+ All Categories
Home > Documents > JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points...

JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points...

Date post: 05-Apr-2018
Category:
Upload: lamtruc
View: 224 times
Download: 1 times
Share this document with a friend
12
A BIG WEEKEND WITH FORMER SHANGHAI REFUGEES by Bev Friend (continued on page 4) (continued on page 6) Vol. 28 No. 3 A Publication of the Sino-Judaic Institute November 2013 (continued on page 4) TIME TO STOP PROJECTING OUR FANTASIES ONTO KAIFENG JEWS by Barnaby Yeh There exists a story out there which describes a Jewish traveler arriving in China. As fate would have it, he encountered the Jewish community of Kaifeng. Starving for kosher food, he joined them for a Shabbat meal. During the meal, he noticed that the locals were serving meat that was cooked in milk. Shocked, he prodded one of the locals, and (presumably in a common tongue) asked, “Do you not know that we are forbidden from cooking meat and dairy together?” “It is nothing to worry about,” assured the Kaifeng Jew, “for the prohibition in the Torah is only against cooking a calf in its mother’s milk. We have kept rigorous records of which cow bore which calf and rest assured that violating this serious law is an impossibility.” Bemused at this assertion, the traveler rejoined, “But it is said that we are not to cook or even serve meat and milk together at all, right in the Talmud-” Upon hearing that last word, the Chinese hosts exploded in indignation. “Who is greater – Moses or the Talmud?!” If this story sounds outlandish to you, then you would be cor- rect. After all, the very notion of a Chinese community serving dairy at all, let alone together with meat, is ridiculous to all who have a basic acquaintance with Chinese culture and cui- sine (or anyone who has been to a Chinese restaurant!). Indeed, in a culture filled with lactose-intolerant individuals, this story simply could not have happened. It is much more likely that a Karaite or someone with an anti-Talmudic polemic had con- cocted this story, using Kaifeng as a backdrop because it was “exotic” and too far-flung for anyone to check its veracity. Research into the Jewish community of Kaifeng is an ongoing process, and new revelations are constantly surfacing (such as Jordan Paper’s 2012 publication The Theology of the Chinese Jews, which details the syncretistic ideology of the Jewish com- munity with Daoism and Confucianism). As such, each revela- tion makes the overall picture of this almost-lost community more complete. But many gaps still remain, leading to ram- pant speculation and conjecture. As a result, many misconcep- tions and falsehoods still hold mythic status in people’s under- standing of the community. The vignette above was just one After giving a brief overview of the his- tory of Jewish World War II refu- gees sheltered in Shanghai, keynote speaker Professor Steve Hochstadt, author of Exodus to Shanghai, stories of escape from the third Reich, made a very perceptive point. Looking out at an audience of about 150 attend- ing the Spungen Family Foundation’s Shanghai Memory Din- ner Event (Chicago, Aug 15) he noted not only the importance of keeping this history alive, but also that the history is not coming from the original refugees but from their now adult children. Sixteen of them sat at our individual tables, relating what they could recall from their own memories and the tales told by their parents. It is an important, fascinating, and sadly incomplete view. Hochstadt and these survivors shared memories, and the next day at the follow-up luncheon held in the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, IL, we discovered another side of the coin from another offspring: Manli Ho, daughter of diplomat and hu- manitarian Dr. Ho Feng Shan who saved thousands of Aus- trian Jews by granting them Shanghai entry visas in his role as China’s Counsel General in Vienna. A reporter, Manli…for the past 15 years has been uncovering and documenting his work. Dr. Ho received no recognition during his lifetime, but this was rectified in 2000 when Israel awarded him the title Righteousness Among Nations, posthumously at Yad Vashem. At both Foundation events, a long table held a display of Ho- locaust memorabilia from Danny Spungen’s considerable col- lection, as well as copies of Hockstadt’s book and several of the new limited edition series of Shanghai Memory Silver and Gold Medals to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the es- Steve Hochstadt & Manli Ho
Transcript
Page 1: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

A BIG WEEKEND WITHFORMER SHANGHAI REFUGEES

by Bev Friend

(continued on page 4) (continued on page 6)

Vol. 28 No. 3 A Publication of the Sino-Judaic InstituteNovember 2013

(continued on page 4)

TIME TO STOP PROJECTING OURFANTASIES ONTO KAIFENG JEWS

by Barnaby Yeh

There exists a story out there which describes a Jewish travelerarriving in China. As fate would have it, he encountered theJewish community of Kaifeng. Starving for kosher food, he joinedthem for a Shabbat meal. During the meal, he noticed that thelocals were serving meat that was cooked in milk. Shocked, heprodded one of the locals, and (presumably in a commontongue) asked, “Do you not know that we are forbidden fromcooking meat and dairy together?”

“It is nothing to worry about,” assured the Kaifeng Jew, “forthe prohibition in the Torah is only against cooking a calf in itsmother’s milk. We have kept rigorous records of which cowbore which calf and rest assured that violating this serious lawis an impossibility.”

Bemused at this assertion, the traveler rejoined, “But it is saidthat we are not to cook or even serve meat and milk together atall, right in the Talmud-”

Upon hearing that last word, the Chinese hosts exploded inindignation. “Who is greater – Moses or the Talmud?!”

If this story sounds outlandish to you, then you would be cor-rect. After all, the very notion of a Chinese community servingdairy at all, let alone together with meat, is ridiculous to allwho have a basic acquaintance with Chinese culture and cui-sine (or anyone who has been to a Chinese restaurant!). Indeed,in a culture filled with lactose-intolerant individuals, this storysimply could not have happened. It is much more likely that aKaraite or someone with an anti-Talmudic polemic had con-cocted this story, using Kaifeng as a backdrop because it was“exotic” and too far-flung for anyone to check its veracity.

Research into the Jewish community of Kaifeng is an ongoingprocess, and new revelations are constantly surfacing (such asJordan Paper’s 2012 publication The Theology of the ChineseJews, which details the syncretistic ideology of the Jewish com-munity with Daoism and Confucianism). As such, each revela-tion makes the overall picture of this almost-lost communitymore complete. But many gaps still remain, leading to ram-pant speculation and conjecture. As a result, many misconcep-tions and falsehoods still hold mythic status in people’s under-standing of the community. The vignette above was just one

After giving a briefoverview of the his-tory of JewishWorld War II refu-gees sheltered inShanghai, keynotespeaker ProfessorSteve Hochstadt,author of Exodus toShanghai, stories ofescape from thethird Reich, madea very perceptivepoint. Looking outat an audience ofabout 150 attend-ing the Spungen Family Foundation’s Shanghai Memory Din-ner Event (Chicago, Aug 15) he noted not only the importanceof keeping this history alive, but also that the history is notcoming from the original refugees but from their now adultchildren. Sixteen of them sat at our individual tables, relatingwhat they could recall from their own memories and the talestold by their parents. It is an important, fascinating, and sadlyincomplete view.

Hochstadt and these survivors shared memories, and the nextday at the follow-up luncheon held in the Holocaust Museumin Skokie, IL, we discovered another side of the coin fromanother offspring: Manli Ho, daughter of diplomat and hu-manitarian Dr. Ho Feng Shan who saved thousands of Aus-trian Jews by granting them Shanghai entry visas in his role asChina’s Counsel General in Vienna. A reporter, Manli…forthe past 15 years has been uncovering and documenting hiswork. Dr. Ho received no recognition during his lifetime, butthis was rectified in 2000 when Israel awarded him the titleRighteousness Among Nations, posthumously at Yad Vashem.

At both Foundation events, a long table held a display of Ho-locaust memorabilia from Danny Spungen’s considerable col-lection, as well as copies of Hockstadt’s book and several ofthe new limited edition series of Shanghai Memory Silver andGold Medals to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the es-

Steve Hochstadt & Manli Ho

1212121212 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE

The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, non-profit, and non-political organization,founded on June 27, 1985, in Palo Alto, California, by an international group of scholars and laypersons, to promote friendship and understanding between the Chinese and Jewish peoples and toencourage and develop their cooperation in matters of mutual historical and cultural interest. Itsobjectives are:

1) The study of the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng and assisting its descendents as appropriate.

2) The study of Jewish life in Shanghai, Harbin, Tianjin and elsewhere in the 19th and 20th centuries.

3) The support of Jewish studies programs in China.

4) The study of cultural intersections between Chinese and Jews, for example adoptions, literature, diasporas, etc.

5) The study of Sino-Israeli relations.

6) To cooperate with other groups whose interests lie in Sinitic and Judaic matters.

Membership in the Institute is open and we cordially invite you to join in supporting our endeavor.Our annual dues structure is as follows:

Benefactor ......................................... $1,000 Patron ..................................................... 500 Corporate Patron .................................... 500 Corporate Sponsor ........................250 to 499 Corporate Member .......................250 to 499 Sponsor .................................................. 100 Regular Member ....................................... 50 Libraries .................................................... 50 Academic ................................................. 30 Senior Citizens .......................................... 25

Students .................................................... 25

I wish to become a member of the Sino-Judaic Institute and receive Points East three times a year. Enclosed ismy check for $ .

PLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINT

Name:

Address:

Home Phone: Work Phone:

Fax: E-Mail:

Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,1101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 62650

Page 2: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

22222 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

FROM THE EDITOR

FINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLE

SJI members interested in receiving acopy of the annual financial report shouldsend a self-addressed envelope to: SteveHochstadt, Treasurer of the Sino-JudaicInstitute, Illinois College, 1101 W Col-lege Ave., Jacksonville IL 62650.

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastAnson Laytner, Publisher

Points East is published by the Sino-JudaicInstitute, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization.The opinions and views expressed by thecontributors and editor are their own and donot necessarily express the viewpoints andpositions of the Sino-Judaic Institute.

Letters to the Editor and articles for Points Eastmay be sent to:

Preferred Form:Preferred Form:Preferred Form:Preferred Form:Preferred Form:e-mai l :[email protected] l :[email protected] l :[email protected] l :[email protected] l :[email protected]

or to: Rabbi Anson Laytner1823 East Prospect St.Seattle, WA 98112-3307

Points East is published three times a year, inMarch, July and November. Deadlines forsubmitting material to be included in theseissues are January 15th, May 15th andSeptember 15th.

SJI MEMBERSHIP

Country Total

United States 179China 19Israel 16Canada 14England 4Australia 2Germany 3Japan 2South Africa 2Indonesia 1Switzerland 1Taiwan 1

TOTAL:TOTAL:TOTAL:TOTAL:TOTAL: 257 257 257 257 257

Sino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic Institutec/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzer34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue

Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.

SJI OfficersSJI OfficersSJI OfficersSJI OfficersSJI OfficersArnie Belzer, PresidentVera Schwarcz, Vice-PresidentSteve Hochstadt, TreasurerOndi Lingenfelter, SecretaryAnson Laytner, Immediate Past President Managing BoardManaging BoardManaging BoardManaging BoardManaging BoardDenise Yeh Bresler, Joel Epstein, Bev Friend,Seth Garz, Mary-Anne Graham, Ron Kaye, DanaLeventhal, Den Leventhal, David Marshall, JimMichaelson, Art Rosen, Eric Rothberg, MarvinTokayer, Tibi Weisz, Albert Yee, Cynthia Zeiden International Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardWendy Abraham, Jan Berris, Mark Cohen, IreneEber, Avrum Ehrlich, Fu Youde, JonathanGoldstein, Jerry Gotel, Judy Green, Len Hew,Tess Johnston, Donald Leslie, Michael Li,Maisie Meyer, Mark Michaelson, SonjaMuehlberger, Gustavo Perednik, Andrew Plaks,Pan Guang, Shi Lei, Yitzhak Shichor, ElyseSilverberg, Josh Stampfer, Shalom Wald, XiaoXian, Xu Xin, Zhang Qianhong, David Zweig Past PresidentsPast PresidentsPast PresidentsPast PresidentsPast PresidentsAl Dien, Leo Gabow

In Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lMarshall Denenberg, Leo Gabow, Phyllis Horal,Teddy Kaufman, Rena Krasno, Michael Pollak,Louis Schwartz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Featured Article:Featured Article:Featured Article:Featured Article:Featured Article:

Time to Stop Projecting Our

Fantasies onto Kaifeng Jews ...... 1

A Big Weekend with Former

Shanghai Refugees ......................

From the EditorFrom the EditorFrom the EditorFrom the EditorFrom the Editor .................................................................................................................................. 2

In the FieldIn the FieldIn the FieldIn the FieldIn the Field ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3

To the EditorTo the EditorTo the EditorTo the EditorTo the Editor ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

Ar t ic les :Ar t i c les :Ar t i c les :Ar t i c les :Ar t i c les :

China Produces Jewish

Commemorative Medals ............ 5

Bearing Witness Ever More .............. 6

From Maidenhead to China ............. 6

JTA Archive: China Offered Jews

a State in ‘28 .............................. 7

Picture This ..................................... 7

Seeking Lost Love in Shanghai .......... 7

Book NookBook NookBook NookBook NookBook Nook .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Few articles have inspired as much con-troversy as our reprinting Ms. Shaland’sarticle on her recent visit to Kaifeng [PE28:2].

A number of readers took me to task forallowing obvious misinformation aboutthe Kaifeng Jews to continue to be dis-seminated. At the very least, it was sug-gested, I exercise editorial powers eitherto excise the offending information orclearly note that it is wrong.

Although the Jewish period of atonementhas passed, the gates of repentance arenever closed, so let me ask forgivenessfrom you for this error in judgment andallow me to explain:

On the one hand, I like to publish allsorts of accounts of visits to Kaifeng; onthe other hand, I also recognized that Ms.Shaland was being given misinformationeither knowingly or unknowingly by herChinese Jewish hosts. I assumed, rightlyor wrongly, that it was important for ourreaders to hear what some Chinese Jewsare currently saying about their past andthat most of our readers could distinguishbetween accurate and inaccurate informa-tion on their own.

(Although Ms. Shaland’s piece was a well-written typical tourist account, I found itfascinating as a story of how some KaifengJews Kaifeng are using Jewish tourism asa means of economic advancement—andthere’s nothing wrong with that. But onehas to wonder about their knowledge leveland motivation. Do they simply not knowwhat information is true and accurate ordo they choose to create stories to suittheir own purposes, or is it something elseagain? Time will tell.)

Still, new readers might not be knowl-edgeable enough to distinguish fact fromfiction and thus could be misled by thisbad information. Furthermore, as a repu-table journal, we have an obligation tobe accurate and to ensure, to the best ofour ability, that the information wepresent is information. Accordingly, fromnow on, I will do my best to delineatetruth from fallacy in all future articles.

Anson Laytner

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 11 11 11 11 11

2000). In the last decade, however, re-search has benefitted greatly from newChinese language sources about this sub-ject—much of it collected in PeterKupfer’s edited volume, Youtai: Presenceand Perception of Jews and Judaism inChina (Peter Lang, 2008), a work thatdoes not appear in Paper’s bibliography.Yet even with its bibliographic limita-tions, Jordan Paper’s book will shed newlight on Jewish life and thought for schol-ars and general readers alike. I myself(having researched Jewish and Chinesecultural comparisons) plan to use this textin a new undergraduate seminar on thehistory of the Jewish experience in China.

What is truly novel in Paper’s study isthe reconsideration of Christian sourcesabout the Chinese Jews. Starting with theJesuits, missionaries have been carefullyrecording the religious practices of KaifengJewry, but clearly with a bias. BishopCharles William White (an early 20thcentury Canadian Protestant) continuedthis tradition of scholarship—but again,with an eye toward how the Judaism ofKaifeng could be made to accommodateChristian ideas. Jordan Paper has re-trans-lated many of the sources were collectedby Christian scholars, with a new em-phasis upon the authentic Jewishness ofthe Kaifeng diaspora. He mines newmeaning from the 3 communal steleserected in Kaifeng in 1489, 1663 and1679. He also probes more deeply thanprevious scholars the 24 horizontal tab-lets and 17 pairs of vertical plaques thatwere present in the Kaifeng synagogue.Although this may not seem like volu-minous evidence with respect to otherJewish cultures, in China these steles andtablets yield fresh insight about how na-tive beliefs and Judaism were harmonizedto create a faith that was clan orientedand also mirrored some of the deepesttheological views of Saadia Gaon and theRambam.

