Free Republic

The rooms where ruddy-faced Chinese men and women once assembled to pray in Hebrew and Mandarin are silent. Signs and exhibits that celebrated centuries of Jewish life have disappeared. An ancient well, believed to be the last visible remnant of a long-demolished synagogue, was recently buried under concrete and a pile of earth.. After locking down Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and tearing down church crosses in eastern China, President Xi Jinping’s campaign against unapproved religion and foreign influence has turned to an unlikely adversary: a small group of Jews whose ancestors settled in this now faded imperial city near the...

After the dynasty collapsed, there were no clues as to where it was and it lived on only in legend through writings such as those of 13th century Venetian merchant Marco Polo. If Polo is to be believed, the walls of "the greatest palace that ever was" were covered with gold and silver and the main hall was so large that it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner. "The palace was made of cane supported by 200 silk cords, which could be taken to pieces and transported easily when the emperor moved," he wrote in his travel journal. It...

All three were born in China, in the ancient Jewish community in Kaifeng. They immigrated to Israel some five years ago and recently completed their conversion and naturalization processes. In two weeks, they'll report to the Israel Defense Forces' Induction Center in Tel Hashomer and join the army. Despite their relatively advanced age (all three are 25 years old), they are dreaming of enlisting in the Golani Brigade.

<p>Editor's Note: According to an exhibit at the United States Library of Congress, young Bedouin shepherds, searching for a stray goat in the Judean Desert in 1947, entered a long-untouched cave and found scrolls in a jar and under debris on the floor. That initial discovery by the Bedouins began a search that lasted nearly a decade, eventually producing thousands of scroll fragments from 11 caves.</p>

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been guarded for 60 years like crown jewels, the possessions of a scholarly elite who were challenged only in the past decade to bring the scrolls to the public. Now, there is accumulating and compelling evidence that these supposedly ancient texts are medieval at best and have a connection with China. That connection is raising questions about the manuscripts' true dating, origin and possible authenticity. ........ In 1991, I wrote articles for the Washington Post and Boston Herald about the idea that a number of previously undeciphered markings in the margins of two Dead Sea...

Challenging History: The Dead Sea Scrolls By: Neil Altman, For The Bulletin 09/24/2007 Editor's Note: According to an exhibit at the United States Library of Congress, young Bedouin shepherds, searching for a stray goat in the Judean Desert in 1947, entered a long-untouched cave and found scrolls in a jar and under debris on the floor. That initial discovery by the Bedouins began a search that lasted nearly a decade, eventually producing thousands of scroll fragments from 11 caves. During those same years, archaeologists tried to identify the people who deposited the scrolls. They found the Qumran ruin, a...

This remarkable record of the fact that Christianity flourished in medieval China is a huge stone about ten feet high. Carven dragons and a cross adorn its summit, and its main shaft is completely covered with some two thousand Chinese characters. It stands now in the Peilin or "Forest of Tablets" in Sian-fu, this Peilin being a great hall specially devoted to the preservation of old historic tablets. Up to a few years ago the ancient stone stood with other unvalued monuments in the grounds of a Buddhist monastery, exposed to all the assault of the elements. Only European...

It is well known that "jiaozi," world's earliest paper money, originated in China some 800 years ago. But latest research indicate that Jews used to assist ancient China in doing this might surprise most people. "Jiaozi," also named "jiaochao," appeared in China in 1154 during the reign of the Jin regime (1115-1234). It was believed in the past that Jin regime hired coining workers of Song (960-1279), Jin's preceding dynasty, to make the paper notes. But Qiu Shiyu, researcher of the Harbin Academy of Sciences and expert of Jin history, concluded that Jews used to take part in the work...

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As Jews around the world observe the weeklong festival of Passover, a solitary pair in Shanghai are believed to be all that's left of a tide of Jewish immigrants that once filled the bustling Chinese city. The streets of Shanghai teemed with 20,000 or more European Jews in the first half of the 20th century, many fleeing persecution in Russia or Nazi Germany. Sara Imas and her son, Jerry, the last remnants of that era, both live in Shanghai today with their Chinese spouses. But only Sara is celebrating Passover this year -- 28-year-old Jerry is not...

CHRISTIANS AMONG MONGOL INVADERS Seven hundred years ago, Japan faced the threat of imminent invasion by the Mongol, hordes of Kublai Khan. The entire nation was in a state of alarm and many Japanese felt there was no alternative but to surrender to the invaders . This was to be the most serious threat of aggression from abroad that Japan was to experience until World War II of the twentieth century. This attempted invasion of Japan by Mongol Invaders occurred in 1274 and again in 1281. The nomadic Mongol people, originated in the steppe lands, north of China, now called...

