story wouldn’t exist, and Mazal Tov to as Woody Allen is, what could be more tities among all peoples. A broad look at Dovi and Sarale who have just been ridiculous than assuming that he repre- both Jewish history and the Jewish people blessed with their first child, a daughter. sents all Jews. today tells you that racial and ethnic di- versity is a defining aspect of Jewish iden- Except this sort of “Woody Allen” think- tity rather than an anomaly to be over- ing happens all the time when it comes looked. How we address multiple iden- Are All Jews White? The to equating Jewish with white, even tities, whether as part of Jewish identity Woody Allen Syndrome among Jews. Twenty percent of Jews in or not, is unclear. Do we add an infinite by Diane Tobin the United States are racially, ethnically number of boxes one can check to fully excerpted from the Be’chol Lashon or culturally diverse. Yet, each year when express one’s personal identity choices? enewsletter June 2012. Originally my organization, Be’chol Lashon, seeks Do we eliminate them altogether? No published at:(http:// to find children’s books with Jewish one knows, yet. But we do know that we www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tobin/ themes that highlight or at least include cannot avoid this issue. Humanity is be- Jews of Asian, African or Middle Eastern are-all-jews-white-the-woody-allen- coming more and more integrated, and heritage, we are often left scrambling for syndrome_b_1577788.html the Jewish people in the past and present appropriate offerings. Most students go exemplify the blending of national, eth- In the common childhood game of tele- through Hebrew school, Jewish camp or Jewish studies classes without learning nic and racial identity that makes singu- phone, a phrase is whispered from one lar identification obsolete. The concerns person to the next until the last person about the history, food or culture of over how one of the largest institutions repeats what is inevitably a distorted ver- Greek, Yemenite, Iraqi or Ugandan Jews. in one of the most diverse, and Jewish, sion of the original. A version of this Almost daily we hear from individuals cities on earth perceives Jewish racial game played out over the weekend, al- who are grateful that there is a Jewish identity reveals an underlying need to beit unintentionally, when reports came group somewhere that understands the out of a new policy instituted by the City complexity of Jewish identity and does address this uncomfortable issue. Despite University of New York (CUNY) to aug- not first ask if they are “really” Jewish. the reluctance to have this discussion ment their racial categorization by add- The “Woody Allen” mindset leaves 20 willingly and candidly, it will happen. ing a White/Jewish category for faculty percent of Jews underrepresented and It is happening. And it makes sense that applicants. As it turns out, while CUNY unduly scrutinized. it is beginning in New York, where had held focus groups of Jewish faculty Be’chol Lashon works with leaders of to discuss diversity, and labeled it White/ Diversity among Jews is not a new or a Jewish communities originating from Jewish, the idea of an official check box specifically American phenomenon. Colombia to Syria to India. But it will seemingly came out of the blue. But it From ancient times through today, Jews not stay there. Yes, Woody Allen is Jew- didn’t. Just like in telephone, where the have been a global people, spanning a ish and he is white. But that is only one final distorted phrase often reflects the range of cultural identity and skin col- part of the story. thoughts, concerns and humor of those ors. The Babylonian Talmud that is the who pass the message along, the flawed foundation of Jewish law and lore was Diane Kaufmann Tobin is Founder and report of CUNY’s misstep reflects a con- written not by men with white complex- Director of Be’chol Lashon and the presi- versation about Jewish identity that is ions in long black coats, but by men dent of the Institute for Jewish & Com- bubbling up and seeping through the whose skin color reflected the region in munity Research (IJCR), an independent cracks of what it means to be Jewish in which they lived. One of the greatest Jew- think tank. America… Points East 11 BOOK NOOK