Jordan Paper’s book takes a while to getto this core argument about the religiousoutlook of the Chinese Jews. The firsthalf of his study recapitulates snippetsof history covered in more detail by ear-lier researchers such as Donald Leslie andmore recent Chinese scholars such asZhang Yilang. What is important in thisoverview is the argument about the im-plications of Jewish integration into Chi-nese society during and after the Song

dynasty. Whereas other researchers havenoted the absence of anti-Semitism (es-pecially of the virulent Christian kind)in China, Paper underscores the contrastbetween the Kaifeng experience with thatof German Jews invited to Poland as taxcollectors for the nobility (p. 88). Farfrom earning the enmity of local peas-ants, Chinese Jews became part of anurban elite that integrated successfullywith its Chinese neighbors—Confucianand Muslim alike. The result was a vi-brant and enduring Jewish community.As Jordan Paper points out, the oldestsynagogue in Prague lasted 730 yearswhile the Kaifeng synagogue functioned678 years, from 1163 to 1841 (p.4). Itwas, in his view, also as successful assome of the oldest Jewish communitiesin Persia, with the exception “perhaps ofBaghdad” (p. 94).

The Persian roots of Kaifeng Judaism playa key role in Jordan Paper’s conjecturesabout the theology of Chinese Jews. Al-though other researchers have noted thetrade routes that brought Jewish mer-chants across the Silk Road and to thecoastal ports in China, no one else hasdeveloped as fully the implications ofMizrahi (versus Ashkenazi) theology forthe Chinese community. For example, anew work entitled The Haggadah of theKaifeng Jews of China by Fook-KongWong and Dahlia Yasharpour (Boston,2011) does detail the Judeo-Persian lan-guage and customs of Iranian Jews andhow they affected Kaifeng practices—butit does not dwell upon the theologicalimplications of this syncretic approach.Paper, by contrast, asks explicitly: Whatdid Chinese Jews believe about G-d?About Mashiach [Messiah]? About thecentrality of the Exodus and ofYerushalaim [Jerusalem] to Jewish beliefs?

The answers come from an honestly“speculative” reading of classical Chinesephilosophy and of the theology of SaadiaGaon. Both, Jordan Paper argues, resistedanthropomorphism and emphasized ab-stract notions such as creation ex nihilo.Whereas, other scholars have describedthe placards in the Kaifeng synagogue asDaoist objects created by non-Jewish li-terati (who were indeed commissionedto write some of these texts), Paper pointsout how these fragments echo SaadiaGaon’s words and views. There is more

than simply verbal play at stake here (asfor example the echo between a line inthe Dao De Jing and a Kabbalistic cou-plet about raza de razin, stima de-kholstimim (“mystery of mysteries, the mostconcealed of all truth” p. 136). At thecore, we find an appeal to expand ourappreciation for what constitutes genu-ine Judaism by making room for sinifiednotions such as Tian –Sky’s Truth (en-riching notions of the Hebrewshamayim), and Xiao—reverence for pa-triarchs and family ancestors (p. 92, 94).

Is the assimilation of non-Jewish ideasand values, then, the best prescriptionfor Jewish longevity? Yes, answers Jor-dan Paper emphatically in many placesin this book. Alas, there is too muchcontrary evidence from the history ofChinese Jews and the fate of AmericanJewry—which also concerns the authoras well as Rabbi Anson Laytner, whowrote the thought-provoking postscriptabout our post-Shoah longing for a the-ology of inclusiveness. Even though Pa-per and Laytner are critical of OrthodoxJudaism, both writers concede that whatkept Chinese Jews Jewish was an incli-nation toward orthopraxis rather thanuniversalist beliefs.

Attachment to some form of kashrut andto the sacredness of inherited texts (evenafter Hebrew became unintelligible inthe Kaifeng community) sowed the seedsof the Chinese Jewish renewal that weare witnessing today. To be sure, old di-lemmas endure: Who is really a Jew (es-pecially since very few Chinese Jews hadJewish mothers)? Should one make aliyaor build new Jewish institutions on na-tive ground? These questions are stilldebated in Kaifeng as well as in Jerusa-lem, in Shanghai and in Tel Aviv, inBeijing and in Paris. Wherever Jews re-main committed to some form of tradi-tion and to a shared destiny, JordanPaper’s book will find its interested read-ers.

Vera Schwarcz, the Vice-president of theSino-Judaic Institute, is the Freeman Pro-fessor of East Asian Studies at WesleyanUniversity. Among her recent publica-tions are her new poetry book Chisel ofRemembrance, (http://www.antrimhousebooks.com/schwarcz.html) and Place andMemory in the Singing Crane Garden.

Page 3: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 3 3 3 3 3

IN THE FIELD

New PublicationNew PublicationNew PublicationNew PublicationNew PublicationSJI board member, Den Leventhal hasjust signed a publishing contract forhis new book, How to Leap a GreatWall: The China Adventures of aCross-Cultural Trouble-Shooter. Hisstory is a memoir of a 30 years’ careerliving and working among the Chinesepeople. Traveling to forty-five Chi-nese cities during this front line cor-porate warrior’s career put him intosome surprising situations. He hasflown “cargo class” from Nanjing toShanghai on an antique Russian pro-peller-driven aircraft. He sold tons ofa specialty chemical product in HebeiProvince by translating a twelve hun-dred years old poem on a betting chal-lenge during a twelve course Chinesebanquet. He lectured in the Chineselanguage on international trade risksin twenty-eight Chinese cities, becom-ing a minor, local Chinese TV lumi-nary in the process. And, he engagedin a lengthy political war with a cor-rupt Chinese governmental organiza-tion hell bent on destroying a success-ful Sino-foreign joint venture.

After reviewing Den’s manuscript,Prof. Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Profes-sor of East Asian Studies, WesleyanUniversity, and Vice President, TheSino-Judaic Institute, provided the fol-lowing comments:

“A seasoned, savvy China ex-pert with a keen sense of what worksin actual business encounters,Leventhal has crafted a unique book.It weaves together well-told tales chuckfull of tiny details that make up genu-ine intercultural competence. “OMGa la chinoise” and “subcutaneous xe-nophobia” are just some of the un-usual morsels awaiting the reader alongwith vivid lessons from Chinese his-tory and philosophy. It is rare indeedto find so many important themes inUS-China relations addressed with bothhumor and analytical verve. No Ameri-can businessman can afford to sit downat the negotiating table without hav-

News About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinSJI Board member Dr. Bev Friendwrites that between November 3 and9, Professor Xu Xin will visit theUniversity of Southern California tolaunch 12 Nanjing testimonies in theVisual History Archive at the ShoahFoundation (http://sfi.usc.edu/), anorganization dedicated to makingaudio-visual interviews with survivorsand witnesses of the Holocaust andother genocides. The foundation isessential in maintaining history andproviding a compelling voice for edu-cation and action.

The Shoah Foundation has also in-vited Yehuda Bauer, a Czechoslovak-born Israeli historian and scholar ofthe Holocaust and Professor of Ho-locaust Studies at the AvrahamHarman Institute of ContemporaryJewry at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. Plans are to have the bothscholars engage in a conversation forstudents, faculty and the public, mod-erated by Stephen Smith, tentativelyset for Nov. 7.

Plans are also in the works Xu tomake another visit to the U.S. dur-ing May, 2014, this time to the EastCoast.

Jewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toAmericaAmericaAmericaAmericaAmerica“Jewish Refugees in Shanghai” bringstogether for the first time photos, per-sonal stories, and artifacts fromShanghai’s Jewish Refugee Museum.The exhibition highlights the roleChina played in helping save over20,000 Jewish men, women, andchildren from Nazi persecution from1933 to 1941.

It was exhibited in New York (Sep-tember 16-21), and comes to Chi-cago (October 21-26) and Los An-geles (Oct 27 to Dec 14).

In New York, it was presented at theRockefeller Center Concourse, withthe official opening happening onSeptember 19th.

In Chicago, it will be shown at theJames R. Thompson State of IllinoisCenter and is sponsored by theAmerican Jewish Committee. OnOctober 21st, there will be a panelmoderated by author and AJC Na-tional Leadership Council MemberLinda Frank, author of “After theAuction,” with Prof. SteveHochstadt, author of “Exodus toShanghai, Stories of Escape from theThird Reich” participating, and aceremony featuring Governor JohnHuntsman, former ambassador toChina.

In Los Angeles, it will be hosted atthe UCLA Hillel. On Oct 27th, therewill be presentations by Prof. SteveHochstadt and others, and also anacademic conference scheduled aspart of the exhibit. For further in-formation, see: http://www.confucius.ucla.edu/event/shanghai-jewish-refugee-museum-exhibit-ucla-hillel

A Star is BornA Star is BornA Star is BornA Star is BornA Star is BornSonja Muehlberger writes that at theend of June, DW (Deutsche Welle-TV and Radio-station) published anew and longer feature, a new cut(about 40 minutes) on TV (China/Shanghai, Brazil, USA, Berlin) which may now also be seen on“youtube” and even on “facebook”in English as “Traces of the Past” andas “Spurensuche”in German.

http://www.dw.de/spurensuche-d e u t s c h - j % C 3 % B C d i s c h e s -kulturerbe-weltweit/a-16872140

h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=H6QXLK4pasE&list=PLdrKWT9w9Hg20ZKGz7MWI0jL9NkNGMVFO

h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=SPnnXDkcrVo.

ing perused this book! It will delightprofessionals and general readersalike.”

The book is scheduled to be launchedin spring, 2014, from MerwinAsia,(distribued by the University of Ha-waii Press).

1010101010 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

which specified worldwide Jewish geno-cide, Hitler was happy to see Jews whowere fleeced of virtually all material pos-sessions dumped in regions under thecontrol of his Asian ally, Japan. Such abizarre confluence of policies enabled17,000 Central European Jews to fleeEurope for sanctuary in Shanghai.[Weinberg, “Japanese Recognition ofManchoukuo (sic).” World Affairs Quar-terly 28 (1957)]. Using Hebrew and Japa-nese sources, Frank Shulman attributedthe Nazi government’s rapprochementwith Japan to precisely the same causesas Weinberg. Shulman demonstrated thatJapan’s pro-Zionist sentiments began tocool well before World War Two as shecultivated far larger trade surpluses withthe Arab and Islamic world than shecould ever hope to enjoy with the yishuv,as the much smaller Jewish communityof Palestine and later of Israel was thenknown. Despite philo-Semitic behaviourmuch earlier in the twentieth century, by1938 it was economically and strategi-cally sensible for Japan to ally with NaziGermany, but never to go as far as em-bracing the genocidal policies of theNazis. [Shulman, “The Nature of Japa-nese Activity in the Middle East: Japa-nese-Middle Eastern Economic and Po-litical Relations since World War II.”unpub. Master’s thesis, University ofMichigan, 1968].

In summation, Gao’s new book has pro-vided new supportive data about EastAsian diplomatic history in the 1930sand 1940s. Her research in Chinese andJapanese sources confirms that, for muchof the period under consideration here,neither the Chinese nationalist govern-ment in Nanjing nor the Wang Jingweipuppet regime in Beijing maintained anymeaningful control in Shanghai. Eventhough entry visas were not required toreach Shanghai, German acceptance ofChinese “final destination” visas enabledJews to escape Europe. Japan allowed asignificant number of Jews to settle inoccupied China. Gao’s data demonstratesonce again that it was the fortuitous con-vergence of the diplomatic policies ofseveral nations, plus the energetic effortsof the Jews of the world, which madeShanghai a safe haven for Jewish refu-gees and spared these same individualsfrom almost certain annihilation at thehands of the Nazis.

JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN is a ResearchAssociate of Harvard University’s

Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies anda professor of East Asian history at theUniversity of West Georgia. His special-ties are nineteenth-century Sino-Ameri-can commerce and East Asian Jewishtrading communities. His books includeStephen Girard’s Trade with China(2011), The Jews of China (1999), Chinaand Israel (1999), America Views China(1991), and Philadelphia and the ChinaTrade (1978). He may be reached [email protected].

The Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese Jews1000-18501000-18501000-18501000-18501000-1850by Jordan Paper, Waterloo, Ontario:Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012,$85.00reviewed by Vera Schwarcz

The history of the Kaifeng diaspora haslong fascinated Jews and non-Jews alike.From Mateo Ricci’s first encounter withChinese Jews in 1605 through the utubefever about the shecheyanu prayer ofYaakov Wang at the Kotel in 2009, therehas been no shortage missionaries, trav-elers and scholars drawing “lessons” fromKaifeng’s Jewry. What makes JordanPaper’s work unique is the focus uponthe innermost beliefs of Chinese Jews—a subject about which we have very littleconcrete information. Paper brings to thisexplorative project a nuanced sense fa-miliarity with the classical Chinese lan-guage. His claim in this brief work istwofold: First he lets us know that histraining and affinity makes him capableof thinking like the Chinese literati; andthe other is that Chinese Jews were mostanalogous in outlook to Confucian eliteswho also had side interests in Buddhismand Daoism. Finally, the overarching ar-gument of this book is that the Judaismthat flourished in Kaifeng was authenti-cally Jewish and therefore can enrich anddeepen contemporary Jewish life andpractice.

Paper’s broad and often schematic argu-ment represents the fruition of a seniorscholar’s reflections upon the disciplineof comparative religion. Other scholarshave delved more deeply into specificaspects of the history and even of thetheology of the Chinese Jews. Paper him-self acknowledges the work of AndrewPlaks, Xu Xin, Irene Eber and other schol-ars who contributed to the two-volumestudy of The Jews of China, edited byJonathan Goldstein (M.E. Sharpe 1999,

tion, even amidst the vicissitudes of theSecond Sino-Japanese War.

There are also some troubling exaggera-tions in Gao’s text. She makes the un-sourced claim that Yasue and Inuzuka“attempted to attract as many Jews aspossible to Japanese-occupied China inorder to exploit them ruthlessly” [empha-sis mine –ed.] and that Japan’s policy inthe late 1930s was “intended to harmthe refugees.” [pp. 8,136]. There is a dif-ference between exploiting Jews versusinviting refugees in as potential investors,experts, and influencers of Americanpolicy. There are two examples of Japa-nese treatment of Jews which can argu-ably be characterized as “harmful’ andeven “ruthless.” In 1933 White Rus-sians in Harbin, in collusion with ethnicJapanese kempetai (police) officerKonstantin Ivanovitch Nakamura, kid-napped, tortured, and murdered Russian-Jewish pianist Semion Kaspe. The oftenabusive and arbitrary conduct of the Japa-nese official Goya Kano (who liked tocall himself “king of the Jews” in enforc-ing Shanghai ghetto restrictions) also ap-pears to have been “harmful,” “ruthless,”and at least arguably anti-Semitic. Buttwo examples do not a rule make, andGao cites neither one.

