Jews in China
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Template:Clean Template:Jew Jews in China are first believed to have arrived during the Tang Dynasty (7-10 cent. CE) or earlier, in small groups. The most prominent were the Kaifeng Jews, who established themselves in the city of Kaifeng, Henan province. In the 20th century, many Jews arrived in Hong Kong and Shanghai during those cities' periods of economic expansion in the first decades of the century, as well as for the purpose of seeking refuge from the Nazi-led Holocaust in Western Europe. Shanghai was particularly notable for its volume of Jewish refugees, most of whom left after the war, the rest relocating prior to or immediately after the establishment of the People's Republic. Today, Judaism in China is functionally extinct. However, some descendants of Chinese Jews may still live in the Chinese population. Morever, many Chinese as well as Jews around the world, are beginning to revive their interest in this heritage. Additionally, two of the most well-known international immigrants in the history of the PRC, Israel Epstein and Sidney Shapiro, were Jewish. Also, the study of Judaism and Jews in China as an academic subject began to blossom in the late 20th century, alongside the study of religion generally.
They have historically been divided into several populations:.
- It has been asserted by some that the Jews that have historically resided in various places in China originated with the Lost Ten Tribes of the exiled ancient Kingdom of Israel who relocated to the areas of present-day China. Traces of some ancient Jewish rituals have been observed in some places.
- One group of particular note, the most well-documented and well-known throughout the world, were the Kaifeng Jews, who lived in Kaifeng (Henan province), and immigrated there during the Song dynasty (11th century CE).
- After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several thousand Russian Jews moved to Harbin in northern China (former Manchuria).
- During Shanghai's period as a trading center in the early 20th century, Jews from many Western nations resided and worked there.
- Another wave of 25,000 Jews, from Germany immigrated to Shanghai in the 1930s. Shanghai at the time was an open city and did not have restrictions on immigration. After Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1941, these Jews were detained by the Japanese in few concentration camps in Hongkou District in northeastern Shanghai. The total number of Jews entering Shanghai during this period equaled the number of Jews fleeing to Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa combined. Many of the Jews in China later returned to found modern Israel.
After World War II and the establishment of the Communist regime in 1949, most of these Jews immigrated to Israel or the West, although a few remained. It should be noted that one of the most prominent non-Chinese to have lived in China from the establishment of the People's Republic of China to the contemporary period, Sidney Shapiro, an American emigre, is of Jewish descent.
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History
First modern record
Sources indicate that Jews in China were often mistaken for Muslims by other Chinese, most likely as a result of similar pracitces and customs. The first recorded written Chinese mention of Jews uses the term Zhu-hu, or Zhu-hu-du (perhaps from Hebrew Yehudim, "Jews") found in the Annals of the Yuan Dynasty in 1329 and 1354. The text spoke of the reinforcement of a tax on levied on "dissenters" and of a government decree that the Jews come en-masse to Beijing, the capital.
However, the earliest recorded information seems to have originated much earlier than that, outside China. The writings of Ibn Zeyd al Hassan, a 9th century Arabian traveler, states that Jews were one of the sects massacred at Khanfu. It is apparently recorded that by the 8th century, Jews had already become large enough in number that the imperial regime appointed a government position to administer or monitor the population.
Noted Italian traveler Marco Polo, visiting China in the late 13th century, indicated the prominence of Jews. Likewise Ibn Batuta, an Arabian envoy to the Mongol Yuan regime.
The first modern Western record of Jews residing in China is found in the records of the seventeenth century Jesuit missionaries in Beijing.
The prominent Jesuit Matteo Ricci received a visit from a young Jewish Chinese named Ngai in 1605, who explained that the community he belonged to was monotheistic, or believing in only one God. It is recorded that when he saw a Christian image of Mary with the child Jesus, he took it to be a picture of Rebecca with Esau or Jacob, figures from Hebrew Scripture. Ngai declared that he had come from Kaifeng, and stated that this was the site of a large Jewish population.