A Theology of Kaifeng Jews, in the stelae may have been intended brush-stroke portrait of life in China con- more for external public consumption, temporaneous with the more than eight 1000 -1850 particularly of the literate Mandarin elite centuries of tangible Jewish culture indi- by Jordan Paper who may have collaborated to compose cated in the title. Paper contends that 1790 pages, hardcover, $85 Can. Ebook them, it is presumed that they were in “…no concept regarding China has available. Wilfrid Laurier University; some ways reflective of Sino-Judaic caused more confusion in the Western Waterloo, Ontario; 2012 thought. mind than that of religion, a term that reviewed by Moshe Y. Bernstein did not exist before it was poorly trans- The various Jesuits who visited Kaifeng lated into Chinese in the late nineteenth A Theology from the Past; A in the 17th and 18th centuries made me- century.” Paper disputes the contention Paradigm for the Future ticulous rubbings not only of the stelae of Xu Xin in The Jews of Kaifeng that In 1942, William Charles White, who but also of the synagogue’s vertical (lian) Chinese religion was of a “secular” na- and horizontal (bian) interior placards. ture and, for that reason, deemed com- served as Anglican bishop in Henan prov- th ince for more than a quarter of a century, Also in the 17 century, two brothers, patible with Judaism. He suggests instead published his magnum opus Chinese Zhao Yingcheng and Zhao Yingdou, who that this notion expresses a residual ide- Jews: A Compilation of Matters Relat- were among the many Kaifeng Jews to ology from both the Chinese Commu- ing to the Jews of Kai-Feng Fu, still argu- achieve the prestigious jinshi rank in the nist Party, which eschewed superstition, ably the seminal and most comprehen- Chinese Imperial Examinations, are pur- and the Jesuits, who fought a prolonged sive work on the historical Jewish com- ported to have written possible theologi- theological battle with the Vatican to munity of Kaifeng. In his preface White cal treatises entitled The Vicissitudes of prove the secular nature of Confucian- writes: “Someday it is hoped a writer will the Holy Scripture and Preface to Clari- ism in order to effectively proselytise and be found who will deal with the inter- fying the Law, but, unfortunately, nei- function within the ranks of Chinese so- pretation of the religious and philosophi- ther of these works are extant. Following ciety while circumventing accusations of the final destruction of the synagogue by heresy (the oppositional view of the Do- cal ideas of the Chinese Jews, as such th may be noted in the inscriptions of the flooding in the middle of the 19 cen- minicans and Franciscans in the Church’s synagogue.” Seventy years later, Jordan tury, all of the remaining Torah scrolls Rites Controversy). Paper, professor emeritus for East Asian and artefacts were sold by some mem- and Religious Studies at York University, bers of the by-then impoverished com- Paper postulates a system of “family re- has taken up White’s challenge in The munity. Some of these items are still ligion” and “sacred kingship” rooted in Theology of the Chinese Jews, 1000 – maintained in museums and colleges in the foundational Chinese concept of 1850. the US, UK, Canada and Israel, although “xiao”, or filial piety. Explaining why this many have been lost to posterity; the Chinese notion subsumes the scriptural In Chinese Jews, White had already prof- engravings on the stelae in the munici- imperative of the fifth commandment, fered his own translation of the lapidary pal museum have eroded considerably he depicts how the primacy of clan iden- inscriptions of the stelae in the synagogue with time and are barely legible. Hence, tification, family dedication, and the courtyard. These stone inscriptions of the legacy of the Jesuits recordings of the veneration of ancestors through offerings 1489, 1512, and 1663 – two of which, synagogue and its artefacts is of particu- constitute a religion without belief: “… along with a 1679 stelae of the Zhao lar importance in any attempt to deci- having grandparents or parents, which- clan, are currently housed in the attic floor pher a generic theology of the Chinese ever is the most recently departed, does of the Kaifeng Municipal Museum – Jews. not involve faith… we know absolutely present a fluid narrative containing di- that we have parents. They are more real verse accounts of the community’s ori- Paper’s concise, readable and erudite text to us than anything else. Thus, when they gins and arrival in China, names of takes the reader on a more extensive in- die, they do not disappear from our prominent communal figures, and a few tellectual journey than its modest title memory, nor is doubt created as to of the foundational concepts of Jewish might imply. The author begins by track- whether they actually existed.” The au- beliefs and values. They also express com- ing the extent of the Jewish Diaspora, thor further characterises the practice of monality with the philosophical tradi- providing evidence of Jewish migration, spirit possession as similarly empirical, tions of Confucianism and Daoism, in commerce and settlement throughout the as being “real to the senses”, since these particular, the Chinese practice of ances- Mediterranean and as far as East Asia spirits “could talk or be talked to, touch tor veneration. During his episcopacy prior to the Roman conquest of Judea in and be touched in turn.” What seems White had made several unsuccessful 70 CE. He briefly discusses the persecu- questionable here, however, is that al- attempts to cohere the community with tion suffered by Jews as subjects to though the existence of ancestors may be their forgotten Jewish legacy. “No spark Christendom in contrast to the greater