Finally, there is the all-important matterof the Chinese and Japanese diplomaticrelationship with Nazi Germany, whichunderlay the presence of some 17,000Central European Jewish refugees inShanghai. Gao acknowledges that a “com-plicated relationship” existed between“China, Japan, Germany, and the UnitedStates before and during World War II”but, using no German sources, does littleto unravel its intricacies (pp. 3, 128). Shefails to cite the pioneer scholarship ofGerhard Weinberg of over fifty years agoon the foundations of Nazi policy in EastAsia. Drawing on German sources,Weinberg explains that, on February 20,1938 Nazi Germany sensed greater eco-nomic opportunities with Japan and withJapanese-occupied regions of China thanwith unoccupied China and thereforerecognized Japan’s puppet regime ofManzhouguo. Germany, under its newForeign Minister Joachim vonRibbentrop, inched ever so closer to Ja-pan with whom it previously had am-bivalent relations and away from Nation-alist China with which it had extensivemilitary ties. From 1937 until theWannsee Conference of January 1942,

Page 4: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

44444 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

Time to Stop Projecting OurFantasies onto Kaifeng Jews

(continued from page 1)

A Big Weekend withFormer Shanghai Refugees

(continued from page 1)

amidst many; others include the notionthat they were Karaites, that they werepre-Second Temple Levites, or that theywere a Lost Tribe from the Northern King-dom [of Israel].

Why do Kaifeng Jews make for such aneasy target of these myths? As mentionedabove, the fact that they were said to bein China lends them an aura of mystique,further amplified by misconceptions andgeneralizations. Add in a great deal ofpatchwork research, and the whole affairbecomes an easy recipe for ideologicalprojection. Such a phenomenon is notnew to the community; we can recall thestory of the Jesuit missionaries, who un-successfully attempted to “prove” thatWestern Jews distorted the Scriptures byanalyzing the Kaifeng Torah scrolls.

These distortions of the truth are badenough, but are especially egregiouswhen community members start accept-ing them without question. Guo Yan, thecommunity’s de facto ambassador to theworld, despite her best genuine effortsto promote research of her ancestors, isstill telling tourists that her ancestors leftduring the First Exile and did not cel-ebrate Hanukkah. However, the formerstatement is not supported by any con-crete evidence, and HUC Manuscript 926(p. 8-10) has easily proved the latter tobe false.

Instead of relying on conjecture, weshould look strictly to the revelationsmade by research. Analysis of Jesuit ac-counts and, most importantly, the docu-ments left behind by the Kaifeng Jewsthemselves, demonstrate the Rabbinicalnature of the community through andthrough. One missionary recorded thecommunity Rabbi of the time writingdown the six orders of the Mishnah, nam-ing each and every one of them correctly.(Kassimir, “Research and Resources: TheKaifeng Jews”, plate XX; source: Gozani1723, Archives Jesuites) One of the com-munity manuscripts (HUC MS 926 p. 8-10) contains the Rabbinic prayer for Ha-nukkah, “Al haNissim”, in perfect linewith the text prescribed by Maimonides(Mishneh Torah Seder HaTefilla 25), al-beit with some confusion about thevowel points. Finally, no Karaite or pre-Rabbinic community would end every

single one of their prayers (HUC MSS 923p. 41, 924 p.152, 941 p. 37, etc.) withthe final verse of Tractate Berakhot of theMishnah, which begins “Rabbi Elazar saidin the name of Rabbi Hanina...” Thesefindings, and many more that followedin their wake, have proven beyond a rea-sonable doubt that the medieval Israel-ites of Kaifeng-fu were, in fact, RabbinicJews. As the generations passed, theymay have assimilated some traditions andlost touch with others, but the core oftheir practice has always retained its Rab-binic heritage.

As people of alleged scholarly staturecontinue to proliferate more and moreof these fanciful stories in their highlyimpressionable communities, the result-ing effects could deal a significant blowto the general remembrance of KaifengJewish history. Bearing this false knowl-edge, community members will developthese stories and pass them down to fu-ture generations until they end up becom-ing more gospel than the actual scholas-tic findings, fraying the link that bindsthe community to its own past. Allow-ing such fantasies to corrupt the truth onlymanages to deal the Kaifeng Jews andtheir ancestors an immense disservice,and like all falsehoods, it is better for usto stop them at the point of origin beforethey spiral out of control.

SJI member Barnaby Yeh is currently vis-iting Kaifeng.

tablishment of the Hongkew Ghetto…[See China Produces Jewish Commemo-rative Medals, in this issue.]

A small scroll accompanies each coinand both are featured in a fine wood boxwith a glass top. On one side of the coin,a woman shelters a small girl with hertoy panda under an umbrella. They arestanding in a lane and behind them is adoorway with a small mezuzah. Theaddress on a door to the left of the Chi-nese lady is 1943, symbolic of the yearthe Hongkew District opened to the refu-gees. The girl represents refugees, theChinese lady is caring and benevolentand the panda is a symbol of China. Fur-ther explanation for this picture lies inthe scroll which I did not realize could

TO THE EDITOR

My mother in law was born in Shanghai in1924 being the youngest daughter ofNahum Abraham Cohen and Lulu Cohen(nee Shibbeth). Their address was 24Quinsan Road and as far as I am aware herfather Nahum was from Iraq and Lulus’family was from Turkey. I am assuming thatthey may have been part of the BaghdadiJews that came to Shanghai but I am notsure. She married my father-in-law VictorLevy in 1947 in Shanghai. I am trying to find any information abouther family or even information on where tolook for any records or history about thefamily. As I live in Australia it is very difficultto find any information. I would appreciate any assistance you couldgive me. Rachel [email protected]

I write to inquire whether it is possible tosearch records without actually traveling toChina.

My grandmother’s name was Vera Sorokinaor Sorokin. She had two sisters, Clara (pos-sibly Claudia?) and Anna. She was theyoungest. They were in Harbin and Shang-hai after their parents were killed in Russia. I don’t unfortunately know whether theywere formerly in the Ukraine or Tashkent(maybe later their family remaining in Rus-sia, cousins, etc., moved to Tashkent fromthe Ukraine). As for the year, I have a pho-tograph of her with her sisters, I think ap-proximately 1920s, says taken in Harbin. In 1930s she (my grandmother) lived inShanghai. I know that also “White Russians”moved to China, and unfortunately, my fam-ily did not talk much about the past, includ-ing my grandmother (who did not live nearus) so I also don’t know who killed her par-ents or why.

I’m sorry I don’t have more informationother than she and her sisters lived in Harbin/Shanghai approximately 1920s and shelived in Shanghai 1930s until moving to thePhilippines in late 1930s approx.

I had been told that my grandmother wasRussian Orthodox (Christian) but I’ve alsobeen told that some people changed reli-gions. Do you know if Sorokin is a Jewishsurname?

Thank you in advance for any answers ordirection you can provide.

Ms. Jerry Cohen, [email protected]

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 9 9 9 9 9

Jewish journalist N. Elias [not Ezra –ed.]B. Ezra. [pp. 13, 99-104]. At a mini-mum, Japanese officials sought to pre-vent American economic sanctions andan embargo against Japan. At a maxi-mum they sought Jewish investment inJapanese-ruled regions of China as partof much larger American financial com-mitments. This goal was de-prioritizedafter the September 1940 Japanese-Ger-man-Italian Tripartite Pact. Shillony dem-onstrated long before Gao that Higuchi,Inuzuka, and Yasue, all preached an“ideological anti-Semitism” but, at thesame time, professed a “practical friend-ship” for Jews who wished to settle inJapanese-occupied parts of China.” [Let-ter: Avraham Altman to Jerusalem Post,19 May 1982; Gerhard Krebs, “The ‘Jew-ish Problem’ in Japanese-German Rela-tions, 1933-1945" in Bruce Reynolds,ed., Japan in the Fascist Era. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004),pp. 113-129; Maruyama Naoki, “Facinga Dilemma: Japan’s Jewish Policy in theLate 1930s” in Guy Podoler, ed. War andMilitarism in Modern Japan (Folkestone,UK: Global Oriental, 2009), pp. 22-38;Ben-Ami Shillony, The Jews and the Japa-nese: The Successful Outsiders (Rutland,VT: Tuttle, 1991), pp. 201-207;Shillony, “Japan and Israel: The Rela-tionship that Withstood Pressure,” MiddleEast Review 18, no. 2 (Winter 1985/86),pp. 17-24].

Gao has nevertheless added valuable newdata from Guomintang and Japanese ar-chives in support of existing theories. She documents the autonomy of someJapanese field-grade staff officers in Chinain implementing policies affecting Jews.These colonels, lieutenant colonels, andmajors acted largely independently oftheir commanding officers in the centralgovernment. She offers important bio-graphical information about Inuzuka,Yasue, and Higuchi, explaining nuancesof difference between Inuzuka’s ideaswhich have sometimes been character-ized as “the Fugu Plan” and Yasue’s no-tion of Hakko Ichiu (=universal broth-erhood). These differences of opinionwith respect to the treatment of Jewswere symptomatic of even broader dif-ferences of opinion between the Japanesearmy, navy, and the civilian foreign min-istry (pp. 58-92, 126). Gao also confirmsevidence from Polish sources that Japa-nese Vice Consul Sugihara Chiune’s is-suance of transit visas to Polish Jews in

Lithuania in 1940 was a bi-product of,and perhaps even a cover-up for, his pri-mary function as an intelligence agentspying on the Soviets and Germans.Sugihara worked closely with the Polishunderground and Government-in-Exile,helping to smuggle their non-Jewishagents out of occupied Poland and soon-to-be occupied Lithuania. [p. 112; seemy chapter “Motivation in HolocaustRescue: The Case of Jan Zwartendijk inLithuania, 1940” in Jeffry M. Diefendorf,ed. Lessons and Legacices VI: New Cur-rents in Holocaust Research (Evanston,Illinois: Northwestern University Press,2004, pp. 69-87)]. Finally, Gao performsan important scholarly service in dispel-ling the exaggerated and un-sourcedclaims of Rabbi Chaim Lipschitz andEzra Yehezkel-Shaked, of Japanese“plans” to drown the Shanghai Jews inthe Pacific at the behest of the Germans.[pp. 123-24; Lipschitz, The ShanghaiConnection: Based on the Hebrew “NesHatzalah” (New York: Maznaim, 1988),pp. 106-07; Yehezkel-Shaked, Jews,Opium, and the Kimono (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 2003), pp. 197-99].

Gao should be commended for addingall of this new information. But sheomits the specifics of Japanese policytoward the Jews after Inuzuka left Shang-hai in March 1942. She makes no refer-ence to the activities of his replacement,Navy Colonel Toshiro Saneyoshi, nor ofTsutomu Kubota, who became directorof the office of Stateless Refugees Af-fairs set up in February 1943 at Hongkewto check and issue passes for Jews whoneeded to go out of the designated area.That same month SACRA (The Shang-hai Ashkenazi Collaborating Relief As-sociation) was established to facilitatethe transfer of stateless Jews to the des-ignated area. Its chairman was Dr. A.J.Cohn. Later it was transformed into theCentral Control Board with Cohn againas chairman. Gao fails to mention thisindividual or those organizations.

Over and beyond these omissions, thereis a troubling lack of consistency inGao’s argument. On the one hand shemaintains that the history of Jews inwartime Shanghai “has been exploredalmost exclusively by Western scholars”(p. 3). She thereby does a disservice tothe formidable, and, in some cases life-long, academic commitments of theaforementioned Maruyama Naoki, aswell as Pan Guang, Tang Peiji, Xu

Buzeng, Xu Xin, and Zhou Xun. Inexpli-cably, she refers to these same scholarsauthoritatively elsewhere in her text (pp.7-9, 130). She also makes the un-sourcedclaim that there are “limited source ma-terials available from the Asian, especiallythe Chinese side” (p.7). In reality, thereis an abundance of Chinese and Japanesesource material which linguistically-com-petent scholars of multiple ethnicitieshave mined for decades. But one exampleis Xiao Xian’s textual analysis of imagesof Shanghai Jews between 1904 and 1948in the newspaper Dongfang zazhi (East-ern Miscellany) which Gao, again inex-plicably, cites authoritatively elsewherein her text (pp.12-18). Careful proofread-ing could have eliminated these incon-sistencies.

Gao’s study further suffers from the omis-sion of key sources of information. Nointerviews are cited, although, as recentconferences of Shanghai survivors andscholars have revealed, there are still manyarticulate ex-Shanghailanders with a broadrange of opinions, including Chinese andJapanese eyewitnesses. [Anson Laytner,“When East Meets West: A Ground-break-ing Conference Studies Jewish Diasporasin China,” Points East (Menlo Park, CA)7, no. 2 (October 1992), pp. 8-11; Edithand Isidore Chevat, “Harvard Sponsors aConference on the JewishDiasporas,” U.S.-China Review (NewYork) 16, no. 4 (Fall 1992), pp. 10-12]. Gao fails to cite any German diplomaticdocuments, essential for the study ofShanghai in this period (see below), northe ten German-language publicationsfunctioning in Shanghai, nor the city’sPolish, Russian, and Yiddish press,. Thecritically important Yiddish letters ofHarbin social worker Meir Birman andTianjin Bundist leader Lazar Epstein, inNew York’s YIVO Institute for JewishResearch (Yidisher VisnshaftlekherInstitut), document the movement of Rus-sian Jews from Manzhouguo and Tianjinto Shanghai. In September 1939, Birmanrelocated from Harbin to Shanghai in or-der to manage Shanghai’s office of theHebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS),which serviced that city’s burgeoningimmigrant population. Epstein, for hispart, visited Manila on behalf of HIASand recorded the closing of the “opendoor” to the Philippines, which once hadbeen an option for Jews fleeing Sino-Japa-nese hostilities. A closed door in the Phil-ippines made Shanghai the only viable FarEastern option for mass Jewish immigra-

Page 5: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 5 5 5 5 5

be opened until told so by Danny’sdaughter Leanna. The insert tells thefollowing story in English and Chinese,written by Professor Xu Xin of NanjingUniversity:

I am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromEurope.Europe.Europe.Europe.Europe.In the 1930’s, my future wasshadowed by the rise of the Nazis. Myfamily and I were forced to abandonour happy lives and beautiful homesto escape the Shoah. A ship called SSBiancamano — a true Noah’s Ark —took us on to new lives at the Bund ofShanghai, an international city filledwith multinational architectural designs and diverse people.

When my family arrived, we werewarmly greeted by our Chinese neighbors. However, the establishment ofDesignated Area for Stateless Refugees,known today as the Hongkew Ghetto,in 1943, filled our lives with hardshipand dismay.

One stormy afternoon, when I got lost,wandering through the rain-swept, narrow streets, with my dog and pandatoy, a kind Chinese lady befriendedme by holding an umbrella over myhead to protect me from the rain andwind. The warmth of her gesture inthis dark moment was like the brightrays of light emitting from a holidaymenorah. I therefore became a witnessto history and live today to tell thetale 70 years later.

The other side of the coin shows a largeship pulling into a harbor with the Shang-hai skyline behind it; silhouettes ofpeople strolling on the Bund fill the fore-ground. Seven birds fly in a formationoverhead and symbolize the 70th anni-versary of the Hongkew Ghetto. The En-glish words “Shanghai Memory” are in-scribed.

One fact mystified me—a couple stroll-ing on the bund appears to be dressed inVictorian costume. I was able to ask thefather-and-son team, Qiming Zhao andRocky Zhao, who designed and engravedthe coin for the Shanghai Mint, what theirintention had been. The answer was thatfor a Chinese audience, they wanted ex-plicitly to show that these strollers wereforeign…

Highlight of the weekend celebration wasmeeting the Shanghai refugees. Origi-nally, there were to be 13 guests at thebanquet, but when an extensive articleabout the event appeared in the ChicagoTribune, three more contacted Spungenand were included, and a frail, 87-year-old man who had been one of the Ameri-can sailors liberating the Shanghai at theend of the War, drove 200 miles to joinus and request information about a refu-gee he had been seeking for over 40 years.I gave him a copy of the Bulletin of IgudYotsei Sin, the publication of the FormerResidents of China that is published inIsrael in Hebrew, Russian and English(www.jewsofchina.org) and suggestedthat he contact them.

Our programs for both the evening andafternoon sessions were summarized incharming little passport books whichlisted the honored guests and the survi-vors with photos and brief autobiogra-phies. Most touching was a tribute to oneof Spungen’s five closest friends — NickBrown, who died on May 13, 2013.

