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China Judaic Studies Association 

Promoting Judaic Studies in China 
China Judaic Studies Association

President: Xu Xin: xuxin49@jlonline.com
School of Religious Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093

Executive Director: Beverly Friend, Ph.D. friend@oakton.edu

Oakton Community College, 7701 N. Lincoln Ave., Skokie,  IL 60077-2895

Foreign Office: Kenneth Lubowich ODM
For tour information email: info@china-usa.org

Web Page Editor: Dick Smith of Dick Smith Software: dick@dicksmithsoftware.com

Annual report 2008: Institute of Jewish Studies, Nanjing University .

 The year 2008 witnessed further growth at the Nanjing Institute.

I. Students and Faculty

  • The Institute has officially welcomed on board Dr. Zhenghua Meng, fresh out
  • of his Ph.D. program from the Chinese University of Hong Kong as its youngest faculty member to date. Dr. Meng’s academic field focuses on the studies of the Hebrew Bible.    
  • The Institute bid farewell to 5 students who have completed their degrees while 5 new arrivals, 2 in the Ph. D. program and 3 in the Master’s program, have been enrolled to continue their academic pursuit;
  •  A mini-Ulpan was run to teach basic Hebrew to our graduate students. The class was taught by an Israeli student who is pursuing his MA degree in sociology at Nanjing University.
  • Dr. Lihong Song, Associate professor and Deputy Director of the Institute, has been spending his Sabbatical in the US. While doing research at Temple University, sponsored by Dr. William fern and his Foundation. Dr. Song has been invited to visit and lecture at various universities and colleges across the US.
  • Professor Xu Xin, Director of the Institute, visited foundations and friends in London and Los Angeles this past June and August respectively. He was also in attendance during a summer Board meeting of the Sino-Judaic Institute in Seattle. 
  • 12 scholarships, established by many individuals, were awarded to 12 students, most of them are currently studying at the Institute.

II.                Visitors to Nanjing   

  • Mr. Jakie Eldan, newly appointed Israeli Consul General to Shanghai, visited and lectured at the Institute on September 25.
  • Fulbright professor Samuel Heilman of The City University of New York visited from Oct. 17 to Nov. 18. He gave a number of lectures on various topics at the Institute and two public lectures at the university level.
  • Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, and Prof. Avram Hershko, both named as 2004 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry from Technion University in Israel, visited and met with faculty and students of the Institute while attending an international conference in Nanjing in October.
  • Mr. Ze’er Boim, Minister of Construction and Real Estate of Israel and his delegation visited the Institute on Nov. 12.

III. Sponsored by Skirball

 


Two scholars from overseas were invited to serve as the Skirball Lecturers of 2008.

1.     Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives of Hebrew Union College, visited during Nov. 20-25. He gave two lectures, held discussion with faculty and students, and met with Prof. Shi Jianjun, Executive Vice-President of Nanjing University.

2.     Prof. Wayne Horowitz of Hebrew University of Jerusalem from Dec. 9-11, lecturing on ;

Skirball Translation/ publication Projects  

 Two books on Jewish themes have been translated into Chinese and published in China:

a)     American Judaism by Jonathan Sarna

b)     Why Jews Are So Successful by Jack Rosen

The Training Program
Rao Benzhong and Zhou Haiyan, two Ph .D. candidates from our Institute, completed their research and study at Tel Aviv University and received their degrees in 2008. Both went on to become faculty members at other universities in China.

 
All of the above programs would not have been possible without the generous underwriting from the Skirball Foundation and the Diana and Guilford Glazer Fund. We would like to express our sincerest thanks to them in record.

October, 2008  :Endowment for the Study of Monotheism 

The Exilarch Foundation has made a generous initial endowment to the Institute for Jewish Studies to establish the Naim Dangoor Fund for Universal Monotheism Studies. Matched by University funds, the new program will enhance the Institute's research and teaching of the core concepts of three monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 

Philanthropist Naim Dangoor, an Iraqi-born Jew who moved to Britain in 1964 and became a successful property investor and developer in London, created the Exilarch Foundation in 1978. This grew into a major
philanthropic institution providing support for education and other causes in UK and in Israel. He received the Order of the British Empire in 2006 for his generous contributions and far-reaching vision of today's world. Income from the endowment will be used to create a better understanding of
the world by the Chinese people. It will also advance efforts to recruitand retain a distinguished director, who will be given the title Naim Dangoor Director of the Institute for Universal Monotheism in honor of the Exilarch's Foundation's founder.
 

Reflecting on the commitment of the Exilarch's Foundation to theInstitute of Jewish Studies, Institute founding Director Xu Xin said,"This gift of an endowment from the Exilarch's Foundation will enableus to extend the scope of the Institute of Jewish Studies. It will enhance our ability tocollaborate with other institutes, and with various doctoral programs inco-sponsoring programs and in training and encouraging students to carry out research on Universal Monotheism important to understanding the worldcivilization in general and seek to find a universal project for world peace that recognizes the significance of each human being throughout theworld."

For links to a special edition of China Daily see the following:

Brief history of Institute of Jewish Studies

Funding monotheism studies

Xu Xin, a pioneer in research


HOT OFF THE  PRESS: 
Jane Shen Schopf (the late David' Miller's former wife) has edited "My Years in Nanking, reminiscences of Inyeening Shen" (Jane's mother).
 After the Sino-Japanese War and the Nanking massacre, Dr. Shen Yi was appointed Mayor of Nanking. In the memoir, his wife relates her experiences as  Mao Ze-dong's
army surged toward the city. Her reminiscences chronicle Nanking 1946-48 and her struggles to maintain the mayoral household, \
to host and forge friendships with diplomats, to interact with Madame Chaing ka-shek, and to organize an impressive relief for Nanking's refugees.
  Inyeening Shen (1907-99) was an acclaimed Chinese writer, essayist and poet, artist and student of China's grandmaster Chang 
Ta-ch'ien. Jane is an internationally known plant biologist at UCLA noted for her research on the germination of centuries old
 lotus seeds and her husband William Schopf is a Professor of Paleobiology at UCLA and the author of many scholarly works on the 
origins of life.  Currently, they have both been invited to give lectures in India in November in celebration of Charles Darwin's 200-year 
birth and 150 years since the publication "On the Origin of Species."  
 The book is available from Amazon, and I reviewed it there.
 