factual, the notion that veneration of these of interest in their history and in the di- freedom enjoyed by those living under relations through providing them with vine heritage of Israel could be aroused Islam, although still subject to erratic food and drink, or that the prospect of in them,” he wrote. “They were Jews no “expulsions and forced conversions by affecting good fortune from doing so, longer, either in a religious sense or as a local leaders who acted on their own.” does not appear to be constitutive of community.” While many scholars, in- In order to contextualise the Jewish ex- empirical processes. Similarly, although cluding Paper, contend that the narratives perience in Kaifeng, Paper paints a broad, the words and actions of a spirit medium 12 Points East might be perceived by the senses, the idea Han Chinese had become adulterated posits that its origins as an extension of that the ancestors and/or deities were with Jewish blood!) The reviewers’ cri- Jewish law metamorphosed into a pre- actually channelled through that medium tique struck Paper, who is married to a requisite, one which gained added im- would appear to be more a matter of faith Chinese academic, on a personal level. port with the enactment of Israel’s Law than fact. Moreover, since Paper is at- In their view, the assimilation of Kaifeng’s of Return. He convincingly argues that tempting to counter what he considers Jews with Chinese culture constituted “a apart from the matrilineal condition of the misguided perception of the secular- warning more than a hope.” identity, both historical and contempo- ism of Chinese religion, his eclipsing of rary Judaism display predominantly patri- the faith elements in these practices is Although his purview is neither the ra- lineal aspects. In addition, he presents somewhat perplexing. cial identification of “Jewishness” nor its genetic evidence that challenges the sug- link to the developmental aspect of gestion of racial purity espoused by This conundrum of the classification of matrilineal descent (these are discussed Ashkenazi Jews. In tandem, as suggested Chinese religion is furthered later in the in greater depth by researchers such as in his overview of the development of book when Paper analogises the Shaye D. J. Cohen), Paper nevertheless Judaism as a religion, it is the “doctri- sinicization of Kaifeng Judaism to the briefly portrays how the concept of naire” approach that evolved in North- adaptation of American Jews to what he bloodline developed among Ashkenazi ern Europe – in sharp contradistinction labels the “religion of Americanism”: the Jews parallel to the nationalistic trends to the more humane perspectives of Ju- usage of the English language, sporting emergent in 19th and 20th century North- daism adapted in other regions – that in American clothing, the celebration of ern Europe. With the arrival of the disci- more recent times has become ensconced Thanksgiving, the 4th of July and New pline of anthropology, the influence of with the Knesset’s legislating of an or- Years are deemed comparable to the ab- these ideas among Reform German-Jew- thodox Chief Rabbinate in the State of sorption of the prevalent Chinese religion ish immigrants to the US perpetuated. Israel, thus establishing the hegemony of by the Chinese Jews. The analogy here (Steven Bi rmi ngham’ s Our Crowd docu- a racial and doctrinally rigid form of Ju- seems to stretch the normative ideation ments how this outlook functioned to the daism. In Israel today issues like the ab- of these American features as secular extent that Jews of Eastern European ori- rogation of the Tal Law that exempted rather than religious. Yet, the debate as gins were considered racially inferior.) It haredim from military service, the recent to how Chinese religion should be clas- took the advent of the Jim Crow laws decision of the attorney general to grant sified is in actuality a moot, semantic and the threat they posed to the Jews funding to non-orthodox community rab- point rather than an ontological one. The themselves as a race to eventually mod- bis (including females), and public reac- more significant aspect raised by Paper erate this stance. Yet, in Europe, particu- tion to the attempts of community ex- is the pervasiveness of indigenous reli- larly among German-Jewish intellectuals, tremists to regulate dress codes are chal- gion in the landscape of Chinese culture, this perception persisted and converged lenging this hegemonic entrenchment and, similar to the Americanisms with secular Zionist ideology. Paper and signify a time of crisis and transition adopted by Jewish-Americans —whether quotes the renowned Hebrew-language for contemporary Judaism. considered secular or faith-based— its poet Hayim Nachman Bialik from a 1934 resonance with Judaism that facilitated press conference in Jerusalem that, “I, It is in the context of these shifting power its incorporation into Sino-Judaic culture. too, like Hitler, believe in the power of relations that the crux of Paper’s thesis, the blood