The original 13 Shanghai guests (in re-verse alphabetical order): Ellen (Solomon)Wolf, Highland Park, IL; Trixie (Braun)Wachsner, Los Angeles, CA; Chaya(Walkin) Small, Chicago, IL; Edie(Oelsner) Shafer, Milwaukee WI; Annie(Weinblum) Rodin, Chicago, IL; GaryMatzdorff, Grenada Hills, CA; StevenLow, Marietta, GA; Judy (Fleischer) Kolb,Northbrook, IL; Harry Katz, Pebble Beach,CA; Kurt Jacoby, Highland Park, IL; GerryJacoby, Lincolnshire, IL; Ellie Grasse,Palm, Desert, CA; Ralph Cohn,Lincolnshire, IL

Danny Spungen & Bev Friend

The three newcomers: Carla (Klein)Shock, Palos Heights, IL; JeromeSchachter, Northbrook IL ; Jenny(Rosenthal) Schwartz, Highland Park, IL.

The Spungen Foundation focuses its grantmaking on health related issues, espe-cially cancer research, care and treatment,and Jewish causes. Holocaust educationusing philatelic and numismatic mate-rial is one small part of their missionstatement. They note that the Founda-tion has no interest in the production anddistribution of medals associated withthe Shanghai Memory Project. For addi-tional information and future events, seehttp://www.spungenfoundation.org/

Kudos to Danny Spungen on many lev-els: for conceiving of and funding thecoins from the Shanghai mint, for pre-paring these commemorative celebra-tions and for his work with disseminat-ing Holocaust information worldwide.

ChiChiChiChiChinnnnna Pa Pa Pa Pa Prrrrroooooddddduuuuuccccceseseseses JJJJJeeeeewwwwwiiiiishshshshshCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsThe Shanghai Mint has struck a limitededition series of “Shanghai Memory” sil-ver and gold medals to commemorate the70th anniversary of the establishment ofthe Designated Area for Stateless Refu-gees, commonly known as “the ShanghaiGhetto” or “Hongkew Ghetto.”

“This is the first time any China mint hasever produced numismatic items with atheme related to Jewish history,” saidDanny Spungen, President of Why NotCollectibles of Lincolnshire, Illinois.

“The design of the medals is filled withsymbolism related to the humanitarianefforts by China to offer safe refuge forthose who fled Europe starting in the1930s,” explained Spungen. He has beeninvolved with the planning of the projectfor the past three years after an initialmeeting with Shanghai Mint officials inDecember 2010.

The medals are composed of 99.9 per-cent pure gold or silver and have beenstruck in sizes of one-ounce silver, one-ounce gold and five-ounces gold.

Each medal is individually etched withits limited edition number. The 1-ouncesilver medal is limited to a mintage of5,773 pieces (representing the current yearin the Jewish calendar) and costs $188

88888 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

BOOK NOOKBOOK NOOKBOOK NOOKBOOK NOOKBOOK NOOK

Shanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldWar IIWar IIWar IIWar IIWar IINew York: Oxford University Press,2013; ix + 185 pp. $74, L45; ISBN 978-0-19-984090-8 (hardback; alk. paper)by Gao Beireviewed by Jonathan Goldstein

A much-abbreviated version of this re-view appeared in the September 2013China Quarterly

In a 2010 article in the Journal of theHistory of Ideas, Joshua A. Fogel cited acornucopia of recent publications aboutShanghai in Chinese, English, and Japa-nese, which one would expect, but alsoin French, German, Hebrew, Korean, andRussian, and in English translation fromGerman, Polish, and Yiddish. [“The Re-cent Boom in Shanghai Studies,” Journalof the History of Ideas 71, no. 2 (April2010)]. When one contextualizes GaoBei’s 2013 book Shanghai Sanctuary, withits 137 pages of text, within this vastcorpus of Shanghai studies, it is clear thatshe has added much original data to theextant literature, but has not achieved twoof the objectives outlined in her intro-duction and epilogue.

She defines her first task as redressing asituation in which “the story of the Euro-pean Jewish refugees in China during theSecond World War is still not wellknown” and “the relations of the Jewsand the locals, the native Chinese in par-ticular, have long been neglected by schol-ars of the field.” (pp. 3,128) She therebyflies in the face of Fogel’s vast bibliogra-phy as well as others assembled by RudolfLoewenthal and Frank Shulman.

Second, she seeks to “reveal…that boththe Chinese Nationalist government andthe Japanese occupation authoritiesthought very carefully about the Shang-hai Jews and how they could be used towin international financial and politicalsupport in their war against one another.”(p. 10). Others have already told the storyof Jewish refugees in China and the Sino-Japanese policy considerations whichunderlay the admission of these refugees.

With respect to Chinese Nationalistpolicy, Gao reiterates what Irene Eber,Marcia Ristaino, and David Kranzler havealready revealed. While Sun Ke, JakobBerglas, Kong Xiangxi, and Maurice Wil-liam suggested mass settlement of Jewsin such underdeveloped regions of Chinaas Yunnan and Hainan, these grandioseschemes were implemented no morethan France’s ambitious but unrealized“Madagascar” plan or Philippine Presi-dent Manuel Quezon’s suggestion ofmassive Jewish settlement on Mindanao.Beginning in late 1937, Chinese govern-ment consuls were happy to grant Jewsentry visas to regions of China it did notcontrol. The Guomindang leadershiphoped such humanitarianism would winmuch-needed support from politically-influential American Jews at a time whenit was far from clear that China’s majormilitary alliance with Nazi Germanywould endure. [Irene Eber, WartimeShanghai (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), pp.66-70; Marcia Ristaino, Port of Last Re-sort (Stanford: Stanford University Press,2001), pp. 117, 146; David Kranzler,Japanese, Nazis, and Jews (Hoboken, NJ:Ktav, 1988), pp. 30, 37].

With respect to Japanese policy,Avraham Altman, Gerhard Krebs,Maruyama Naoki, and Ben-Ami Shillony,established well before Gao that the headof the Japanese Navy’s Advisory Bureauon Jewish Affairs from April 1939 toMarch 1942, Captain Inuzuka Koreshige,helped Jewish refugees settle in Japanese-occupied (and Navy-administrated) Shang-hai. His army counterparts Colonel YasueNorihiro, liaison officer with the Jewishcommunity in Harbin in Japanese-occu-pied Manchuria (Manzhouguo) and Ma-jor General Higuchi Kiichiro, chief ofmilitary intelligence in Harbin from Au-gust 1937 to July 1938, aided Jewish re-settlement in that region. Altman main-tains that Inuzuka, Yasue, and Higuchiwere “using the Jews as tools in [their –ed.] government’s efforts to get the U.S.to remain neutral,” a parallel effort toChinese schemes to win American good-will via America’s presumably-influen-tial Jewish community. Japan, like Chinaand the Philippines, accepted Jewish refu-gees but never went as far as to embracea vast resettlement scheme, such as thoseproposed by Tamura Kozo and Shanghai

At the time Matzdorff, his parents andgrandmother were trying to build a newlife for themselves after sailing halfwayaround the world to a country he hadknown only through the movies as a boyin Berlin…

The relationship lasted a year. He tookher to meet his parents in their smallrented room in Hongkou.

“My Dad was apprehensive, because inthose days for a foreigner to perhaps marrya Chinese girl was a little bit misunder-stood. It was not customary,” he said.

But any thought of marriage disappearedwhen she dumped him for a US Navysailor.

He only saw her once more after the war,in Nanjing Road, a busy commercialstreet not far from where they first met.

“One day somebody tapped me on theshoulder. And she was trying to tell mewhat happened. But I was not interestedanymore,” he said.

But now, after moving to the UnitedStates, becoming an American citizen,building a successful leather business andretiring, he thinks of finding her onceagain before he dies…

His wife Nancy accompanied him on hisquest.

“I’m visualising a movie in my head: refu-gee boy moves to America, gets rich,comes back to Shanghai, goes into a shopand there’s an old lady behind the counter.I can see it in my mind,” she said.

A 1948 Shanghai directory lists a MissCleo Wong of the Cleo Crochet Co., ad-vertising “Handmade Crochet Work andNeckties”, but then the trail goes cold.

The story has captured the imaginationof the Chinese press, but no leads haveemerged.

“If she is (in her) nineties then she’s stillalive. But who knows?” Matzdorff said,his eyes glistening with tears.

“All I could ask is: ‘Do you rememberme?’“

Page 6: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

66666 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

Here (in India) and in some other places,the Holocaust is seen as the core eventof the 20th century in Europe, and it thusdraws millions of tourists to its memori-als. Last year, 46,500 South Koreans vis-ited Auschwitz, only a few less thanIsrael’s 68,000.

From Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to Chinaby Bob Satherecerpted from http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/press-releases/from-maid-enhead-to-china.html, 25 July 2013

[Members of Maidenhead Synagogue re-cently embarked on a 12-day tour ofChina, focused on Jewish sites and heri-tage. Led by Rabbi Jonathan Romain andJohn Dunston, the group visited historicand current Jewish communities, as wellas seeing more conventional tourist at-tractions. Bob Sather shares his impres-sions of a fascinating journey.]

…We had the pleasure of Shabbat anddinner with the Reform communities inboth Beijing and Hong Kong. These areactive groups, composed of expatriates,a few with Chinese spouses. The HongKong Jewish Centre in particular wasimpressive: They have built two high-riseresidential towers on the property, whichprovide an income to the community,and the lower floors house the Reformand Orthodox synagogues, as well asclassrooms, offices, and a swimmingpool.

We took an overnight train to Harbin, inthe far north of China, crossing the greatManchurian plain. There is only one Jewliving in Harbin, a city the size of Bos-ton. He is a professor from Israel who ismarried to a local woman. There usedto be 20,000 Jews, starting in the 1890s,mostly Russians, many who fled the revo-lution in 1917, but they died off or emi-grated after the Second World War. Wevisited the Jewish cemetery outside townand saw the grave of Ehud Olmert’sgrandfather. The last Jew was buried therein 1963.

China is one of the few places on earthwhere the Jews were never persecuted.We saw an amazing exhibition at theHarbin Jewish museum, built in the oldsynagogue. It was huge, with two floorsof exhibits. Unaccountably, the Chinesedecided to honour a vanished commu-nity of foreigners. The exhibit is full of

quotes and labels praising the Jews forthe tremendous economic and culturalcontributions that they made to Harbin.And (unlike most exhibitions) there is nomention at all of the Jews as a sufferingor victimised people, aside from a state-ment by an Israeli statesman that inHarbin the Jews were welcomed with-out any of the prejudice they found inother places.

From Harbin we flew south toKaifeng...Recently a few Kaifeng Jewshave begun to revive Judaism in the city.We visited several in their homes. Sheli,a scholar, studied for four years at TelAviv University…teaches Hebrew to a fewchildren in a small museum in his house.We met a very energetic and enterprisingyoung woman named Esther who hasestablished a study centre and a tinyprayer hall - her father has built a beauti-ful little Chinese-style ark (that lacks aTorah) - and she hopes to persuade thelocal authorities to rebuild the syna-gogue. They face formidable obstacles.Judaism is not on the official list of fivereligions approved for Chinese. The lawsforbid gatherings of more than ten peopleexcept for approved purposes. The Jerusa-lem Rabbinate will not recognise themas Jews, because their Jewish heritage isnot matrilineal…(Three or four youngpeople have made aliyah, but they hadto ‘convert’ in Israel.) If the synagogue isrebuilt, it will probably have to be calleda ‘historical monument and tourist at-traction’. And it cannot be rebuilt on theoriginal site, where now stands a mod-ern hospital.

We asked Sheli what the future of theKaifeng Jews is likely to be. He said thereare two possible futures - in Kaifeng andin Israel. The future in Kaifeng dependson a policy change by the government,which may not happen. He himself in-tends to remain, and carry on his workrestoring Judaism in Kaifeng; if the mostcommitted Jews all make aliyah, Juda-ism in Kaifeng will disappear.

We had an eight hour ride on a bullettrain from Kaifeng toShanghai…Shanghai, like Harbin, washome to a large community of WesternJews, now vanished…

Judaism in China is on a knife’s edge. The expatriates will be there for sometime to come, but they do not representauthentically Chinese Judaism. The

each. The 1-ounce gold medal is limitedto 570 medals and costs $3,636 and the5-ounce medal, limited to 36 pieces,costs $32,000.

Each medal also is accompanied by aShanghai Mint certificate of authenticitywritten in both Chinese and English.

You can order directly from DannySpungen at [email protected] or from any of the three U.S. dis-tributors that offer the medals, the KMJGroup, Mish International Monetary Inc.and Qian’s Coins & Collectibles. Con-tact the KMJ Group at 562-888-2596 orwww.thekmjgroup.com, Robert Mish at650-324-9110 or www.mishinternation-al.com, and Qian’s Coins & Collectiblesat 857-928-2750 or [email protected].

Bearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever Moreexcerpted from The Economist, 24 Au-gust 2013

Discussing the Holocaust in the contextof other human horrors is popular in LatinAmerica, Africa and Asia as well. TheAssociation of Holocaust Organisations(AHO), the world’s biggest Holocaustassociation, has increased from 25 mem-bers in the late 1980s to over 300 today.It is to stage China’s first internationalconference on the topic in Harbin. Thenorth-eastern city once had a thriving Jew-ish community, but a more importantstimulant for local interest in the confer-ence will be parallels to be drawn, rightlyor wrongly, between the Holocaust andJapanese wartime atrocities. The Impe-rial Japanese Army used the city for ex-periments on humans, including vivisec-tion and dropping anthrax from low-fly-ing planes, killing an estimated 400,000people.

Methods developed by early Holocaustcentres have become guides for memori-als to Asian tragedies. The Tuol SlengGenocide Museum in Cambodia and aChinese museum commemorating the“Rape of Nanking” by Japanese soldiersin 1937 have drawn on Yad Vashem. “Is-raeli people did a great job of teachingthe past,” says Xiaowei Fu, director ofthe Judaic studies department at SichuanUniversity in Chengdu. She has tried todrum up interest in the Holocaust withan essay competition offering a cashprize.

In some places, the Holocaust now over-shadows the conflict that fuelled it…

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 7 7 7 7 7

Kaifeng Jews may or may not be able torevive their own traditions – or they mayemigrate to Israel. As John Dunstonpointed out, the Jews of the world havesurvived for so long precisely because theyhave been persecuted, which has keptthem as a distinct community. In China,because they were never persecuted, theyeventually intermarried and were assimi-lated. There is a lesson here for Jews inWestern countries - the very freedom thatwe now enjoy may pose a risk to the sur-vival of our communities.

Picture ThisPicture ThisPicture ThisPicture ThisPicture ThisFaith Goldman ([email protected]) would appreciate any reader’s assis-tance in identifying the people in this photo of her late husband Robert Goldman’sclass in Shanghai 1956.

Shown are:Top row left to right: Robert Goldman, Johnny Kost, Victor Netupsky, VovaMatvieff

Bottom row left to right: Jeannine Martinet, Lizzy _______, Christine Robert,Sylvia Talbot, Jackie Shlau Rand

JTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28By Adam SoclofJuly 11, 2013

Why did China propose a Jewish a statein 1928?

An error in translation.

While embarking on a fundraising mis-sion for Jewish settlement in Palestine,

an unknown Zionist delegate arrived inPeking in 1928 and filed paperwork withauthorities there for permission to solicitin China. The paperwork was misinter-preted as an application to purchase aparcel of land for settlement, and anamusing sequence of events ensued, asreported by the London Daily Telegraphon July 10, 1928 and by JTA one daylater:

The Minister of the Interior at Pekingthought the Zionist wanted to purchaseland in China for the purpose of settlingJews there and promised a special treatyif the Zionists would indicate the sitefor the proposed homeland and the ap-proximate area required.

