Jews and Judaism in China have had a long history arrived during the mid Han Dynasty, or even as early as 231 BCE during the trade caravans and spice trade. Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century CE, Relatively isolated communities developed through the Tang and Song Dynasties (7-12th cent. CE) all the way through the Qing Dynasty (19th cent.), most notably in the Kaifeng Jews (the term “Chinese Jews” is often used in a restricted sense to refer to these communities).
By the time of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, few if any native Chinese Jews were known to have maintained the practice of their religion and culture. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, however, some international Jewish groups have helped Chinese Jews rediscover their heritage. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigrants from around the world arrived with Western commercial influences, particularly in the commercial centers of Shanghai and Hong Kong, which was for a time a British colony. Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees escaping from the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Holocaust in Europe were to find sanctuary in China in successive decades.
China’s Jewish communities have been ethnically diverse ranging from the Jews of Kaifeng and other places during the history of Imperial China, who, it is reported, came to be more or less totally assimilated into Chinese culture, to 19th and 20th century Baghdadis, to Indians, to Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.
The presence of a community of Jewish immigrants in China is consistent with the history of the Jewish people during the first and second millennia CE, which saw them disperse and settle throughout the Eurasian landmass, with an especial concentration throughout central Asia. By the ninth century, ibn Khordadbeh noted the travels of Jewish merchants called Radhanites, whose trade took them to China via The Silk Road through Central Asia and India.
During the period of international opening and quasi-colonialism, the first group to settle in China were Jews who arrived in China under British protection following the First Opium War. Many of these Jews were of Indian or Iraqi origin, due to British colonialism in these regions. The second community came in the first decades of the 20th century when many Jews arrived in Hong Kong and Shanghai during those cities’ periods of economic expansion.
Many more arrived as refugees from the Russian Revolution of 1917. A surge of Jews and Jewish families was to arrive in the late 1930s and 1940s, for the purpose of seeking refuge from the Holocaust in Europe and were predominantly of European origin. Shanghai was 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 of China.
Over the centuries, the Kaifeng community came to be virtually indistinguishable from the Chinese population and is not recognized by the Chinese government as a separate ethnic minority. This is as a result of having adopted many Han Chinese customs including patrilineal descent, as well as extensive intermarriage with the local population. Since their religious practices are functionally extinct, they are not eligible for expedited immigration to Israel under the Law of Return unless they explicitly convert.
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 well-known group was the Kaifeng Jews, who are purported to have traveled from Persia to India during the mid-Han Dynasty and later migrated from the Muslim-inhabited regions of northwestern China (modern day Gansu province) to Henan province during the early Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). A massacre of Jews in Canton, China occurred during the Chinese Tang Dynasty in the 9th century
It has been asserted in oral tradition that the first Jews immigrated to China through Persia following the Roman Emperor Titus’s capture of Jerusalem in 76 CE, during the Han Dynasty.Writing in 1900, Father Joseph Brucker hypothesized that Jews came to China from India by a sea route during the Song dynasty between 960 and 1126.
Three steles with inscriptions found at Kaifeng bear some historical suggestions. The oldest, dating from 1489, commemorates the construction of a synagogue (1163) (bearing the name Qīngzhēn Sì, a term often used for mosque in Chinese), states the Jews entered China from India in the Later Han Dynasty (25–220 CE), the Jews’ 70 Chinese surnames, their audience with an “un-named” Song Dynasty Emperor, and finally lists the transmission of their religion from Abraham down to the prophet Ezra. The second table, dated 1512 (found in the synagogue Xuanzhang Daojing Si) details the Jews’ religious practices. The third is dated 1663 and commemorates the re-rebuilding of the Qingzhen si synagogue and recaps the information from the other two steles.
Two of the stelae refer to a famous tattoo written on the back of Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. The tattoo, which reads jǐn zhōng bào guó (simplified Chinese: traditional Chinese: “Boundless loyalty to the country”), first appeared in a section of the 1489 stele talking about the Jews’ “Boundless loyalty to the country and Prince”. The second appeared in a section of the 1512 stele talking about how Jewish soldiers and officers in the Chinese armies were “Boundlessly loyal to the country.” One source even claims that Israelites served as soldiers in the armies of Yue Fei.
Father Joseph Brucker believed Matteo Ricci’s manuscripts indicate 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 loyal Jews fled south along with the soon-to-be crowned Emperor Gaozong to Hangzhou. In fact, the 1489 stele mentions how the Jews “abandoned Bianliang” (Kaifeng) after the Jingkang Incident.
Names: The contemporary term for Jews in use among Chinese today is Youtairen (Chinese:Yóutài Rén) in Mandarin Chinese. The term Youtai has similar phonetic sound of Jude or Judah, Greek terms for Jew. If translated from Chinese, youtairen literally means Jude people. They may be considered one of the Undistinguished ethnic groups in China. It has been recorded that the Chinese historically called the Jews Tiao jin jiao, loosely, “the religion which removes the sinew,” probably referring to the Jewish dietary prohibition against eating the sciatic nerve (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 (Chinese: Lánmào Húi), in contrast to other populations of Hui, who have identified with hats of other colors. The distinction between Muslim and Jewish Chinese is not, and historically has not been, well recognised by the dominant Han population.
A modern translation of the “Kaifeng Steles” has shown the Jews referred to their synagogue as “The Pure and Truth”. According to an oral tradition dictated by Prof. Xu, Xin, Director of Judaic Studies at Nanjing University, in his book Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, the Kaifeng Jews called Judaism yī cì lè yè jiào lit. the religion of Israel. Yī cì lè yè is a phonetic Chinese translation of “Israel”. Prof. Xu, Xin actually translates this phrase as “Chosen people, endowed by God, and contented with their lives and work”. Sources indicate that Jews in China were often mistaken for Muslims by other Chinese. The first plausible 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 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 but from 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 (Guangzhou) by the rebel Huang Chao. 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.
Famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited China in the late 13th century, described the prominence of Jewish traders in Beijing. Similar references can be found in the writings of 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 west, and housed a number of written materials and books. 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.
Shanghai’s first wave of Jews came in the second half of the 19th century, many being Mizrahi Jews from Iraq. The first Jew who arrived there was Elias David Sassoon, who, about the year 1850, opened a branch in connection with his father’s Bombay house. Since that period Jews have gradually migrated from India to Shanghai, most of them being engaged from Bombay as clerks by the firm of David Sassoon & Co. The community was composed mainly of “Asian,” German, and Russian Jews, though there are a few of Austrian, French, and Italian origin among them. Jews took a considerable part in developing trade in China, and several served on the municipal councils, among them being S. A. Hardoon, partner in the firm of E. D. Sassoon & Co., who had served on the French and English councils at the same time. During the early days of Jewish settlement in Shanghai the trade in opium and Bombay cotton yarn was mainly in Jewish hands.
Jacob Rosenfeld as a doctor for the New Fourth Army between Liu Shaoqi (left) and Chen Yi (right).
Contemporaneous sources estimated the Jewish population in China in 1940, including Manchukuo, at 36,000. Jewish life in Shanghai had really taken off with the arrival of the British. Mizrahi 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). After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several thousand Russian Jews (many of them anti-communists) moved to Harbin in northern China (former Manchuria), alongside Christian Russians. These included the parents of future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
World War II Shanghai ghetto: Another wave of 18,000 Jews, from Germany, Austria, and Poland immigrated to Shanghai in the 1930s. Shanghai at the time was an open city and did not have restrictions on immigration, and some Chinese diplomats such as Ho Feng Shan issued “protective” passports. In 1943, the occupying Japanese army required these 18,000 Jews, formally known as “stateless refugees,” to relocate to a 3/4 square mile area of Shanghai’s Honkew district (today known as Hongkou) where many lived in group homes called “heime.” 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.
Shanghai was an important safe-haven for Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, since it was one of the few places 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 nearly 20,000 European Jews had found shelter there. Notable Chinese Jews during the Second Sino-Japanese War includes doctor Jakob Rosenfeld and Morris Cohen.
Late in the War, Nazi representatives pressured the Japanese army to devise a plan to exterminate Shanghai’s Jewish population, and this pressure eventually became known to the Jewish community’s leadership. However, the Japanese had no intention of further provoking the anger of the Allies after their already notorious invasion of China and a number of other Asian nations, and thus delayed the German request until the War ended.
The relative safety of the Jews during the period, in contrast to the Japanese treatment of Chinese during the war, was linked to an appreciation of Jewish culture and history by the Japanese and to the connections that many Jews had in the United States. Nevertheless, conditions in the Designated Area were unpleasant, particularly during the summer months.
After World War II and the establishment of the PRC in 1949, most of these Jews emigrated to Israel or the West, although a few remained. Two prominent non-Chinese lived in China from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China to the contemporary period: Sidney Shapiro and Israel Epstein, two American emigres, are of Jewish descent. Another Jewish-American, Sidney Rittenberg served as interpreter to many top Chinese officials.
Sara Imas, the Shanghai-born daughter of Shanghai’s Jewish Club president, Leiwi Imas, became the first Jewish-Chinese immigrant to Israel after the two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1992. Leiwi Imas spent his final years in Shanghai until 1962, prior to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Although Sara Imas’s non-Chinese appearance and family background brought her much trouble during the Cultural Revolution when she was accused of being a foreign capitalist and spy, today Sara Imas has returned to Shanghai, working as the Chinese representative of an Israeli diamond company.
An institute of Jewish Studies was established at Nanjing University in 1992. Since the 1990s, the Shanghai municipal government has taken the initiative to preserve historical Western architectures that were constructed during Shanghai’s colonial past. Many formerly Jewish-owned hotels and private residence have been included in the preservation project. In 1997, the Kadoorie-residence-turned Shanghai Children’s Palace, had their spacious front garden largely removed in order to make room for the city’s overpass system under construction. A One Day Tour of the history of Jewish presence in Shanghai can be arranged through the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai or the community-based Shanghai Jewish Center.
21st Century: With the current expansion of trade and globalization, Jews of many ethnicities from multiple regions of the world have settled permanently and temporarily in China’s major cities. Synagogues are found in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong today, serving both international Jews and native Jews. In 2005, the Israeli embassy to China held their Hanukkah celebrations at the Great Wall of China. Today, some descendants of Jews still live in the Han Chinese and Hui population. Some of them, as well as international Jewish communities, are beginning to revive their interest in this heritage. This is especially important in modern China because belonging to any minority group includes a variety of benefits including reduced restrictions on the number of children and easier admission standards to tertiary education.
NOTABLE JEWS OF CHINA
Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen bodyguard of Sun Yat-Sen
Nina Brosh, model (Chinese mother)
Misha Dichter, pianist (Chinese-born)
Israel Epstein, journalist, author
Edmond Fischer, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1992) (Chinese-born; Jewish father)
Silas Aaron Hardoon, real estate tycoon
Ehud Olmert, past prime minister of Israel (parents from Harbin)
Jakob Rosenfeld, doctor and general in the Chinese Liberation Army
Sidney Shapiro, member of the People’s Political Consultative Council
Russell Alexander Goldstein Huang III, Ithaca College’s 1st Jewish/Asian.
Notable Hong Kong Jews
Ellis, Elly, Lawrence,
Michael Kadoorie, businesspeople
Matthew Nathan, Hong Kong governor (1904)