Survival In Shanghai: The Journals Of Fred Marcus 1939-49 by Audrey Friedman Marcus and Rena Krasno 
is available now! To order, go to http://www.fredmarcusmemorialwebsite.comor send a check for $22.95 plus $3.99 postage to Rena Krasno, 255 S Rengstorff, Apt 106, Mountain View, CA 94040.

EMAIL NOTES:
Nov, 2008: 
Is the former Jewish presence in Harbin historically overlooked and/or neglected? 
Here is a fascinating email from Dr. Alfonz Lengyel (Sarasota, Florida):

It is interesting, that in the USA only the early Jewish settlement in Kaifeng is well known, but  NOT the Jewish settlement in Harbin (Heilongjiang) province of China. The China Daily never wrote about anything about the contribution of the Immigrant Jews in Harbin's economy and culture which still have standing buildings from the Jewish past in Harbin. In the other hand, not many vestige of the Jewish settlement remained in Kaifeng. 
         This was my topic of my paper at the International Economic Conference in Harbin in late June, 2008. In Kaifeng almost nothing left from the Jewish past but in Harbin in addition of the restored two synagogues and great number of commercial and non commercial buildings, schools, hotels, etc. are still are intact. In the Jewish Encyclopedia only Kaifeng is but Harbin was not included. Under Mao Zedong, during  the Cultural Revolution both Old and New Synagogues were ruined. Under the present Market Socialist system both Synagogues were in 2004 restored. The synagogues are under the protection of the Harbin Jewish Research Center of the  Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Harbin's Branch. ( Head of the Center: Director (Mrs.  Fu Mingjing)
         The Jewish Research Center authorized me to organize for them a 10-day summer exchange of talented mixed Jewish and not Jewish group, to perform in Harbin. 
         I have a 40-minute Power Point presentation about the Rise and Fall of Jewish Settlement in Harbin. I organized in Sarasota (Fl.) few years ago a photo exhibition about the history of  the Jewish settlement in Harbin. (1890's to 1950). My Chinese wife Dr. Hongying Liu, professor of Nanjing University of Economy and Finances, helped me more then 20 years on my research on Jews in China, including Kaifeng, Tianjin, and Shanghai.

KAIFENG DOLL
In an alternative to American Girl books and Dolls, Reyna and the Jade Star, by Robin Levinson, tells the story of 12-year-old Reyna Li who lives in Old China's Jewish community of Kaifeng, in the year 1175. See http://www.galigirls.com

INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WWII, SHANGHAI JEWS CELEBRATE WEDDING INSIDE SYNAGOGUE (about Ohel Rachel)

"A glass was smashed, and a cheer went up. After months of careful negotiations with the Chinese government, Shanghai's Jewish community celebrated a revival last month as a historic synagogue opened for its first wedding in about 60 years."
 For the full article, see  http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976404.html 

BEIJING'S ONLY KOSHER RESTAURANT MULLS SECOND BRANCH AHEAD OF OLYMPICS

"The capital's only Kosher restaurant opened 10 months ago, drawing the small Jewish expatriate community, tourists, curious Chinese and even a few Muslims. Business has been so good at Dini's Kosher Restaurant, that part-owner Lewis Sperber is talking about setting up a second branch closer to the Olympic venues in northern Beijing."
For full article, see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/950010.html

CHINA 'REGRETS' SPIELBERG'S BOYCOTT OF OLYMPICS OVER DARFUR

"China expressed regret on Thursday over the decision by movie director Steven Spielberg to quit as an artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics because of its policies in war-torn Sunday." For full article see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954290.html

AMID ISRAELI SIEGE, PALESTINIAN BUSINESSES LOOK EAST TO CHINA

"Faced with Israeli trade and travel restrictions, a stagnant economy and a flood of cheap imports from Asia, Palestinian businessmen are increasingly seeking their fortunes in China." For full article, see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/971006.html
. 
COMPLETED:
No Girls in the Marching Band, A Memoir, gives a detailed description of the initial friendship between  Jim Friend, and Professor Xu Xin, in 1985 and tells the story of the organization up to the ultimate moment: the dedication of the Glazer Institute for Judaic Studies at Nanjing University in 2006. Further information on the book can be found at Cafe Press. 

 China Journal: A World of Difference, the posthumous publication of James Friend's joyous diary about teaching at Nanjing University, 1985-86, can be found at Cafe Press 

Membership in the Association promotes Judaic Study in China

  • University Courses
  • Seminars and Public Lectures on Judaic Topics here and in China
  • Judaic Conferences
  • Tours to Jewish Historical Sites
  • Awards to Chinese scholars who have made outstanding contributions in the field
  • Publications which include the following:
    • A Chinese Version of the Enclyclopedia Judaica (in 2nd printing)
    • Anti-Semitism: How and Why (in Chinese), by Xu Xin
    • Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (in English), by Xu Xin with Beverly Friend
    • This website, which evolved from the bi-annual newsletter The China/Judaic Connection
    • Books, monographs and articles
    • Electronic mailings to people who have expressed an interest in the subject

"The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the author. The contents of this page and  the links therein have not been reviewed, approved or endorsed by Oakton Community College."