The Director of Lands had already pro-ceeded with drafting an agreement, when,through the British Minister at Peking,the delegate managed to explain he only

Seeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inShanghaiShanghaiShanghaiShanghaiShanghaiexcerpted from The Malay Mail Online,www.malaymailonline.com, 21 August2013

It was more than 70 years ago that GaryMatzdorff, a Jewish refugee, escaped NaziGermany for China and found love, only

to lose his paramour and then have toflee the Communists.

Now 92, Matzdorff returned to his formerhome in Shanghai hoping to find theChinese woman he spotted across a dancehall floor again.

Then, the sophisticated city was re-nowned as the “Paris of the East”. Someof Matzdorff’s memories of Shanghaihave faded over the decades, but theimage of the woman in a Chinese-styledress split high up the leg remains clearlyimprinted on his mind.

“She looked like a princess,” he says. “Shewas just beautiful.”

He scrawled a note on a napkin, askingthe woman to meet him later in theevening, receiving an American “okeydoke” in reply.

Cleo Wong, it turned out, ran her ownlace shop and was not one of the “taxidancers” available as temporary partnersfor the price of a ticket at the Wing OnDepartment Store ballroom.

required permission to raise funds amongJews in China for the Palestine up-build-ing work. This permission was granted.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/11/news-opinion/jta-archive-china-of-fered-jews-a-second-state#ixzz2YlA54xtt

Page 7: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

66666 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

Here (in India) and in some other places,the Holocaust is seen as the core eventof the 20th century in Europe, and it thusdraws millions of tourists to its memori-als. Last year, 46,500 South Koreans vis-ited Auschwitz, only a few less thanIsrael’s 68,000.

From Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to ChinaFrom Maidenhead to Chinaby Bob Satherecerpted from http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/press-releases/from-maid-enhead-to-china.html, 25 July 2013

[Members of Maidenhead Synagogue re-cently embarked on a 12-day tour ofChina, focused on Jewish sites and heri-tage. Led by Rabbi Jonathan Romain andJohn Dunston, the group visited historicand current Jewish communities, as wellas seeing more conventional tourist at-tractions. Bob Sather shares his impres-sions of a fascinating journey.]

…We had the pleasure of Shabbat anddinner with the Reform communities inboth Beijing and Hong Kong. These areactive groups, composed of expatriates,a few with Chinese spouses. The HongKong Jewish Centre in particular wasimpressive: They have built two high-riseresidential towers on the property, whichprovide an income to the community,and the lower floors house the Reformand Orthodox synagogues, as well asclassrooms, offices, and a swimmingpool.

We took an overnight train to Harbin, inthe far north of China, crossing the greatManchurian plain. There is only one Jewliving in Harbin, a city the size of Bos-ton. He is a professor from Israel who ismarried to a local woman. There usedto be 20,000 Jews, starting in the 1890s,mostly Russians, many who fled the revo-lution in 1917, but they died off or emi-grated after the Second World War. Wevisited the Jewish cemetery outside townand saw the grave of Ehud Olmert’sgrandfather. The last Jew was buried therein 1963.

China is one of the few places on earthwhere the Jews were never persecuted.We saw an amazing exhibition at theHarbin Jewish museum, built in the oldsynagogue. It was huge, with two floorsof exhibits. Unaccountably, the Chinesedecided to honour a vanished commu-nity of foreigners. The exhibit is full of

quotes and labels praising the Jews forthe tremendous economic and culturalcontributions that they made to Harbin.And (unlike most exhibitions) there is nomention at all of the Jews as a sufferingor victimised people, aside from a state-ment by an Israeli statesman that inHarbin the Jews were welcomed with-out any of the prejudice they found inother places.

From Harbin we flew south toKaifeng...Recently a few Kaifeng Jewshave begun to revive Judaism in the city.We visited several in their homes. Sheli,a scholar, studied for four years at TelAviv University…teaches Hebrew to a fewchildren in a small museum in his house.We met a very energetic and enterprisingyoung woman named Esther who hasestablished a study centre and a tinyprayer hall - her father has built a beauti-ful little Chinese-style ark (that lacks aTorah) - and she hopes to persuade thelocal authorities to rebuild the syna-gogue. They face formidable obstacles.Judaism is not on the official list of fivereligions approved for Chinese. The lawsforbid gatherings of more than ten peopleexcept for approved purposes. The Jerusa-lem Rabbinate will not recognise themas Jews, because their Jewish heritage isnot matrilineal…(Three or four youngpeople have made aliyah, but they hadto ‘convert’ in Israel.) If the synagogue isrebuilt, it will probably have to be calleda ‘historical monument and tourist at-traction’. And it cannot be rebuilt on theoriginal site, where now stands a mod-ern hospital.

We asked Sheli what the future of theKaifeng Jews is likely to be. He said thereare two possible futures - in Kaifeng andin Israel. The future in Kaifeng dependson a policy change by the government,which may not happen. He himself in-tends to remain, and carry on his workrestoring Judaism in Kaifeng; if the mostcommitted Jews all make aliyah, Juda-ism in Kaifeng will disappear.

We had an eight hour ride on a bullettrain from Kaifeng toShanghai…Shanghai, like Harbin, washome to a large community of WesternJews, now vanished…

Judaism in China is on a knife’s edge. The expatriates will be there for sometime to come, but they do not representauthentically Chinese Judaism. The

each. The 1-ounce gold medal is limitedto 570 medals and costs $3,636 and the5-ounce medal, limited to 36 pieces,costs $32,000.

Each medal also is accompanied by aShanghai Mint certificate of authenticitywritten in both Chinese and English.

You can order directly from DannySpungen at [email protected] or from any of the three U.S. dis-tributors that offer the medals, the KMJGroup, Mish International Monetary Inc.and Qian’s Coins & Collectibles. Con-tact the KMJ Group at 562-888-2596 orwww.thekmjgroup.com, Robert Mish at650-324-9110 or www.mishinternation-al.com, and Qian’s Coins & Collectiblesat 857-928-2750 or [email protected].

Bearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever MoreBearing Witness Ever Moreexcerpted from The Economist, 24 Au-gust 2013

Discussing the Holocaust in the contextof other human horrors is popular in LatinAmerica, Africa and Asia as well. TheAssociation of Holocaust Organisations(AHO), the world’s biggest Holocaustassociation, has increased from 25 mem-bers in the late 1980s to over 300 today.It is to stage China’s first internationalconference on the topic in Harbin. Thenorth-eastern city once had a thriving Jew-ish community, but a more importantstimulant for local interest in the confer-ence will be parallels to be drawn, rightlyor wrongly, between the Holocaust andJapanese wartime atrocities. The Impe-rial Japanese Army used the city for ex-periments on humans, including vivisec-tion and dropping anthrax from low-fly-ing planes, killing an estimated 400,000people.

Methods developed by early Holocaustcentres have become guides for memori-als to Asian tragedies. The Tuol SlengGenocide Museum in Cambodia and aChinese museum commemorating the“Rape of Nanking” by Japanese soldiersin 1937 have drawn on Yad Vashem. “Is-raeli people did a great job of teachingthe past,” says Xiaowei Fu, director ofthe Judaic studies department at SichuanUniversity in Chengdu. She has tried todrum up interest in the Holocaust withan essay competition offering a cashprize.

In some places, the Holocaust now over-shadows the conflict that fuelled it…

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 7 7 7 7 7

Kaifeng Jews may or may not be able torevive their own traditions – or they mayemigrate to Israel. As John Dunstonpointed out, the Jews of the world havesurvived for so long precisely because theyhave been persecuted, which has keptthem as a distinct community. In China,because they were never persecuted, theyeventually intermarried and were assimi-lated. There is a lesson here for Jews inWestern countries - the very freedom thatwe now enjoy may pose a risk to the sur-vival of our communities.

Picture ThisPicture ThisPicture ThisPicture ThisPicture ThisFaith Goldman ([email protected]) would appreciate any reader’s assis-tance in identifying the people in this photo of her late husband Robert Goldman’sclass in Shanghai 1956.

Shown are:Top row left to right: Robert Goldman, Johnny Kost, Victor Netupsky, VovaMatvieff

Bottom row left to right: Jeannine Martinet, Lizzy _______, Christine Robert,Sylvia Talbot, Jackie Shlau Rand

JTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJTA Archive: China OfferedJews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28Jews a State in ‘28By Adam SoclofJuly 11, 2013

Why did China propose a Jewish a statein 1928?

An error in translation.

While embarking on a fundraising mis-sion for Jewish settlement in Palestine,

an unknown Zionist delegate arrived inPeking in 1928 and filed paperwork withauthorities there for permission to solicitin China. The paperwork was misinter-preted as an application to purchase aparcel of land for settlement, and anamusing sequence of events ensued, asreported by the London Daily Telegraphon July 10, 1928 and by JTA one daylater:

The Minister of the Interior at Pekingthought the Zionist wanted to purchaseland in China for the purpose of settlingJews there and promised a special treatyif the Zionists would indicate the sitefor the proposed homeland and the ap-proximate area required.

The Director of Lands had already pro-ceeded with drafting an agreement, when,through the British Minister at Peking,the delegate managed to explain he only

Seeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inSeeking Lost Love inShanghaiShanghaiShanghaiShanghaiShanghaiexcerpted from The Malay Mail Online,www.malaymailonline.com, 21 August2013

It was more than 70 years ago that GaryMatzdorff, a Jewish refugee, escaped NaziGermany for China and found love, only

to lose his paramour and then have toflee the Communists.

Now 92, Matzdorff returned to his formerhome in Shanghai hoping to find theChinese woman he spotted across a dancehall floor again.

Then, the sophisticated city was re-nowned as the “Paris of the East”. Someof Matzdorff’s memories of Shanghaihave faded over the decades, but theimage of the woman in a Chinese-styledress split high up the leg remains clearlyimprinted on his mind.

“She looked like a princess,” he says. “Shewas just beautiful.”

He scrawled a note on a napkin, askingthe woman to meet him later in theevening, receiving an American “okeydoke” in reply.

Cleo Wong, it turned out, ran her ownlace shop and was not one of the “taxidancers” available as temporary partnersfor the price of a ticket at the Wing OnDepartment Store ballroom.

required permission to raise funds amongJews in China for the Palestine up-build-ing work. This permission was granted.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/11/news-opinion/jta-archive-china-of-fered-jews-a-second-state#ixzz2YlA54xtt

Page 8: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 5 5 5 5 5

be opened until told so by Danny’sdaughter Leanna. The insert tells thefollowing story in English and Chinese,written by Professor Xu Xin of NanjingUniversity:

I am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromI am Sarah, a Jewish Girl fromEurope.Europe.Europe.Europe.Europe.In the 1930’s, my future wasshadowed by the rise of the Nazis. Myfamily and I were forced to abandonour happy lives and beautiful homesto escape the Shoah. A ship called SSBiancamano — a true Noah’s Ark —took us on to new lives at the Bund ofShanghai, an international city filledwith multinational architectural designs and diverse people.

When my family arrived, we werewarmly greeted by our Chinese neighbors. However, the establishment ofDesignated Area for Stateless Refugees,known today as the Hongkew Ghetto,in 1943, filled our lives with hardshipand dismay.

One stormy afternoon, when I got lost,wandering through the rain-swept, narrow streets, with my dog and pandatoy, a kind Chinese lady befriendedme by holding an umbrella over myhead to protect me from the rain andwind. The warmth of her gesture inthis dark moment was like the brightrays of light emitting from a holidaymenorah. I therefore became a witnessto history and live today to tell thetale 70 years later.

The other side of the coin shows a largeship pulling into a harbor with the Shang-hai skyline behind it; silhouettes ofpeople strolling on the Bund fill the fore-ground. Seven birds fly in a formationoverhead and symbolize the 70th anni-versary of the Hongkew Ghetto. The En-glish words “Shanghai Memory” are in-scribed.

One fact mystified me—a couple stroll-ing on the bund appears to be dressed inVictorian costume. I was able to ask thefather-and-son team, Qiming Zhao andRocky Zhao, who designed and engravedthe coin for the Shanghai Mint, what theirintention had been. The answer was thatfor a Chinese audience, they wanted ex-plicitly to show that these strollers wereforeign…

Highlight of the weekend celebration wasmeeting the Shanghai refugees. Origi-nally, there were to be 13 guests at thebanquet, but when an extensive articleabout the event appeared in the ChicagoTribune, three more contacted Spungenand were included, and a frail, 87-year-old man who had been one of the Ameri-can sailors liberating the Shanghai at theend of the War, drove 200 miles to joinus and request information about a refu-gee he had been seeking for over 40 years.I gave him a copy of the Bulletin of IgudYotsei Sin, the publication of the FormerResidents of China that is published inIsrael in Hebrew, Russian and English(www.jewsofchina.org) and suggestedthat he contact them.

Our programs for both the evening andafternoon sessions were summarized incharming little passport books whichlisted the honored guests and the survi-vors with photos and brief autobiogra-phies. Most touching was a tribute to oneof Spungen’s five closest friends — NickBrown, who died on May 13, 2013.

The original 13 Shanghai guests (in re-verse alphabetical order): Ellen (Solomon)Wolf, Highland Park, IL; Trixie (Braun)Wachsner, Los Angeles, CA; Chaya(Walkin) Small, Chicago, IL; Edie(Oelsner) Shafer, Milwaukee WI; Annie(Weinblum) Rodin, Chicago, IL; GaryMatzdorff, Grenada Hills, CA; StevenLow, Marietta, GA; Judy (Fleischer) Kolb,Northbrook, IL; Harry Katz, Pebble Beach,CA; Kurt Jacoby, Highland Park, IL; GerryJacoby, Lincolnshire, IL; Ellie Grasse,Palm, Desert, CA; Ralph Cohn,Lincolnshire, IL

Danny Spungen & Bev Friend

The three newcomers: Carla (Klein)Shock, Palos Heights, IL; JeromeSchachter, Northbrook IL ; Jenny(Rosenthal) Schwartz, Highland Park, IL.

The Spungen Foundation focuses its grantmaking on health related issues, espe-cially cancer research, care and treatment,and Jewish causes. Holocaust educationusing philatelic and numismatic mate-rial is one small part of their missionstatement. They note that the Founda-tion has no interest in the production anddistribution of medals associated withthe Shanghai Memory Project. For addi-tional information and future events, seehttp://www.spungenfoundation.org/

Kudos to Danny Spungen on many lev-els: for conceiving of and funding thecoins from the Shanghai mint, for pre-paring these commemorative celebra-tions and for his work with disseminat-ing Holocaust information worldwide.

ChiChiChiChiChinnnnna Pa Pa Pa Pa Prrrrroooooddddduuuuuccccceseseseses JJJJJeeeeewwwwwiiiiishshshshshCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsCommemorative MedalsThe Shanghai Mint has struck a limitededition series of “Shanghai Memory” sil-ver and gold medals to commemorate the70th anniversary of the establishment ofthe Designated Area for Stateless Refu-gees, commonly known as “the ShanghaiGhetto” or “Hongkew Ghetto.”

“This is the first time any China mint hasever produced numismatic items with atheme related to Jewish history,” saidDanny Spungen, President of Why NotCollectibles of Lincolnshire, Illinois.

“The design of the medals is filled withsymbolism related to the humanitarianefforts by China to offer safe refuge forthose who fled Europe starting in the1930s,” explained Spungen. He has beeninvolved with the planning of the projectfor the past three years after an initialmeeting with Shanghai Mint officials inDecember 2010.

The medals are composed of 99.9 per-cent pure gold or silver and have beenstruck in sizes of one-ounce silver, one-ounce gold and five-ounces gold.

