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Jews in China

I remember one day at the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum of the Diaspora in Israel catching a fascinating glimpse of a model of the Kaifeng Synagogue of China which then raised many unanswered questions about the mysterious presence of Jews in that country.

Recently, a group of 30 Jews from Ontario and Quebec, led by Harriet Morton of Tour East Travel, had the opportunity of a lifetime to remove the veil of mystery and see “China through Jewish Eyes” over 18 days of travel including sites of Jewish life in three major centres – Kaifeng, Shanghai and Beijing.

What emerged was an astonishing history of over 1,000 years of a rich Jewish communal experience which, free of the anti-Semitism of Christian Europe, found a Chinese culture which welcomed Jews, esteemed their values of family, community, education, hard work and success, and allowed them to rise to dazzling heights of prosperity and prominence.

Arriving as merchants in about the 8th century, Jews established their first permanent community in Kaifeng over the 11th to 13th centuries. They were followed in the 1830s by Sephardic Jewish entrepreneurs; at the turn of the century, by Russian Jews fleeing pogroms, and from 1933 to 1941 by 30,000 desperate Jewish refugees fleeing accelerated anti-Semitism in Nazi Europe. Remarkably, the latter were accepted without Chinese visas by the Chinese consulate in Vienna at a time when, with few exceptions, doors to Jews were closed around the world.

While most Jews left China in the years after the Chinese Communist takeover particularly after the Cultural Revolution of the, a new influx of Jews began arriving from Israel, North America and Europe with the liberalization of the Chinese economy and the establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel.

Kaifeng – A Model of Assimilation
Archeological discoveries reveal that Jews, many from Persia, first came to China as merchants, often in dusty camel caravans, along the Silk Road as well as by sea and coastal areas. The descendents of those merchants formed the first permanent Jewish community in Kaifeng.

The story of the once-thriving Kaifeng Jewish community, with a total population of about 4000 to 5000 by the 15th and 16th centuries, is a model of prosperity, assimilation, intermarriage -- and ultimately, disappearance.

Drawings and prints in a mini-museum in Kaifeng reveal Jews of the time wearing Chinese garb and to be flourishing and influential in Chinese political and social circles. They intermarried, changed their names to Chinese and absorbed Chinese traditions. Finally, by the late 17th century, they had lost contact with the Jewish world outside. The Kaifeng synagogue and the once-vibrant religious traditions and communal life it inspired lay in ruins.

Interestingly, a new chapter of Kaifeng Jewry might now be written. “Moishe,” a Kaifeng Jew of purely Oriental features, is one of about 100 Kaifeng Jews or more who are now striving to reclaim their Jewish heritage. A small group, including Moishe, holds Friday and Shabbat services (but observe no other religious traditions) and meet with curious visiting Jews from abroad such as ours. Moishe’s son, Shi Lei, is now studying Hebrew and Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University on a scholarship.

The Entrepreneurial Sephardic Jews of Shanghai
Unlike Kaifeng Jewry, the Jews of Shanghai sustained a strong, vital Jewish life right up until the time they left for Hong Kong and places further abroad in the wake of huge losses of property .during the Japanese occupation, subsequent Chinese Civil War and Communist victory over the Nationalists in 1949.

Similarly to Kaifeng Jews, however, Sephardic Jews, many from Baghdad, Bombay and Singapore, first came to Shanghai as shrewd merchants seeking their fortunes. They amassed their initial wealth during the years of the forced legalization of the opium trade on China by Britain and other European powers. They later parlayed this wealth into huge fortunes in real estate, manufacturing and trade. Many of the most striking hotels, apartment towers and commercial buil
dings in the architecturally beautiful Bund district of Shanghai were built by the Sassoons, Hardoons and Kadoories and other Sephardic Jews.

Besides building mansions and villas with lush gardens and tennis courts, the Sephardim were generously philanthropic and energetically Jewish, building synagogues, Jewish schools, community centres and supporting Zionism.

The Russian Ashkenazim – A ”Second Homeland”
Unlike the affluent Sephardim who came for trade, impoverished Russian Jews came to China fleeing the vicious anti-semitism of the late 19th century and the turmoil of the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917; they arrived in the thousands, initially eking out a living in Harbin, Shanghai and other cities.