We often hear Christians talking about certain theological ideas and ministry models as “Western.” The implication is that, these ideas and models came from the West, and the church in Asia must take a critical look to see if they are suitable for use in ministry in Asia. What exactly does the word “Western” mean? And what did the Chinese church import from the West? WHAT IS “WESTERN”? The Gospel of Jesus Christ spread in several directions in the first and second centuries. The Christian faith went to India, according to tradition, by the Apostle Thomas. Christians also took their...

One day in a spring, an elderly man walked alone on a stone road lined by young willows in Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province. At the end of the road was a museum that few people have heard of. A Chinese theology professor says the first Christmas is depicted in the stone relief from the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220). In the picture above a woman and a man are sitting around what looks like a manger, with allegedly "the three wise men" approaching from the left side, holding gifts, "the shepherd" following them, and "the assassins" queued...

Aerial photography sheds light on Kublai Khan's capital BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Aerial photography has helped shed new light on the capital of Kublai Khan's empire, also known as Xuanadu in Marco Polo's Travel Notes. The description of the metropolis Shangdu (Xuanadu) by Marco Polo some 700 years ago has somewhat been confirmed by aerial photography, Yang Lin, director of the center of remote sensing and aerial photography of China's National Museum, told Xinhua on Saturday. "We can see the spectacular city with its scale and the density of buildings," Yang said. The ruins have been overgrown with...

Part of Shanghai's Jewish history is under threat from bulldozers. In the 1930s, Shanghai was the only place in the world to offer visa-free sanctuary to Jews fleeing Nazism — 20,000 ended up in Shanghai. In 1943, the Japanese restricted them to a one-square-mile area, which became known as Little Vienna. A pianist and a violinist used to play popular music for customers at the White Horse Inn, or Das Weisse Rossl. The waitresses wore dirndls — traditional Bavarian outfits — and the menu featured Wiener schnitzel. But the White Horse wasn't in Austria or Germany, it was in wartime...

It is one of those mornings in Beijing when you can’t tell whether it’s likely to pour or whether the sun is simply behind a blanket of smog. I stuff a rain jacket into the basket of my new $40 bicycle and, from my hotel, pedal west to the 10-level Wangfujing Bookstore on Wangfujing Street. Along a cramped aisle of the business section, heads are bent over books whose cover art includes stars of David, the word “Talmud” in gilded letters and images of Moses embracing the Ten Commandments. I ask a small, fortyish woman if she can translate one...

Over the past couple of decades the Chinese have become more interested in the Jews. Of late the Chinese regime has been bringing Jewish scholars and theologians to the People’s Republic to discuss Torah, Talmud, Mishnah and even some of the more mystical tracts.Why?It’s no surprise that China-Israel trade is increasing, nor that the China-Israel relationship has grown and deepened. Israel may well be the most dynamic country in the world, bursting at the seams with high-tech startups, dazzling inventions–especially in military and medical technologies–and highly educated and talented people.But I’m not talking about Israel here. This is about...

KAIFENG, China—Zhang Xinwang, a moon-faced Chinese man with a spiky beard, calls himself "Moishe." "So do you think I look Jewish?" he asks. For much of the past millennium, Jews in Kaifeng— descendants of merchants who arrived here from Persia, probably around the 11th century—have been struggling with an existential question: What does it mean to be Jewish? 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. The question has...

A Spark of Hope in Trying Times In these trying times for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, it is especially important to remember that not all is dark and gloomy. Just last week, a very special ceremony took place in Jerusalem, one that underlines both the power of Jewish memory as well as G-d’s unfolding plan to restore His people to their Land. For the first time, descendants of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, got married under a wedding canopy in Jerusalem. With the help of Shavei Israel, the organization that I head, Shlomo and Dina...

THROUGH a locked door in the coal-darkened boiler room of No. 1 Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Kaifeng, there’s a well lined with Ming Dynasty bricks. It’s just a few yards deep and still holds water. Guo Yan, 29, an eager, bespectacled native of this Chinese city on the flood plains of the Yellow River about 600 miles south of Beijing, led me to it one recent Friday afternoon, past the doormen accustomed to her visits. The well is all that’s left of the Temple of Purity and Truth, a synagogue that once stood on the site. The heritage...

Explorer Marco Polo traveled from Venice to China in the year 1260 AD, returning a few years later with tales of black stones that heated rooms (coal), clothing laced with gold, and the presence of prosperous Jews in Beijing. These outlandish claims earned him the nickname "man of a million lies." Two hundred years later Jesuit missionaries confirmed, at least, the presence of Jews in Beijing. Jesuit Matthew Ricci, in 1605, encountered a young Chinese man, Ai T’ien. In stark contrast to the rest of the Chinese population, Ai T'ien claimed to worship a single God. Further questioning (after Ai...