Each medal is individually etched withits limited edition number. The 1-ouncesilver medal is limited to a mintage of5,773 pieces (representing the current yearin the Jewish calendar) and costs $188

88888 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

BOOK NOOKBOOK NOOKBOOK NOOKBOOK NOOKBOOK NOOK

Shanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andShanghai Sanctuary: Chinese andJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJapanese Policy toward EuropeanJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldJewish Refugees during WorldWar IIWar IIWar IIWar IIWar IINew York: Oxford University Press,2013; ix + 185 pp. $74, L45; ISBN 978-0-19-984090-8 (hardback; alk. paper)by Gao Beireviewed by Jonathan Goldstein

A much-abbreviated version of this re-view appeared in the September 2013China Quarterly

In a 2010 article in the Journal of theHistory of Ideas, Joshua A. Fogel cited acornucopia of recent publications aboutShanghai in Chinese, English, and Japa-nese, which one would expect, but alsoin French, German, Hebrew, Korean, andRussian, and in English translation fromGerman, Polish, and Yiddish. [“The Re-cent Boom in Shanghai Studies,” Journalof the History of Ideas 71, no. 2 (April2010)]. When one contextualizes GaoBei’s 2013 book Shanghai Sanctuary, withits 137 pages of text, within this vastcorpus of Shanghai studies, it is clear thatshe has added much original data to theextant literature, but has not achieved twoof the objectives outlined in her intro-duction and epilogue.

She defines her first task as redressing asituation in which “the story of the Euro-pean Jewish refugees in China during theSecond World War is still not wellknown” and “the relations of the Jewsand the locals, the native Chinese in par-ticular, have long been neglected by schol-ars of the field.” (pp. 3,128) She therebyflies in the face of Fogel’s vast bibliogra-phy as well as others assembled by RudolfLoewenthal and Frank Shulman.

Second, she seeks to “reveal…that boththe Chinese Nationalist government andthe Japanese occupation authoritiesthought very carefully about the Shang-hai Jews and how they could be used towin international financial and politicalsupport in their war against one another.”(p. 10). Others have already told the storyof Jewish refugees in China and the Sino-Japanese policy considerations whichunderlay the admission of these refugees.

With respect to Chinese Nationalistpolicy, Gao reiterates what Irene Eber,Marcia Ristaino, and David Kranzler havealready revealed. While Sun Ke, JakobBerglas, Kong Xiangxi, and Maurice Wil-liam suggested mass settlement of Jewsin such underdeveloped regions of Chinaas Yunnan and Hainan, these grandioseschemes were implemented no morethan France’s ambitious but unrealized“Madagascar” plan or Philippine Presi-dent Manuel Quezon’s suggestion ofmassive Jewish settlement on Mindanao.Beginning in late 1937, Chinese govern-ment consuls were happy to grant Jewsentry visas to regions of China it did notcontrol. The Guomindang leadershiphoped such humanitarianism would winmuch-needed support from politically-influential American Jews at a time whenit was far from clear that China’s majormilitary alliance with Nazi Germanywould endure. [Irene Eber, WartimeShanghai (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), pp.66-70; Marcia Ristaino, Port of Last Re-sort (Stanford: Stanford University Press,2001), pp. 117, 146; David Kranzler,Japanese, Nazis, and Jews (Hoboken, NJ:Ktav, 1988), pp. 30, 37].

With respect to Japanese policy,Avraham Altman, Gerhard Krebs,Maruyama Naoki, and Ben-Ami Shillony,established well before Gao that the headof the Japanese Navy’s Advisory Bureauon Jewish Affairs from April 1939 toMarch 1942, Captain Inuzuka Koreshige,helped Jewish refugees settle in Japanese-occupied (and Navy-administrated) Shang-hai. His army counterparts Colonel YasueNorihiro, liaison officer with the Jewishcommunity in Harbin in Japanese-occu-pied Manchuria (Manzhouguo) and Ma-jor General Higuchi Kiichiro, chief ofmilitary intelligence in Harbin from Au-gust 1937 to July 1938, aided Jewish re-settlement in that region. Altman main-tains that Inuzuka, Yasue, and Higuchiwere “using the Jews as tools in [their –ed.] government’s efforts to get the U.S.to remain neutral,” a parallel effort toChinese schemes to win American good-will via America’s presumably-influen-tial Jewish community. Japan, like Chinaand the Philippines, accepted Jewish refu-gees but never went as far as to embracea vast resettlement scheme, such as thoseproposed by Tamura Kozo and Shanghai

At the time Matzdorff, his parents andgrandmother were trying to build a newlife for themselves after sailing halfwayaround the world to a country he hadknown only through the movies as a boyin Berlin…

The relationship lasted a year. He tookher to meet his parents in their smallrented room in Hongkou.

“My Dad was apprehensive, because inthose days for a foreigner to perhaps marrya Chinese girl was a little bit misunder-stood. It was not customary,” he said.

But any thought of marriage disappearedwhen she dumped him for a US Navysailor.

He only saw her once more after the war,in Nanjing Road, a busy commercialstreet not far from where they first met.

“One day somebody tapped me on theshoulder. And she was trying to tell mewhat happened. But I was not interestedanymore,” he said.

But now, after moving to the UnitedStates, becoming an American citizen,building a successful leather business andretiring, he thinks of finding her onceagain before he dies…

His wife Nancy accompanied him on hisquest.

“I’m visualising a movie in my head: refu-gee boy moves to America, gets rich,comes back to Shanghai, goes into a shopand there’s an old lady behind the counter.I can see it in my mind,” she said.

A 1948 Shanghai directory lists a MissCleo Wong of the Cleo Crochet Co., ad-vertising “Handmade Crochet Work andNeckties”, but then the trail goes cold.

The story has captured the imaginationof the Chinese press, but no leads haveemerged.

“If she is (in her) nineties then she’s stillalive. But who knows?” Matzdorff said,his eyes glistening with tears.

“All I could ask is: ‘Do you rememberme?’“

Page 9: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

44444 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

Time to Stop Projecting OurFantasies onto Kaifeng Jews

(continued from page 1)

A Big Weekend withFormer Shanghai Refugees

(continued from page 1)

amidst many; others include the notionthat they were Karaites, that they werepre-Second Temple Levites, or that theywere a Lost Tribe from the Northern King-dom [of Israel].

Why do Kaifeng Jews make for such aneasy target of these myths? As mentionedabove, the fact that they were said to bein China lends them an aura of mystique,further amplified by misconceptions andgeneralizations. Add in a great deal ofpatchwork research, and the whole affairbecomes an easy recipe for ideologicalprojection. Such a phenomenon is notnew to the community; we can recall thestory of the Jesuit missionaries, who un-successfully attempted to “prove” thatWestern Jews distorted the Scriptures byanalyzing the Kaifeng Torah scrolls.

These distortions of the truth are badenough, but are especially egregiouswhen community members start accept-ing them without question. Guo Yan, thecommunity’s de facto ambassador to theworld, despite her best genuine effortsto promote research of her ancestors, isstill telling tourists that her ancestors leftduring the First Exile and did not cel-ebrate Hanukkah. However, the formerstatement is not supported by any con-crete evidence, and HUC Manuscript 926(p. 8-10) has easily proved the latter tobe false.

Instead of relying on conjecture, weshould look strictly to the revelationsmade by research. Analysis of Jesuit ac-counts and, most importantly, the docu-ments left behind by the Kaifeng Jewsthemselves, demonstrate the Rabbinicalnature of the community through andthrough. One missionary recorded thecommunity Rabbi of the time writingdown the six orders of the Mishnah, nam-ing each and every one of them correctly.(Kassimir, “Research and Resources: TheKaifeng Jews”, plate XX; source: Gozani1723, Archives Jesuites) One of the com-munity manuscripts (HUC MS 926 p. 8-10) contains the Rabbinic prayer for Ha-nukkah, “Al haNissim”, in perfect linewith the text prescribed by Maimonides(Mishneh Torah Seder HaTefilla 25), al-beit with some confusion about thevowel points. Finally, no Karaite or pre-Rabbinic community would end every

single one of their prayers (HUC MSS 923p. 41, 924 p.152, 941 p. 37, etc.) withthe final verse of Tractate Berakhot of theMishnah, which begins “Rabbi Elazar saidin the name of Rabbi Hanina...” Thesefindings, and many more that followedin their wake, have proven beyond a rea-sonable doubt that the medieval Israel-ites of Kaifeng-fu were, in fact, RabbinicJews. As the generations passed, theymay have assimilated some traditions andlost touch with others, but the core oftheir practice has always retained its Rab-binic heritage.

As people of alleged scholarly staturecontinue to proliferate more and moreof these fanciful stories in their highlyimpressionable communities, the result-ing effects could deal a significant blowto the general remembrance of KaifengJewish history. Bearing this false knowl-edge, community members will developthese stories and pass them down to fu-ture generations until they end up becom-ing more gospel than the actual scholas-tic findings, fraying the link that bindsthe community to its own past. Allow-ing such fantasies to corrupt the truth onlymanages to deal the Kaifeng Jews andtheir ancestors an immense disservice,and like all falsehoods, it is better for usto stop them at the point of origin beforethey spiral out of control.

SJI member Barnaby Yeh is currently vis-iting Kaifeng.

tablishment of the Hongkew Ghetto…[See China Produces Jewish Commemo-rative Medals, in this issue.]

A small scroll accompanies each coinand both are featured in a fine wood boxwith a glass top. On one side of the coin,a woman shelters a small girl with hertoy panda under an umbrella. They arestanding in a lane and behind them is adoorway with a small mezuzah. Theaddress on a door to the left of the Chi-nese lady is 1943, symbolic of the yearthe Hongkew District opened to the refu-gees. The girl represents refugees, theChinese lady is caring and benevolentand the panda is a symbol of China. Fur-ther explanation for this picture lies inthe scroll which I did not realize could

TO THE EDITOR

My mother in law was born in Shanghai in1924 being the youngest daughter ofNahum Abraham Cohen and Lulu Cohen(nee Shibbeth). Their address was 24Quinsan Road and as far as I am aware herfather Nahum was from Iraq and Lulus’family was from Turkey. I am assuming thatthey may have been part of the BaghdadiJews that came to Shanghai but I am notsure. She married my father-in-law VictorLevy in 1947 in Shanghai. I am trying to find any information abouther family or even information on where tolook for any records or history about thefamily. As I live in Australia it is very difficultto find any information. I would appreciate any assistance you couldgive me. Rachel [email protected]

I write to inquire whether it is possible tosearch records without actually traveling toChina.

My grandmother’s name was Vera Sorokinaor Sorokin. She had two sisters, Clara (pos-sibly Claudia?) and Anna. She was theyoungest. They were in Harbin and Shang-hai after their parents were killed in Russia. I don’t unfortunately know whether theywere formerly in the Ukraine or Tashkent(maybe later their family remaining in Rus-sia, cousins, etc., moved to Tashkent fromthe Ukraine). As for the year, I have a pho-tograph of her with her sisters, I think ap-proximately 1920s, says taken in Harbin. In 1930s she (my grandmother) lived inShanghai. I know that also “White Russians”moved to China, and unfortunately, my fam-ily did not talk much about the past, includ-ing my grandmother (who did not live nearus) so I also don’t know who killed her par-ents or why.

I’m sorry I don’t have more informationother than she and her sisters lived in Harbin/Shanghai approximately 1920s and shelived in Shanghai 1930s until moving to thePhilippines in late 1930s approx.

I had been told that my grandmother wasRussian Orthodox (Christian) but I’ve alsobeen told that some people changed reli-gions. Do you know if Sorokin is a Jewishsurname?

Thank you in advance for any answers ordirection you can provide.

Ms. Jerry Cohen, [email protected]

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 9 9 9 9 9

Jewish journalist N. Elias [not Ezra –ed.]B. Ezra. [pp. 13, 99-104]. At a mini-mum, Japanese officials sought to pre-vent American economic sanctions andan embargo against Japan. At a maxi-mum they sought Jewish investment inJapanese-ruled regions of China as partof much larger American financial com-mitments. This goal was de-prioritizedafter the September 1940 Japanese-Ger-man-Italian Tripartite Pact. Shillony dem-onstrated long before Gao that Higuchi,Inuzuka, and Yasue, all preached an“ideological anti-Semitism” but, at thesame time, professed a “practical friend-ship” for Jews who wished to settle inJapanese-occupied parts of China.” [Let-ter: Avraham Altman to Jerusalem Post,19 May 1982; Gerhard Krebs, “The ‘Jew-ish Problem’ in Japanese-German Rela-tions, 1933-1945" in Bruce Reynolds,ed., Japan in the Fascist Era. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004),pp. 113-129; Maruyama Naoki, “Facinga Dilemma: Japan’s Jewish Policy in theLate 1930s” in Guy Podoler, ed. War andMilitarism in Modern Japan (Folkestone,UK: Global Oriental, 2009), pp. 22-38;Ben-Ami Shillony, The Jews and the Japa-nese: The Successful Outsiders (Rutland,VT: Tuttle, 1991), pp. 201-207;Shillony, “Japan and Israel: The Rela-tionship that Withstood Pressure,” MiddleEast Review 18, no. 2 (Winter 1985/86),pp. 17-24].

Gao has nevertheless added valuable newdata from Guomintang and Japanese ar-chives in support of existing theories. She documents the autonomy of someJapanese field-grade staff officers in Chinain implementing policies affecting Jews.These colonels, lieutenant colonels, andmajors acted largely independently oftheir commanding officers in the centralgovernment. She offers important bio-graphical information about Inuzuka,Yasue, and Higuchi, explaining nuancesof difference between Inuzuka’s ideaswhich have sometimes been character-ized as “the Fugu Plan” and Yasue’s no-tion of Hakko Ichiu (=universal broth-erhood). These differences of opinionwith respect to the treatment of Jewswere symptomatic of even broader dif-ferences of opinion between the Japanesearmy, navy, and the civilian foreign min-istry (pp. 58-92, 126). Gao also confirmsevidence from Polish sources that Japa-nese Vice Consul Sugihara Chiune’s is-suance of transit visas to Polish Jews in

Lithuania in 1940 was a bi-product of,and perhaps even a cover-up for, his pri-mary function as an intelligence agentspying on the Soviets and Germans.Sugihara worked closely with the Polishunderground and Government-in-Exile,helping to smuggle their non-Jewishagents out of occupied Poland and soon-to-be occupied Lithuania. [p. 112; seemy chapter “Motivation in HolocaustRescue: The Case of Jan Zwartendijk inLithuania, 1940” in Jeffry M. Diefendorf,ed. Lessons and Legacices VI: New Cur-rents in Holocaust Research (Evanston,Illinois: Northwestern University Press,2004, pp. 69-87)]. Finally, Gao performsan important scholarly service in dispel-ling the exaggerated and un-sourcedclaims of Rabbi Chaim Lipschitz andEzra Yehezkel-Shaked, of Japanese“plans” to drown the Shanghai Jews inthe Pacific at the behest of the Germans.[pp. 123-24; Lipschitz, The ShanghaiConnection: Based on the Hebrew “NesHatzalah” (New York: Maznaim, 1988),pp. 106-07; Yehezkel-Shaked, Jews,Opium, and the Kimono (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 2003), pp. 197-99].

Gao should be commended for addingall of this new information. But sheomits the specifics of Japanese policytoward the Jews after Inuzuka left Shang-hai in March 1942. She makes no refer-ence to the activities of his replacement,Navy Colonel Toshiro Saneyoshi, nor ofTsutomu Kubota, who became directorof the office of Stateless Refugees Af-fairs set up in February 1943 at Hongkewto check and issue passes for Jews whoneeded to go out of the designated area.That same month SACRA (The Shang-hai Ashkenazi Collaborating Relief As-sociation) was established to facilitatethe transfer of stateless Jews to the des-ignated area. Its chairman was Dr. A.J.Cohn. Later it was transformed into theCentral Control Board with Cohn againas chairman. Gao fails to mention thisindividual or those organizations.

