Jews and Judaism in China have had a long history. Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century , but may have arrived during the mid Han Dynasty, or even as early as 231 BCE. Relatively isolated communities developed through the and Dynasties all the way through the Qing Dynasty , most notably in the Kaifeng Jews . By the time of the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, few if any native Chinese Jews were known to have maintained the practice of their religion and culture. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, however, some international Jewish groups have helped Chinese Jews rediscover their heritage.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigrants from around the world arrived with Western commercial and quasi-colonialist influences, particularly in the commercial centers of Shanghai and Hong Kong, which was for a time a British colony. Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees escaping from the and the Holocaust in Europe were to find sanctuary in China in successive decades.
Today, with the current expansion of trade and globalization, Jews of many ethnicities from multiple regions of the world have settled permanently and temporarily in China's major cities.
Overview
China's Jewish communities have been ethnically diverse ranging from the Jews of Kaifeng and other places during the history of Imperial China, who, it is reported, came to be more or less totally assimilated into Chinese culture, to 19th and 20th century , to , to Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.
The presence of a community of Jewish immigrants in China is consistent with the history of the Jewish people during the first and second millennia CE, which saw them disperse and settle throughout the Eurasian landmass, with an especial concentration throughout central Asia.
By the ninth century, ibn Khordadbeh noted the travels of Jewish merchants called ''Radhanites'', whose trade took them to China via The Silk Road through Central Asia and India.
During the period of international opening and quasi-colonialism, the first group to settle in China were Jews who arrived in China under British protection following the First Opium War. Many of these Jews were of Indian or Iraqi origin, due to British colonialism in these regions. The second community came in the first decades of the 20th century when many Jews arrived in Hong Kong and Shanghai during those cities' periods of economic expansion.
Many more arrived as refugees from the Russian Revolution of 1917. A surge of Jews and Jewish families was to arrive in the late 1930s and 1940s, for the purpose of seeking refuge from the Holocaust in Europe and were predominantly of European origin. Shanghai was notable for its volume of Jewish refugees, most of whom left after the war, the rest relocating prior to or immediately after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Over the centuries, the Kaifeng community came to be virtually indistinguishable from the Chinese population and is not recognized by the Chinese government as a separate . This is as a result of having adopted many Han Chinese customs including patrilineal descent, as well as extensive intermarriage with the local population. Since their religious practices are functionally extinct, they are not eligible for expedited immigration to Israel under the Law of Return unless they explicitly convert.
Today, some descendants of Jews still live in the Han Chinese and population. Some of them, as well as international Jewish communities, are beginning to revive their interest in this heritage. This is especially important in modern China because belonging to any minority group includes a variety of benefits including and easier admission standards to tertiary education.
The study of Judaism in China has been, like other Western religions, a subject of interest to some Westerners, and has achieved moderate success compared to other western studies in China.
History
It has been asserted by some that the Jews that have historically resided in various places in China originated with the Lost Ten Tribes of the exiled ancient Kingdom of Israel who relocated to the areas of present-day China. Traces of some ancient have been observed in some places.
One well-known group was the Kaifeng Jews, who are purported to have traveled from Persia to India during the mid-Han Dynasty and later migrated from the Muslim-inhabited regions of northwestern China to Henan province during the early Northern Song Dynasty .
Two of the refer to a written on the back of Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. The tattoo, which reads ''jǐn zhōng bào guó'' , first appeared in a section of the 1489 stele talking about the Jews’ “Boundless loyalty to the country and Prince”. The second appeared in a section of the 1512 stele talking about how Jewish soldiers and officers in the Chinese armies were “Boundlessly loyal to the country.” One source even claims that Israelites served as soldiers in the armies of Yue Fei..
21st century
Synagogues are found in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong today, serving both international Jews and native Jews.
In 2005, the Israeli embassy to China held their Hanukkah celebrations at the Great Wall of China .
Famous Jews in China
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*Israel Epstein
*Sidney Rittenberg
*Jakob Rosenfeld
*Sidney Shapiro
*Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln
*Zhao Yingcheng
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