Arts & Culture
Jewish Mythbusters: There are No Jews in China
By Tamar Fox / April 3, 2008
You may be used to seeing Jews of all different ethnicities—black Jews, Arab Jews, Eastern European Jews, Latin American Jews—but East Asian Jews, especially Chinese Jews, don’t seem to pop up very often. There are Jews in China, though, and more than a few ethnically Chinese Jews. Here’s the scoop: Jews have been in China since the 8th century, when they came in from Persia on the Silk Road. In 1163 the Jews were ordered to live in Kiafeng by the Emperor, and a Jewish community remained there for over seven hundred years. Some descendants of that community still live in Kiafeng and around China, but they don’t identify as Jews. In the late 19th century, Jews began entering China from Russia, and during the 20th century, thousands of Jews sought safety in China as they fled from persecution and pogroms in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe. Much of that community left during the Japanese annexation in 1931. During World War II more than 18,000 Jews came to Shanghai seeking shelter from the Nazis. Eventually, the Japanese, who controlled Shanghai at the time, relocated the Jewish community to a ¾ square mile area (“the Shanghai Ghetto”) where they were kept until the end of the war. Still, Jews in China enjoyed a relatively high level of safety and security. When World War II ended, many Jews left China for Israel, America, or Eastern Europe. Most of the remaining Jews left when the Communist regime began in 1949. For just over fifty years there was no significant Jewish life in China, but in 2000, Rosh HaShana services were held at the Ohel Rachel Synagogue in Shanghai. Believe it or not, the Chinese government now recognizes Jews as an official Chinese ethnic group. You can go to shul in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong today, and daven with both native and international Jews. And in China, Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism play nice. On the downside, China is rife with books that promise to help the reader make money “the Jewish way.” Contemporary Chinese anti-Semitism is a real concern for Jews there. Learn more about Jews in China at the Shanghai Jewish Center website.
Related: On Being Black, White, and Jewish
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I wonder if Chinese Jews go to American restuarants on Christmas and Easter…
Peter Hessler's recent article in National Geographic, "China's Instant Cities," included this gem of sadly ironic ignorance exhibited at the airport bookstore of Wenzhou, the fastest growing province in China.
"The Wenzhou airport bookstore stocks a volume titled, Actually, You Don't Understand the Wenzhou People. It shares a shelf with The Feared Wenzhou People, The Collected Secrets of How Wenzhou People Make Money, and The Jews of the East: The Commercial Stories of Fifty Wenzhou Businessmen."
When I was studying Chinese, I was disheartened to learn that the Chinese (the Chinese!) use the word "jew" in lieu of "cheap" when describing someone. As in "ta hen you tai." He/she is very jewish/cheap.
Sucks.
Thats a beautiful story Rachel!
Sorry everyone, the myth of the Kaifung Jews is a hoax. An academic book, Orientalism and the Jews, contains an essay by the scholar Zhou Xun (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) about the construction of this hoax.
I'll go you one better and a lot older.
A Brooklyn blackhat is traveling in China. He's walking down the street early in the morning and hears davening come from a little doorway below the street. He peeks in and sees a roomful of Chinese men dressed in Tallis' and Tefillin. He walks up to the rabbi and says that he, too, would like to daven. The Chinese rabbi looks at him a long time and finally says, "Funny, you don't look Jewish."
"Believe it or not, the Chinese government now recognizes Jews as an official Chinese ethnic group"
Sorry, I dont believe it.
That is, where does that line come from? Besides an ADL press release, I have not heard it quoted much, even in the often exaggerated articles that make the rounds on Jews in China. Far be it from me to fully understand China's policy of ethnic categorization, but the basic idea is that there are 55 officially recognized minority ethnic nationalities and 1 official majority ethnic nationality. The Jews are not one of the 55. I've read accounts that Jewish communities in China have appealed for official minority status but its a long process and unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Their are five officially state recognized religions in China, namely Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, China Catholic Church and China Protestant Church. While foreigners can practice their own religion, the law forbids native Chinese participating in these foreign religious services or any other unrecognized religious service.
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