Over and beyond these omissions, thereis a troubling lack of consistency inGao’s argument. On the one hand shemaintains that the history of Jews inwartime Shanghai “has been exploredalmost exclusively by Western scholars”(p. 3). She thereby does a disservice tothe formidable, and, in some cases life-long, academic commitments of theaforementioned Maruyama Naoki, aswell as Pan Guang, Tang Peiji, Xu

Buzeng, Xu Xin, and Zhou Xun. Inexpli-cably, she refers to these same scholarsauthoritatively elsewhere in her text (pp.7-9, 130). She also makes the un-sourcedclaim that there are “limited source ma-terials available from the Asian, especiallythe Chinese side” (p.7). In reality, thereis an abundance of Chinese and Japanesesource material which linguistically-com-petent scholars of multiple ethnicitieshave mined for decades. But one exampleis Xiao Xian’s textual analysis of imagesof Shanghai Jews between 1904 and 1948in the newspaper Dongfang zazhi (East-ern Miscellany) which Gao, again inex-plicably, cites authoritatively elsewherein her text (pp.12-18). Careful proofread-ing could have eliminated these incon-sistencies.

Gao’s study further suffers from the omis-sion of key sources of information. Nointerviews are cited, although, as recentconferences of Shanghai survivors andscholars have revealed, there are still manyarticulate ex-Shanghailanders with a broadrange of opinions, including Chinese andJapanese eyewitnesses. [Anson Laytner,“When East Meets West: A Ground-break-ing Conference Studies Jewish Diasporasin China,” Points East (Menlo Park, CA)7, no. 2 (October 1992), pp. 8-11; Edithand Isidore Chevat, “Harvard Sponsors aConference on the JewishDiasporas,” U.S.-China Review (NewYork) 16, no. 4 (Fall 1992), pp. 10-12]. Gao fails to cite any German diplomaticdocuments, essential for the study ofShanghai in this period (see below), northe ten German-language publicationsfunctioning in Shanghai, nor the city’sPolish, Russian, and Yiddish press,. Thecritically important Yiddish letters ofHarbin social worker Meir Birman andTianjin Bundist leader Lazar Epstein, inNew York’s YIVO Institute for JewishResearch (Yidisher VisnshaftlekherInstitut), document the movement of Rus-sian Jews from Manzhouguo and Tianjinto Shanghai. In September 1939, Birmanrelocated from Harbin to Shanghai in or-der to manage Shanghai’s office of theHebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS),which serviced that city’s burgeoningimmigrant population. Epstein, for hispart, visited Manila on behalf of HIASand recorded the closing of the “opendoor” to the Philippines, which once hadbeen an option for Jews fleeing Sino-Japa-nese hostilities. A closed door in the Phil-ippines made Shanghai the only viable FarEastern option for mass Jewish immigra-

Page 10: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 3 3 3 3 3

IN THE FIELD

New PublicationNew PublicationNew PublicationNew PublicationNew PublicationSJI board member, Den Leventhal hasjust signed a publishing contract forhis new book, How to Leap a GreatWall: The China Adventures of aCross-Cultural Trouble-Shooter. Hisstory is a memoir of a 30 years’ careerliving and working among the Chinesepeople. Traveling to forty-five Chi-nese cities during this front line cor-porate warrior’s career put him intosome surprising situations. He hasflown “cargo class” from Nanjing toShanghai on an antique Russian pro-peller-driven aircraft. He sold tons ofa specialty chemical product in HebeiProvince by translating a twelve hun-dred years old poem on a betting chal-lenge during a twelve course Chinesebanquet. He lectured in the Chineselanguage on international trade risksin twenty-eight Chinese cities, becom-ing a minor, local Chinese TV lumi-nary in the process. And, he engagedin a lengthy political war with a cor-rupt Chinese governmental organiza-tion hell bent on destroying a success-ful Sino-foreign joint venture.

After reviewing Den’s manuscript,Prof. Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Profes-sor of East Asian Studies, WesleyanUniversity, and Vice President, TheSino-Judaic Institute, provided the fol-lowing comments:

“A seasoned, savvy China ex-pert with a keen sense of what worksin actual business encounters,Leventhal has crafted a unique book.It weaves together well-told tales chuckfull of tiny details that make up genu-ine intercultural competence. “OMGa la chinoise” and “subcutaneous xe-nophobia” are just some of the un-usual morsels awaiting the reader alongwith vivid lessons from Chinese his-tory and philosophy. It is rare indeedto find so many important themes inUS-China relations addressed with bothhumor and analytical verve. No Ameri-can businessman can afford to sit downat the negotiating table without hav-

News About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinNews About Prof. Xu XinSJI Board member Dr. Bev Friendwrites that between November 3 and9, Professor Xu Xin will visit theUniversity of Southern California tolaunch 12 Nanjing testimonies in theVisual History Archive at the ShoahFoundation (http://sfi.usc.edu/), anorganization dedicated to makingaudio-visual interviews with survivorsand witnesses of the Holocaust andother genocides. The foundation isessential in maintaining history andproviding a compelling voice for edu-cation and action.

The Shoah Foundation has also in-vited Yehuda Bauer, a Czechoslovak-born Israeli historian and scholar ofthe Holocaust and Professor of Ho-locaust Studies at the AvrahamHarman Institute of ContemporaryJewry at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem. Plans are to have the bothscholars engage in a conversation forstudents, faculty and the public, mod-erated by Stephen Smith, tentativelyset for Nov. 7.

Plans are also in the works Xu tomake another visit to the U.S. dur-ing May, 2014, this time to the EastCoast.

Jewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toJewish Old Shanghai Comes toAmericaAmericaAmericaAmericaAmerica“Jewish Refugees in Shanghai” bringstogether for the first time photos, per-sonal stories, and artifacts fromShanghai’s Jewish Refugee Museum.The exhibition highlights the roleChina played in helping save over20,000 Jewish men, women, andchildren from Nazi persecution from1933 to 1941.

It was exhibited in New York (Sep-tember 16-21), and comes to Chi-cago (October 21-26) and Los An-geles (Oct 27 to Dec 14).

In New York, it was presented at theRockefeller Center Concourse, withthe official opening happening onSeptember 19th.

In Chicago, it will be shown at theJames R. Thompson State of IllinoisCenter and is sponsored by theAmerican Jewish Committee. OnOctober 21st, there will be a panelmoderated by author and AJC Na-tional Leadership Council MemberLinda Frank, author of “After theAuction,” with Prof. SteveHochstadt, author of “Exodus toShanghai, Stories of Escape from theThird Reich” participating, and aceremony featuring Governor JohnHuntsman, former ambassador toChina.

In Los Angeles, it will be hosted atthe UCLA Hillel. On Oct 27th, therewill be presentations by Prof. SteveHochstadt and others, and also anacademic conference scheduled aspart of the exhibit. For further in-formation, see: http://www.confucius.ucla.edu/event/shanghai-jewish-refugee-museum-exhibit-ucla-hillel

A Star is BornA Star is BornA Star is BornA Star is BornA Star is BornSonja Muehlberger writes that at theend of June, DW (Deutsche Welle-TV and Radio-station) published anew and longer feature, a new cut(about 40 minutes) on TV (China/Shanghai, Brazil, USA, Berlin) which may now also be seen on“youtube” and even on “facebook”in English as “Traces of the Past” andas “Spurensuche”in German.

http://www.dw.de/spurensuche-d e u t s c h - j % C 3 % B C d i s c h e s -kulturerbe-weltweit/a-16872140

h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=H6QXLK4pasE&list=PLdrKWT9w9Hg20ZKGz7MWI0jL9NkNGMVFO

h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=SPnnXDkcrVo.

ing perused this book! It will delightprofessionals and general readersalike.”

The book is scheduled to be launchedin spring, 2014, from MerwinAsia,(distribued by the University of Ha-waii Press).

1010101010 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

which specified worldwide Jewish geno-cide, Hitler was happy to see Jews whowere fleeced of virtually all material pos-sessions dumped in regions under thecontrol of his Asian ally, Japan. Such abizarre confluence of policies enabled17,000 Central European Jews to fleeEurope for sanctuary in Shanghai.[Weinberg, “Japanese Recognition ofManchoukuo (sic).” World Affairs Quar-terly 28 (1957)]. Using Hebrew and Japa-nese sources, Frank Shulman attributedthe Nazi government’s rapprochementwith Japan to precisely the same causesas Weinberg. Shulman demonstrated thatJapan’s pro-Zionist sentiments began tocool well before World War Two as shecultivated far larger trade surpluses withthe Arab and Islamic world than shecould ever hope to enjoy with the yishuv,as the much smaller Jewish communityof Palestine and later of Israel was thenknown. Despite philo-Semitic behaviourmuch earlier in the twentieth century, by1938 it was economically and strategi-cally sensible for Japan to ally with NaziGermany, but never to go as far as em-bracing the genocidal policies of theNazis. [Shulman, “The Nature of Japa-nese Activity in the Middle East: Japa-nese-Middle Eastern Economic and Po-litical Relations since World War II.”unpub. Master’s thesis, University ofMichigan, 1968].

In summation, Gao’s new book has pro-vided new supportive data about EastAsian diplomatic history in the 1930sand 1940s. Her research in Chinese andJapanese sources confirms that, for muchof the period under consideration here,neither the Chinese nationalist govern-ment in Nanjing nor the Wang Jingweipuppet regime in Beijing maintained anymeaningful control in Shanghai. Eventhough entry visas were not required toreach Shanghai, German acceptance ofChinese “final destination” visas enabledJews to escape Europe. Japan allowed asignificant number of Jews to settle inoccupied China. Gao’s data demonstratesonce again that it was the fortuitous con-vergence of the diplomatic policies ofseveral nations, plus the energetic effortsof the Jews of the world, which madeShanghai a safe haven for Jewish refu-gees and spared these same individualsfrom almost certain annihilation at thehands of the Nazis.

JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN is a ResearchAssociate of Harvard University’s

Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies anda professor of East Asian history at theUniversity of West Georgia. His special-ties are nineteenth-century Sino-Ameri-can commerce and East Asian Jewishtrading communities. His books includeStephen Girard’s Trade with China(2011), The Jews of China (1999), Chinaand Israel (1999), America Views China(1991), and Philadelphia and the ChinaTrade (1978). He may be reached [email protected].

The Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese JewsThe Theology of the Chinese Jews1000-18501000-18501000-18501000-18501000-1850by Jordan Paper, Waterloo, Ontario:Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012,$85.00reviewed by Vera Schwarcz

The history of the Kaifeng diaspora haslong fascinated Jews and non-Jews alike.From Mateo Ricci’s first encounter withChinese Jews in 1605 through the utubefever about the shecheyanu prayer ofYaakov Wang at the Kotel in 2009, therehas been no shortage missionaries, trav-elers and scholars drawing “lessons” fromKaifeng’s Jewry. What makes JordanPaper’s work unique is the focus uponthe innermost beliefs of Chinese Jews—a subject about which we have very littleconcrete information. Paper brings to thisexplorative project a nuanced sense fa-miliarity with the classical Chinese lan-guage. His claim in this brief work istwofold: First he lets us know that histraining and affinity makes him capableof thinking like the Chinese literati; andthe other is that Chinese Jews were mostanalogous in outlook to Confucian eliteswho also had side interests in Buddhismand Daoism. Finally, the overarching ar-gument of this book is that the Judaismthat flourished in Kaifeng was authenti-cally Jewish and therefore can enrich anddeepen contemporary Jewish life andpractice.

Paper’s broad and often schematic argu-ment represents the fruition of a seniorscholar’s reflections upon the disciplineof comparative religion. Other scholarshave delved more deeply into specificaspects of the history and even of thetheology of the Chinese Jews. Paper him-self acknowledges the work of AndrewPlaks, Xu Xin, Irene Eber and other schol-ars who contributed to the two-volumestudy of The Jews of China, edited byJonathan Goldstein (M.E. Sharpe 1999,

tion, even amidst the vicissitudes of theSecond Sino-Japanese War.

There are also some troubling exaggera-tions in Gao’s text. She makes the un-sourced claim that Yasue and Inuzuka“attempted to attract as many Jews aspossible to Japanese-occupied China inorder to exploit them ruthlessly” [empha-sis mine –ed.] and that Japan’s policy inthe late 1930s was “intended to harmthe refugees.” [pp. 8,136]. There is a dif-ference between exploiting Jews versusinviting refugees in as potential investors,experts, and influencers of Americanpolicy. There are two examples of Japa-nese treatment of Jews which can argu-ably be characterized as “harmful’ andeven “ruthless.” In 1933 White Rus-sians in Harbin, in collusion with ethnicJapanese kempetai (police) officerKonstantin Ivanovitch Nakamura, kid-napped, tortured, and murdered Russian-Jewish pianist Semion Kaspe. The oftenabusive and arbitrary conduct of the Japa-nese official Goya Kano (who liked tocall himself “king of the Jews” in enforc-ing Shanghai ghetto restrictions) also ap-pears to have been “harmful,” “ruthless,”and at least arguably anti-Semitic. Buttwo examples do not a rule make, andGao cites neither one.

Finally, there is the all-important matterof the Chinese and Japanese diplomaticrelationship with Nazi Germany, whichunderlay the presence of some 17,000Central European Jewish refugees inShanghai. Gao acknowledges that a “com-plicated relationship” existed between“China, Japan, Germany, and the UnitedStates before and during World War II”but, using no German sources, does littleto unravel its intricacies (pp. 3, 128). Shefails to cite the pioneer scholarship ofGerhard Weinberg of over fifty years agoon the foundations of Nazi policy in EastAsia. Drawing on German sources,Weinberg explains that, on February 20,1938 Nazi Germany sensed greater eco-nomic opportunities with Japan and withJapanese-occupied regions of China thanwith unoccupied China and thereforerecognized Japan’s puppet regime ofManzhouguo. Germany, under its newForeign Minister Joachim vonRibbentrop, inched ever so closer to Ja-pan with whom it previously had am-bivalent relations and away from Nation-alist China with which it had extensivemilitary ties. From 1937 until theWannsee Conference of January 1942,

Page 11: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

22222 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

FROM THE EDITOR

FINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLEFINANCIAL REPORT AVAILABLE

SJI members interested in receiving acopy of the annual financial report shouldsend a self-addressed envelope to: SteveHochstadt, Treasurer of the Sino-JudaicInstitute, Illinois College, 1101 W Col-lege Ave., Jacksonville IL 62650.

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastAnson Laytner, Publisher

Points East is published by the Sino-JudaicInstitute, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization.The opinions and views expressed by thecontributors and editor are their own and donot necessarily express the viewpoints andpositions of the Sino-Judaic Institute.

Letters to the Editor and articles for Points Eastmay be sent to:

Preferred Form:Preferred Form:Preferred Form:Preferred Form:Preferred Form:e-mai l :[email protected] l :[email protected] l :[email protected] l :[email protected] l :[email protected]

or to: Rabbi Anson Laytner1823 East Prospect St.Seattle, WA 98112-3307

Points East is published three times a year, inMarch, July and November. Deadlines forsubmitting material to be included in theseissues are January 15th, May 15th andSeptember 15th.

SJI MEMBERSHIP

Country Total

United States 179China 19Israel 16Canada 14England 4Australia 2Germany 3Japan 2South Africa 2Indonesia 1Switzerland 1Taiwan 1

TOTAL:TOTAL:TOTAL:TOTAL:TOTAL: 257 257 257 257 257

Sino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic InstituteSino-Judaic Institutec/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzerc/o Rabbi Arnie Belzer34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue34 Washington Avenue

Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.Savannah, GA 31405 U.S.A.

