[SeekAndFind]

[SeekAndFind]

Kaifeng's last synagogue, destroyed in an 1860 flood, stood at "Teaching the Torah Lane," now an alley of courtyard houses.

The first Jewish merchants arrived when Kaifeng was in its heyday as the Song dynasty capital. They married the local women and rose to become mandarins and military officials. Over the centuries they blended in ethnically and were forgotten by the world until 1605, when a Jewish scholar from Kaifeng, Ai Tien, met Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in Beijing. The missionary then spread the news that Jews had been living in China for centuries.

The Kaifeng Jewish population is thought to have peaked at around 5,000, but by the early 1900s, none could read Hebrew and the community's Torah scrolls were sold to collectors. Jews were called "the Muslims with the blue caps," referring to the color of the yarmulkes some still wore.

[Signalman]

Two Chinese Jews walk into a bar...

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Jews of Kaifeng, late 19th or early 20th century

Bird's-eye view of the synagogue of Kaifeng

Kaifeng Jews reading the Torah

[Venturer]

The Chinese seem to be having a hell of a time with religion.

Firt the Pope doesn’t recognise their Bishops and now the Jews don’t recognise their Jewish Bona Fides.

[chuckee]

Chinese Jews? Has anyone ever seen one. Sounds like the sighting of Bigfoot.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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Very interesting from a historical perspective. But Rabbi Freundlich is correct

"They may stem from Jewish ancestry, but they aren't Jewish," says Rabbi Shimon Freundlich, who runs the orthodox Chabad House in Beijing. "There hasn't been a Jewish

and

The handful of Kaifengers who go to Israel are sometimes floored to discover they need to go through a rabbi-certified conversion to be accepted as Jews, while the ones staying home squabble over which of them are really Jewish.

should be glad they're accepted as immigrants to Israel. I presume they would have stayed home if they didn't prefer Israel.

And for those who stay home

many in Kaifeng turn to Timothy Lerner, who calls himself a "messianic Jew"—meaning he was born Jewish but believes in Christ as the Messiah—to learn Hebrew and Jewish customs. Mr. Lerner acknowledges that his visa was revoked by the Chinese government in 2006 for evangelizing, but says he doesn't try to convince anyone to follow his religious beliefs. He says he set up the "Kaifeng Israel School" to help Kaifeng Jews "learn the Jewish lifestyle" and move to Israel, where about a dozen of them have taken up residence, thanks largely to funds from Shavei Israel, an Israeli group.

Others in the Jewish community are suspicious. Shi Lei, one of the first Kaifeng Jews to study in Israel, blames Mr. Lerner for "creating factions" in the tiny community with his school, though Mr. Lerner says Mr. Shi misunderstands his efforts.

they shouldn't be surprised if, as Christians, they're not allowed to make aliyah.

[Sherman Logan]

Kaifeng Jews trace their heritage through their father, as Chinese traditionally do, while orthodox Jews define Judaism as passing through the mother.

It is only fair to point out that in biblical times the Jews were patrilineal. Otherwise half the kings of Israel and Judah would not have been Jews, as their mothers were foreign.

[GraceG]

There is some interesting Jewish influences in Japan as well concerning certain traditions and customs in certain areas.

Either parallel development or some Jews made it6 to ancient Japan and influenced things there.