idea.” Paper emphasizes how “A Speculative Theology of the Chinese Indeed, it is this relativistic feature of this understanding of Jewish identity as Jews”, takes on particular significance. Paper’s argument that augments his the- racial has become aggravated through the Unlike theological developments under sis on the history, culture and theology threat of rampant intermarriage in North Christendom or Islam, the synthesis of of the Kaifeng Jews with the religious America. More ominously, he presents Chinese Judaism progressed in an envi- politics that up until the present have examples within Israel itself where Jews ronment lacking persecution. The Jews denigrated the authenticity of Chinese of non-Ashkenazi origin—whether In- of Kaifeng were able to freely integrate Jewish identity and erroneously castigated dian, Ethiopian or even Sephardim—are socially, economically and culturally. its sinicization as the reason for its ulti- often victims of racial discrimination. In According to Paper, the Hebrew names mate demise. In his Introduction, Paper 2010 this issue became a legal one in recorded for female Chinese spouses were recounts his personal confrontation with Israel when some ultra-orthodox (haredi) indicative of their conversion, and the this kind of politics when his applica- parents objected to the presence of patrilineal and patrilocal facets of Han tion for a research grant was turned down Sephardim in the classroom with their culture served to ensure the adaptation by the Canadian Social Sciences and children. to and preservation of Jewish customs Humanities Research Council on the and practices. Though a placard over the advice of Jewish reviewers. According to “Wherever Jews moved,” writes Paper, ark containing their Torah scrolls gave Paper, these reviewers “took umbrage that “assimilation through intermarriage with homage to the Emperor, above it stood a Chinese Judaism was taken seriously as local females was the norm.” This claim tablet in gold leaf engraved with the pri- a legitimate aspect of Judaism. Their ex- appears to be substantiated by the resem- mary proclamation of the Jewish mono- pressed attitude was that by assimilating blance of Jews across the globe with the theism, the shma yisrael. Yet, the inscrip- and becoming Chinese, the Chinese Jews physical characteristics of their local tions of the stelae suggest that the Kaifeng were not truly Jews. Jews were a pure hosts. Although Paper reduces the multi- Jews’ comprehension of this singular race.” (In an ironic twist, the Nazis used faceted premises of matrilineal descent God was entwined with the concept of the example of Kaifeng Jews as a model to the singular cause “to protect children an ancestral deity, a conception sup- of the inverse corollary: the pure race of who might otherwise be rejected”, he ported by prayers they, along with Jews Points East 13 worldwide, recited three times daily in- tshuvah, or “repentance”, in traditional preservative function that enabled this voking “our God, and God of our fathers, Judaism, embedded in the evasion of minuscule community, consisting of a the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac punishment, manifested in Sino-Judaic mere 5000 souls at its apex in the Ming and the God of Jacob.” In the stelae, thought as the normative Chinese con- Dynasty – a drop in the bucket of China’s however, the use of the Chinese names cept of “rectification of the heart/mind”, massive populace – to endure as a dis- of dao and tian hints at the selection of the natural, creative yearning to realise tinct and tangible religious culture for a classical Chinese concepts of deity that one’s full potential. Paper also suggests remarkable eight centuries and more. resonated with them as both Jews and that traditional prayer in Kaifeng, which Paper calls attention to the fact that this Chinese. Paper proposes that the choice the Jesuits attest took place on a daily achievement surpasses that of some of of this name from Daoist cosmology ex- basis, “would have been understood from Europe’s most durable Jewish communi- presses “an understanding of God not as a functional standpoint as little different ties (the Old-New Synagogue of Prague, anthropomorphic but as all-encompass- from the chanting that took place in Chi- for example, has existed for 700 years). ing, as the source of all life. God is the nese Buddhist monasteries.” He also pro- For this achievement to remain unac- ultimate that can be named, beyond poses that the Chinese Jews may have knowledged due to cultural bias, not only which is a further ultimate that cannot engaged in private prayer when making by the Jewish orthodox establishment but be named.” In kabbalistic thought, this offerings to their ancestors, reflective of even by social science reviewers in ineffable ultimate is referred to as “Ayn the widespread custom of petitioning academia, represents an extraordinary Sof”, or “the Limitless”. Although in col- personal prayers at the gravesites of ven- display of bigotry. As one presently