SJI OfficersSJI OfficersSJI OfficersSJI OfficersSJI OfficersArnie Belzer, PresidentVera Schwarcz, Vice-PresidentSteve Hochstadt, TreasurerOndi Lingenfelter, SecretaryAnson Laytner, Immediate Past President Managing BoardManaging BoardManaging BoardManaging BoardManaging BoardDenise Yeh Bresler, Joel Epstein, Bev Friend,Seth Garz, Mary-Anne Graham, Ron Kaye, DanaLeventhal, Den Leventhal, David Marshall, JimMichaelson, Art Rosen, Eric Rothberg, MarvinTokayer, Tibi Weisz, Albert Yee, Cynthia Zeiden International Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardInternational Advisory BoardWendy Abraham, Jan Berris, Mark Cohen, IreneEber, Avrum Ehrlich, Fu Youde, JonathanGoldstein, Jerry Gotel, Judy Green, Len Hew,Tess Johnston, Donald Leslie, Michael Li,Maisie Meyer, Mark Michaelson, SonjaMuehlberger, Gustavo Perednik, Andrew Plaks,Pan Guang, Shi Lei, Yitzhak Shichor, ElyseSilverberg, Josh Stampfer, Shalom Wald, XiaoXian, Xu Xin, Zhang Qianhong, David Zweig Past PresidentsPast PresidentsPast PresidentsPast PresidentsPast PresidentsAl Dien, Leo Gabow

In Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lIn Memoriam, z”lMarshall Denenberg, Leo Gabow, Phyllis Horal,Teddy Kaufman, Rena Krasno, Michael Pollak,Louis Schwartz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Featured Article:Featured Article:Featured Article:Featured Article:Featured Article:

Time to Stop Projecting Our

Fantasies onto Kaifeng Jews ...... 1

A Big Weekend with Former

Shanghai Refugees ......................

From the EditorFrom the EditorFrom the EditorFrom the EditorFrom the Editor .................................................................................................................................. 2

In the FieldIn the FieldIn the FieldIn the FieldIn the Field ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3

To the EditorTo the EditorTo the EditorTo the EditorTo the Editor ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

Ar t ic les :Ar t i c les :Ar t i c les :Ar t i c les :Ar t i c les :

China Produces Jewish

Commemorative Medals ............ 5

Bearing Witness Ever More .............. 6

From Maidenhead to China ............. 6

JTA Archive: China Offered Jews

a State in ‘28 .............................. 7

Picture This ..................................... 7

Seeking Lost Love in Shanghai .......... 7

Book NookBook NookBook NookBook NookBook Nook .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Few articles have inspired as much con-troversy as our reprinting Ms. Shaland’sarticle on her recent visit to Kaifeng [PE28:2].

A number of readers took me to task forallowing obvious misinformation aboutthe Kaifeng Jews to continue to be dis-seminated. At the very least, it was sug-gested, I exercise editorial powers eitherto excise the offending information orclearly note that it is wrong.

Although the Jewish period of atonementhas passed, the gates of repentance arenever closed, so let me ask forgivenessfrom you for this error in judgment andallow me to explain:

On the one hand, I like to publish allsorts of accounts of visits to Kaifeng; onthe other hand, I also recognized that Ms.Shaland was being given misinformationeither knowingly or unknowingly by herChinese Jewish hosts. I assumed, rightlyor wrongly, that it was important for ourreaders to hear what some Chinese Jewsare currently saying about their past andthat most of our readers could distinguishbetween accurate and inaccurate informa-tion on their own.

(Although Ms. Shaland’s piece was a well-written typical tourist account, I found itfascinating as a story of how some KaifengJews Kaifeng are using Jewish tourism asa means of economic advancement—andthere’s nothing wrong with that. But onehas to wonder about their knowledge leveland motivation. Do they simply not knowwhat information is true and accurate ordo they choose to create stories to suittheir own purposes, or is it something elseagain? Time will tell.)

Still, new readers might not be knowl-edgeable enough to distinguish fact fromfiction and thus could be misled by thisbad information. Furthermore, as a repu-table journal, we have an obligation tobe accurate and to ensure, to the best ofour ability, that the information wepresent is information. Accordingly, fromnow on, I will do my best to delineatetruth from fallacy in all future articles.

Anson Laytner

Points EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints EastPoints East 11 11 11 11 11

2000). In the last decade, however, re-search has benefitted greatly from newChinese language sources about this sub-ject—much of it collected in PeterKupfer’s edited volume, Youtai: Presenceand Perception of Jews and Judaism inChina (Peter Lang, 2008), a work thatdoes not appear in Paper’s bibliography.Yet even with its bibliographic limita-tions, Jordan Paper’s book will shed newlight on Jewish life and thought for schol-ars and general readers alike. I myself(having researched Jewish and Chinesecultural comparisons) plan to use this textin a new undergraduate seminar on thehistory of the Jewish experience in China.

What is truly novel in Paper’s study isthe reconsideration of Christian sourcesabout the Chinese Jews. Starting with theJesuits, missionaries have been carefullyrecording the religious practices of KaifengJewry, but clearly with a bias. BishopCharles William White (an early 20thcentury Canadian Protestant) continuedthis tradition of scholarship—but again,with an eye toward how the Judaism ofKaifeng could be made to accommodateChristian ideas. Jordan Paper has re-trans-lated many of the sources were collectedby Christian scholars, with a new em-phasis upon the authentic Jewishness ofthe Kaifeng diaspora. He mines newmeaning from the 3 communal steleserected in Kaifeng in 1489, 1663 and1679. He also probes more deeply thanprevious scholars the 24 horizontal tab-lets and 17 pairs of vertical plaques thatwere present in the Kaifeng synagogue.Although this may not seem like volu-minous evidence with respect to otherJewish cultures, in China these steles andtablets yield fresh insight about how na-tive beliefs and Judaism were harmonizedto create a faith that was clan orientedand also mirrored some of the deepesttheological views of Saadia Gaon and theRambam.

Jordan Paper’s book takes a while to getto this core argument about the religiousoutlook of the Chinese Jews. The firsthalf of his study recapitulates snippetsof history covered in more detail by ear-lier researchers such as Donald Leslie andmore recent Chinese scholars such asZhang Yilang. What is important in thisoverview is the argument about the im-plications of Jewish integration into Chi-nese society during and after the Song

dynasty. Whereas other researchers havenoted the absence of anti-Semitism (es-pecially of the virulent Christian kind)in China, Paper underscores the contrastbetween the Kaifeng experience with thatof German Jews invited to Poland as taxcollectors for the nobility (p. 88). Farfrom earning the enmity of local peas-ants, Chinese Jews became part of anurban elite that integrated successfullywith its Chinese neighbors—Confucianand Muslim alike. The result was a vi-brant and enduring Jewish community.As Jordan Paper points out, the oldestsynagogue in Prague lasted 730 yearswhile the Kaifeng synagogue functioned678 years, from 1163 to 1841 (p.4). Itwas, in his view, also as successful assome of the oldest Jewish communitiesin Persia, with the exception “perhaps ofBaghdad” (p. 94).

The Persian roots of Kaifeng Judaism playa key role in Jordan Paper’s conjecturesabout the theology of Chinese Jews. Al-though other researchers have noted thetrade routes that brought Jewish mer-chants across the Silk Road and to thecoastal ports in China, no one else hasdeveloped as fully the implications ofMizrahi (versus Ashkenazi) theology forthe Chinese community. For example, anew work entitled The Haggadah of theKaifeng Jews of China by Fook-KongWong and Dahlia Yasharpour (Boston,2011) does detail the Judeo-Persian lan-guage and customs of Iranian Jews andhow they affected Kaifeng practices—butit does not dwell upon the theologicalimplications of this syncretic approach.Paper, by contrast, asks explicitly: Whatdid Chinese Jews believe about G-d?About Mashiach [Messiah]? About thecentrality of the Exodus and ofYerushalaim [Jerusalem] to Jewish beliefs?

The answers come from an honestly“speculative” reading of classical Chinesephilosophy and of the theology of SaadiaGaon. Both, Jordan Paper argues, resistedanthropomorphism and emphasized ab-stract notions such as creation ex nihilo.Whereas, other scholars have describedthe placards in the Kaifeng synagogue asDaoist objects created by non-Jewish li-terati (who were indeed commissionedto write some of these texts), Paper pointsout how these fragments echo SaadiaGaon’s words and views. There is more

than simply verbal play at stake here (asfor example the echo between a line inthe Dao De Jing and a Kabbalistic cou-plet about raza de razin, stima de-kholstimim (“mystery of mysteries, the mostconcealed of all truth” p. 136). At thecore, we find an appeal to expand ourappreciation for what constitutes genu-ine Judaism by making room for sinifiednotions such as Tian –Sky’s Truth (en-riching notions of the Hebrewshamayim), and Xiao—reverence for pa-triarchs and family ancestors (p. 92, 94).

Is the assimilation of non-Jewish ideasand values, then, the best prescriptionfor Jewish longevity? Yes, answers Jor-dan Paper emphatically in many placesin this book. Alas, there is too muchcontrary evidence from the history ofChinese Jews and the fate of AmericanJewry—which also concerns the authoras well as Rabbi Anson Laytner, whowrote the thought-provoking postscriptabout our post-Shoah longing for a the-ology of inclusiveness. Even though Pa-per and Laytner are critical of OrthodoxJudaism, both writers concede that whatkept Chinese Jews Jewish was an incli-nation toward orthopraxis rather thanuniversalist beliefs.

Attachment to some form of kashrut andto the sacredness of inherited texts (evenafter Hebrew became unintelligible inthe Kaifeng community) sowed the seedsof the Chinese Jewish renewal that weare witnessing today. To be sure, old di-lemmas endure: Who is really a Jew (es-pecially since very few Chinese Jews hadJewish mothers)? Should one make aliyaor build new Jewish institutions on na-tive ground? These questions are stilldebated in Kaifeng as well as in Jerusa-lem, in Shanghai and in Tel Aviv, inBeijing and in Paris. Wherever Jews re-main committed to some form of tradi-tion and to a shared destiny, JordanPaper’s book will find its interested read-ers.

Vera Schwarcz, the Vice-president of theSino-Judaic Institute, is the Freeman Pro-fessor of East Asian Studies at WesleyanUniversity. Among her recent publica-tions are her new poetry book Chisel ofRemembrance, (http://www.antrimhousebooks.com/schwarcz.html) and Place andMemory in the Singing Crane Garden.

Page 12: JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE - …whynotcollectibles.com/uploaded_pictures/2013_Nov_Points East_Sino... · The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, ... literature, diasporas,

A BIG WEEKEND WITHFORMER SHANGHAI REFUGEES

by Bev Friend

(continued on page 4) (continued on page 6)

Vol. 28 No. 3 A Publication of the Sino-Judaic InstituteNovember 2013

(continued on page 4)

TIME TO STOP PROJECTING OURFANTASIES ONTO KAIFENG JEWS

by Barnaby Yeh

There exists a story out there which describes a Jewish travelerarriving in China. As fate would have it, he encountered theJewish community of Kaifeng. Starving for kosher food, he joinedthem for a Shabbat meal. During the meal, he noticed that thelocals were serving meat that was cooked in milk. Shocked, heprodded one of the locals, and (presumably in a commontongue) asked, “Do you not know that we are forbidden fromcooking meat and dairy together?”

“It is nothing to worry about,” assured the Kaifeng Jew, “forthe prohibition in the Torah is only against cooking a calf in itsmother’s milk. We have kept rigorous records of which cowbore which calf and rest assured that violating this serious lawis an impossibility.”

Bemused at this assertion, the traveler rejoined, “But it is saidthat we are not to cook or even serve meat and milk together atall, right in the Talmud-”

Upon hearing that last word, the Chinese hosts exploded inindignation. “Who is greater – Moses or the Talmud?!”

If this story sounds outlandish to you, then you would be cor-rect. After all, the very notion of a Chinese community servingdairy at all, let alone together with meat, is ridiculous to allwho have a basic acquaintance with Chinese culture and cui-sine (or anyone who has been to a Chinese restaurant!). Indeed,in a culture filled with lactose-intolerant individuals, this storysimply could not have happened. It is much more likely that aKaraite or someone with an anti-Talmudic polemic had con-cocted this story, using Kaifeng as a backdrop because it was“exotic” and too far-flung for anyone to check its veracity.

Research into the Jewish community of Kaifeng is an ongoingprocess, and new revelations are constantly surfacing (such asJordan Paper’s 2012 publication The Theology of the ChineseJews, which details the syncretistic ideology of the Jewish com-munity with Daoism and Confucianism). As such, each revela-tion makes the overall picture of this almost-lost communitymore complete. But many gaps still remain, leading to ram-pant speculation and conjecture. As a result, many misconcep-tions and falsehoods still hold mythic status in people’s under-standing of the community. The vignette above was just one

After giving a briefoverview of the his-tory of JewishWorld War II refu-gees sheltered inShanghai, keynotespeaker ProfessorSteve Hochstadt,author of Exodus toShanghai, stories ofescape from thethird Reich, madea very perceptivepoint. Looking outat an audience ofabout 150 attend-ing the Spungen Family Foundation’s Shanghai Memory Din-ner Event (Chicago, Aug 15) he noted not only the importanceof keeping this history alive, but also that the history is notcoming from the original refugees but from their now adultchildren. Sixteen of them sat at our individual tables, relatingwhat they could recall from their own memories and the talestold by their parents. It is an important, fascinating, and sadlyincomplete view.

Hochstadt and these survivors shared memories, and the nextday at the follow-up luncheon held in the Holocaust Museumin Skokie, IL, we discovered another side of the coin fromanother offspring: Manli Ho, daughter of diplomat and hu-manitarian Dr. Ho Feng Shan who saved thousands of Aus-trian Jews by granting them Shanghai entry visas in his role asChina’s Counsel General in Vienna. A reporter, Manli…forthe past 15 years has been uncovering and documenting hiswork. Dr. Ho received no recognition during his lifetime, butthis was rectified in 2000 when Israel awarded him the titleRighteousness Among Nations, posthumously at Yad Vashem.

At both Foundation events, a long table held a display of Ho-locaust memorabilia from Danny Spungen’s considerable col-lection, as well as copies of Hockstadt’s book and several ofthe new limited edition series of Shanghai Memory Silver andGold Medals to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the es-

Steve Hochstadt & Manli Ho

1212121212 Points East Points East Points East Points East Points East

JOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTEJOIN THE SINO-JUDAIC INSTITUTE

The Sino-Judaic Institute is a non-denominational, non-profit, and non-political organization,founded on June 27, 1985, in Palo Alto, California, by an international group of scholars and laypersons, to promote friendship and understanding between the Chinese and Jewish peoples and toencourage and develop their cooperation in matters of mutual historical and cultural interest. Itsobjectives are:

1) The study of the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng and assisting its descendents as appropriate.

2) The study of Jewish life in Shanghai, Harbin, Tianjin and elsewhere in the 19th and 20th centuries.

3) The support of Jewish studies programs in China.

4) The study of cultural intersections between Chinese and Jews, for example adoptions, literature, diasporas, etc.

5) The study of Sino-Israeli relations.

6) To cooperate with other groups whose interests lie in Sinitic and Judaic matters.

Membership in the Institute is open and we cordially invite you to join in supporting our endeavor.Our annual dues structure is as follows:

Benefactor ......................................... $1,000 Patron ..................................................... 500 Corporate Patron .................................... 500 Corporate Sponsor ........................250 to 499 Corporate Member .......................250 to 499 Sponsor .................................................. 100 Regular Member ....................................... 50 Libraries .................................................... 50 Academic ................................................. 30 Senior Citizens .......................................... 25

Students .................................................... 25

I wish to become a member of the Sino-Judaic Institute and receive Points East three times a year. Enclosed ismy check for $ .

PLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINTPLEASE PRINT

Name:

Address:

Home Phone: Work Phone:

Fax: E-Mail:

Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,Mail to: The Sino-Judaic Institute, Prof. Steve Hochstadt, Dept. of History, Illinois College,1101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 626501101 West College Ave, Jacksonville IL 62650


Recommended