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I wrote this paper on Chinese Jews for Chinese Civilization class.

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Jews In Old China: The History of Chinese Jewry

Jews In Old China, by Sidney Shapiro, traces the origins of Chinese Jewry from the beginnings until their ultimate demise due to assimilation. The beginnings of Chinese Jewry can be traced to Persian Jews, descendants of the Jews taken into the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C.E.. Their time in China started about a thousand years ago after they arrived as traders on the Silk Road. Over the centuries, they became more Chinese until finally assimilating with the Han Chinese.  They completely lost their heritage and it wasn’t until modern times that Judaism returned to China with recent immigrants from other parts of Asia and from Europe.

The Chinese, Indian, and Jewish Peoples are the oldest peoples on Earth. The Chinese are 5,000 years old while the Indians and Jews are 4,000 years old. No other peoples have lasted so long. The Jews are the only people to last this long while being exiled from their land. Ancient Jewish tradition links the three peoples as well. Abraham, the first Jew also had Non-Jewish children from his second wife Keturah, after Sarah, his Jewish wife died. Jewish tradition teaches that these sons whom the Book of Genesis records as having received gifts from Abraham and being  “sent to the East” are believed to have founded the religions of India and East Asia.

The Hebrew word for China is Sin and the Chinese People are called Sinim. While this derives from the Qin Dynasty’s name, which gave the name to the country known as China, Sinim are referred to in the Bible much earlier. They are mentioned among the children of Noah and their land is also mentioned in a prophesy of Isaiah that the Children of Israel will return from Exile from “the land of Sinim”. Some scholars say that this could not be referring to China because it was written before the Qin Dynasty, in fact some say that the “land of Sinim” may refer to a locality in modern day Lebanon. However, it could be a prophesy of the future China, “the land of the Sinim [Chinese people]”.

In the book, Sidney Shapiro quotes Chinese scholar Yin Gang as saying  “the Jews of Kaifeng [which was the main area of China were Jews settled] were descendants of the ‘Babylonian Exiles’. When they were freed by the Persian conquest of Babylon in 538 B.C.E., instead of returning to Jerusalem, most of them remained in areas of Babylon and other parts of the Persian Empire. Later, they moved Eastward into Central Asia.” [Shapiro, Jews In Old China, p. 218]. They didn’t know about Hanukkah, which celebrates the victory of the Jews who returned to Judea over Syrian-Greek oppression. Yin quotes Jean Paul Gozani,  “a Catholic priest who visited Kaifeng” as saying that “They are very familiar with the story of Esther, as well as the tribulations of Haman and the punishment he suffered.” [Ibid]. Queen Esther, the Jewess who saved the Jews of Persia from annihilation, was called “Mama Esther” by the Jews of Kaifeng. The affection the Kaifeng Jews held for Esther shows that their ancestors were still living in Persia at that time [Ibid].

From Persia, the Jews moved on to Bukhara in what is now Uzbekistan. They arrived in Kaifeng during the Northern Song period (960-1127 C.E.). Jews were required to settle outside the city during this period and “this would  account for there being no records of any Jewish synagogues in Kaifeng during Northern Song” [Ibid, p. 222].

The Jews’ Han Chinese neighbors would get them confused with Muslims and both were referred to as “Hui Hui”. This was due to the similarities of their religious beliefs and shared physical appearance. Jews were only one of many minorities in China who had entered through the Silk Road.

Over time the Jews adapted some Chinese practices. For example, Jews with the name Liewei (Levi) changed their name to the Han Chinese name Li. They also blended their religion with Chinese beliefs. They associated Adam, the first Biblical Man with Pangu, the mythical creator in Chinese mythology. They called the Torah “the Way”, an influence of Daoism (from the Chinese Dao, “the Way”). They also tried to say that Judaism could be co-existent with the teaching of Confucius.

Unfortunately, Chinese Jews eventually assimilated as they adapted Chinese customs. There was even a law in the Ming Dynasty that required them to intermarry. As they became more involved with Chinese society, their interest in Judaism and Jewish learning waned. Many lost their Jewishness and others converted to Islam after there was no organized Jewish community because of the perceived similarities between Judaism and Islam. Today the original Kaifeng community is lost but there is an effort to get them to return to their Jewish roots.

In more recent times, there was an influx of Russian Jewish communities “in Harbin, Tientsin, and elsewhere. In the early years of the 20th century, Jews fleeing pogroms in the Pale of Settlement and demobilized soldiers from the Russo-Japanese War joined them, raising the Jewish population of Harbin to approximately 8,000 by 1908.” [World Jewish Congress World Jewish Communities Website]. More Jews arrived after The Russian Revolution of 1917.  Most of these Russian Jews left after World War II emigrated to the West.

Many Jews from the Middle East and other parts of Asia also settled in Shanghai, which became “a Jewish center parallels that of Hong Kong. Sefardic Jewish families from Baghdad, Bombay, and Cairo, including the Kaduris, Sassons, and Hardoons, established a communal structure in Shanghai in the 19th century.” [Ibid] Many Jews from foreign countries such as the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada settled in Hong Kong and contributed greatly to the development of Hong Kong. In addition to these Jews, there is also a small Jewish community in Taiwan made up of American military personnel and foreign businessmen.

The experience of Jews in China has mirrored that of Jews in many other countries. Jewish communities have risen and fallen all over the World. Jews have lived in  many countries and prospered there with some falling victim to assimilation, with others coming from other countries to replenish the community. It is only their religion that keeps them Jews wherever they go.

Bibliography

Shapiro, Sidney. Jews In Old China. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2001.

World Jewish Congress. “World Jewish Communities”. N.d.  http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/communities/comm_reg_asia.html

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