en- loquial Chinese tian has the meaning of erable Jewish saints. gaged in researching the current Sky, or, in Hebrew, shamayim – often revitalisation of Jewish identity among utilised in idiomatic speech as a euphe- These are but some of the hypothetical, the descendants of Kaifeng’s Jews, who mism for God – its meaning in both the yet quite conceivable, theological tenets have made exceptional efforts in the face stelae and placards could indicate “the that are summarized in this book. A mi- of the negation of their identity by both locus of the sacred”, “God as prime nor criticism lies in a few of the assump- the Chinese government and the Chief mover”, or the transcendent and imma- tions made in painting the details of Jew- Rabbinate, I can confirm that these preju- nent aspects of deity implied in the com- ish life in Kaifeng. For example, Paper dices endure. pound tiandi, literally “heaven and earth”, assumes that listing of Hebrew names of depending on its usage and context. intermarried females is indicative of In the postscript to The Theology of the “conversion”; as there is no confirmation Chinese Jews, Rabbi Anson Laytner elo- Although much of the chapter proposing of formalised conversions in Kaifeng, this quently contextualises the Kaifeng Jew- a speculative theology consists of neces- assumption is somewhat misleading. So ish experience with the problems con- sary digressions into purely Confucian, too, Paper declares that the Chinese Jews fronting Western Jewry today. Both the Daoist and Jewish thought to better un- did not engage with popular religious Holocaust and modern science, Laytner derstand its unique synthesis in Kaifeng, practices in China. However, given the argues, have had a critical impact on Paper nonetheless convincingly depicts syncretistic nature and permeable bound- some of the fundamental notions of God an alternative system of spirituality aries of Chinese religious culture, other and Jewish thought in general. With more which, though markedly different from researchers (e.g. Stephen Sharot) have than half of Western Jewry unaffiliated that which evolved in Europe, is situated suggested that such an engagement was and others abandoning Judaism for the within the norms of great Jewish think- indeed probable. Furthermore, although spiritual traditions of the East, he believes ers like Sa’adia Gaon and Maimonides. a colophon found in Kaifeng lists certain that there is a need for “a revolution in Rather than a onetime historical event Talmudic tractates, there is no hard evi- Jewish thought.” He considers that the initiated by an anthropomorphic, dence to support Paper’s supposition of Chinese Jews represent a model that, if masculinised deity, the Kaifeng Jews the existence of the Talmud in Kaifeng the cultural blinders preconceiving Juda- viewed creation as a continual process and no documentation of Talmudic study ism as a racial phenomenon are removed, of creation ex-nihilo forming the duality or culture. In my view, some of these could guide contemporary Judaism in of yin and yang (i.e. shamayim v’aretz, assumptions appear to be an apologetics that direction: “Far from serving as a Heaven and Earth) from which all forms to orthodoxy, an attempt, perhaps, to warning to us about the dangers of inte- of multiplicity are constantly emergent. make the Kaifeng Jews even more tradi- gration, intermarriage, and assimilation— Observance of the Torah commandments tional than they actually were and, in a or, ironically, demonstrating our sup- was perceived not as stemming from a certain sense, thus detracting from rather posed need of anti-Semitism to ensure Divine Covenant predicated on reward than enhancing the thrust of Paper’s main our continuity—the Kaifeng Jews show and punishment by an authoritarian and argument. that a successful Jewish culture can flour- potentially wrathful God, but rather on ish in an open society, without hostility, the belief that “being good is being true Paper argues that economic, geographic by absorbing the best of the dominant to one’s nature [the Confucian philoso- and demographic factors – rather than culture and making it one’s own.” This, phy of Mengzi], which is essentially di- assimilation and sinicization – were the in effect, sums up the real significance vine, while being wicked, which in the root causes of the community’s cultural of Paper’s research, which is not simply Chinese context means acting selfishly, termination. This view has been substan- a theological account of an exotic, re- is being perverse to human nature.” Simi- tiated by more recent research (Eber, mote Jewish enclave of times gone by, larly, as the concept of a non-anthropo- Abraham, Plaks, Sharot, Urbach, Patt- but, more notably, a visualization of morphic deity was also impersonal and Shamir and Rapaport, Laytner) that, to potentiality for contemporary Judaism void of human emotions, the concept of the contrary, sinicization represented a and its future development. 14 Points East

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