Ricci sent an ethnic Chinese Jesuit to visit Kaifeng; later, other Jesuits (mostly European) also visited the city. It was later discovered that the Jewish community had a synagogue (Libai si), which was constructed facing the east, and housed a great number of written materials and books.
Origins
It has been asserted in oral tradition that the first Jews immigrated to China through Persia following the Roman Titus's capture of Jerusalem in 76 CE, during the Han dynasty. A European researcher, writing in 1900, hypothesized that Jews came to China from India by a sea route during the Song dynasty between 960 and 1126.
Three tablets with inscriptions found at Kaifeng bear some historical suggestions. The oldest, dating from 1489, commemorates the reconstruction of a synagogue (bearing the name Qingzhen si, a term often used for mosques in Chinese), and states that 70 Jewish families entered China during the Song period (10-13th centuries). The second table, dated 1512 (found in the synagogue Xuanzhang Daojing Si), was allegedly taken to China during the Han dynasty (3-5th cent. CE). The third is dated 1663 and commemorates the rebuilding of the Qingzhen si synagogue and states that Judaism came to China from India during the Zhou dynasty (690 CE - 705 CE).
One Catholic researcher of the early 20th century showed, that Ricci's manuscripts indicate that there were only approximately ten or twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng in the late 16–early 17th century, and that they had reportedly resided there for five or six hundred years. It was also stated in the manuscripts that there was a greater number of Jews in Hangzhou. This could be taken to suggest that the Jews did indeed arrive during the Song, based on the timeframe indicated, and in fact the dynasty's capital was Hangzhou.
19th century
During the Taiping rebellion of the 1850s, the Jews of Kaifeng apparently suffered a great deal and were dispersed. Following this dislocation, they returned to Kaifeng, yet continued to be small in number and to face hardships, as is recorded in the early 20th century.
20th century
Contemporaneous sources estimated the Jewish population in China in 1940 -- including Manchukuo -- at 36,000.
Jewish life in Shanghai had really taken of with the arrival of the British. Sephardic Jews from the Middle East came as traders via India and Hong Kong and established some of the leading trading companies. Later came Jewish refugees from Russia (and later the Soviet Union).
Shanghai was an important safe-haven for Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, since it was the only place in the world where one didn't need a visa. However, it was not easy to get there. The Japanese, who controlled the city, preferred in effect to look the other way. Some corrupt officials however, also exploited the plight of the Jews. By 1941, over 20.000 European Jews had found shelter there.
The Nazis asked the Japanese to cooperate in a scheme to exterminate the Jewish refugees, but some Japanese officers made these plans known to the rich Sephardic Jews which in turn used their influence with the Japanese to stop these plans.
Name
Jews in China have called themselves Youtai people (Template:Zh-cp) in Mandarin Chinese -- the predominant contemporary term for Jews in Chinese today. It has been recorded that the Jews in China called themselves adherents of Diao jin jiao (扚筋教??), loosely, "the religion which removes the sinew," referring to the Jewish prohibition against eating sinew (from Genesis 32:32). Jewish dietary law would have most likely caused Jewish communities to stand out from the surrounding mainstream Chinese population, as Chinese culture is typically very free in the range of items it deems suitable for food. They have also been called the blue-hat Hui people (Template:Zh-cp), in contrast to the common Hui people who wear white hats.
See also
External links
- http://www.gluckman.com/index.htm
- Jews of china.org (http://www.jewsofchina.org)
- The Sino-Judaic Institute: The Jews of Kaifeng (http://www.sino-judaic.org/kaifeng.html)
- Chinese Jews - History of Jewish Community in China (http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Jews.html)
- Jews of China (http://www.haruth.com/JewsChina.html)
- China's historic Jews, synagogue honored in 'Silk Road' exhibit (http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/7136/format/html/displaystory.html)
- Chinese Jews (http://jewishwebindex.com/chinese_jews.htm)
- http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/7136/format/html/displaystory.htm
- http://servercc.oakton.edu/~friend/review.htm
- http://www.haruth.com/JewsChina1907.html
- http://www.come-and-hear.com/clips/clp_1.html
- The Aitian Program for Jewish Understanding in China (http://www.aitian.org)