In time, however, these Ashkenazim viewed China as their “second homeland.” They also succeeded in enterprise, surpassed the Sephardim in numbers, actively promoted education and the creative arts in music, drama and ballet and demonstrated the most vigorous commitment to their faith, community and Zionism. Particularly supportive of the Revisionists, they formed Betar units, one naval unit of which joined the British forces in 1941.

The life of Bayla S., from Montreal, spans two important chapters in Chinese Jewish history. Born in Shanghai of Russian and Ukraine parents who fled to China in the early 1900’s, she can recall the vibrant Jewish life created by Russian immigrants as well as the huge influx of thousands of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Europe and were offered safety in Shanghai.

“I felt we led a charmed life, I always felt so happy and secure, surrounded by my family, good friends and a fulfilling Jewish life, says Bayla, whose uncle was Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi, spiritual leader of the Russian Jewish community in Shanghai. She vividly recalls her uncle’s Passover seders with some 50 of the students from the famed Mir Yeshiva which escaped the Holocaust by relocating to Shanghai.

Shanghai – Haven from the Holocaust
But, she recalls, life for the 25,000 Jewish refugees in Shanghai (another 5000 who came earlier had left for other countries) changed sharply after the German Gestapo arrived in July 1942.

“The Gestapo prevailed upon the Japanese occupation authorities to impose the Final Solution” in Shanghai but the Russian ‘balabatim’ of the community ‘convinced’ (through bribery it was widely believed) the occupation authorities to refuse the request,” she said.

Instead of the Final Solution, the Japanese occupation authorities proclaimed a “Designated Area for Stateless Refugees,” and the 25,000 refugees were moved into a crowded ghetto where they remained for the rest of the war. Living under rigid travel, curfew and work restrictions, they survived by learning new trades in carpentry, barbering, sewing often taught by ORT (an international Jewish agency promoting education and trades) as well as opening small businesses, professional offices and restaurants.

Of this remarkable chapter in Jewish-Chinese relations, noted Chinese academic and author of The Jews in China, Dr. Pan Guang writes: “Like Shindler, Wallenberg and Sugihara, the name ‘Shanghai’ has become synonymous with ‘rescue’ and ‘haven’ in the annals of the Holocaust.”

While only now is there growing public awareness about the role of China in saving Jews during the Holocaust, little is still known about the interesting, individual Jews who helped China in resisting the Japanese invasion and occupation – or those who, believing in the Communist cause, remained on after the People’s Republic was established in 1949.

Idealists who believed in building a new Communist China, the latter provided valuable services as doctors, political advisors, teachers and scholars. Only after the years of terror and repression launched by the Cultural Revolution in 1966, did most if not all the remaining Jews, leave.

The New Influx of Jews
The current re-appearance of Jews on the mainland follows closely upon the expansion of foreign trade and investment in China and the signing of diplomatic relations between Israel and China in 1992.

A wonderful Friday night service and dinner with a small Beijing Reform congregation is a microcosm of the revival of Jewish life in China.
At one table for dinner were: Sheila, who came with her husband,Yosi, from Israel in 1990 to help initiate diplomatic relations between Israel and China. As Director of the Israel Academy Science and Humanities in Beijing, Yosi was instrumental in introducing the latest advances in irrigation technology to China.
Elyse and Roberta, from the United States, who formed a private-care health care services company and together started the Beijing Reform congregation.
Carmen, also from the States, a graduate student with a young baby; her husband started his own business in private equities.
Mark, who has his doctorate from a Maryland University, studying Chinese literature; and Fraida from Pensylvania pursuing graduate studies at Beijing University.

Of the nearly 7,000 Jews in China today, 6,000 reside in Hong Kong, 200 in Shanghai; 200 in Beijing and 200 elsewhere. Diplomats, technology experts, professionals, entrepreneurs and students alike, they are forging new institutions of communal and religious life from the Secular and Reform to the Lubavitcher. The latter just opened a new Jewish community centre in Shanghai, which is meant to serve the whole Jewish community regardless of affiliation.