Kaifeng
Kaifeng History
The Jewish History of Kaifeng
Detailed History of Kaifeng Jews
by Michael Pollak (z”l), revised and updated by Jordan Paper and Anson Laytner (Summer 2018)
Overview
For 166 years, beginning in 960 C.E., China was ruled by the emperors of the Song Dynasty from their capital at Kaifeng, then a bustling metropolis along the banks of the Yellow River, which connected the city via the Grand Canal to the seaports on the Chinese coast. Contrary to popular belief, Kaifeng was not on the legendary Silk Road, which in earlier times (and subsequently as well) linked China to trading partners in the West. [It is some 550 kilometers (350 miles) to Xi’an, the actual terminus of the Silk Road.
While some Jews may have arrived earlier, the first time that they referred to their own presence in China was in the Song Dynasty (960-1127). According to the 1489 stele, or commemorative stone tablet, a band of Jews, probably maritime merchants speaking Judeo-Persian and hailing from either the seaports in Ningbo or Yangzhou, was granted an audience in the imperial palace and the emperor graciously accepted the tribute of cotton goods they had brought to him, saying, “You have come to my China. Honor and observe the customs of your ancestors”. Most scholars believe this indicates the formal start of the Jewish community of Kaifeng.
This same stele, which also detailed their rituals and core beliefs, was placed in a place of honor in the courtyard of the synagogue that had been constructed in the year 1163 at the intersection of Kaifeng's Earth Market and Fire God Streets. This monument is now among the holdings of the Municipal Museum of Kaifeng. (Read more ...)
Kaifeng Travel
Kaifeng Travel
JEWISH SITES
As of the summer of 2015, Jewish sites in Kaifeng are closed.
Kaifeng Municipal Museum
12 Baogonghu Middle Road, Kaifeng
开封市包公湖中路12号
The museum contains the original stelae erected by the Jewish community in 1489, 1512, and 1679, rubbings, and several other objects in an attractive but meagre exhibit, still locked away on its top floor, but accessible to tourists upon request.
Song Dynasty Park
Zhongshan Lu Beiduan, Long Ting District
龙亭公园, 河南省开封市龙亭区中山路北段
The park has a photo exhibit on the Kaifeng Jews, donated by the Sino-Judaic Institute, that should be accessible to everyone but is still only open
by special request.
Merchant Guild Temple
Xufu Jie, Gulou District, Kaifeng
This Temple has a small but good exhibit in Chinese on the Kaifeng Jews as well as a recently-returned bowl from the Royal Ontario Museum. However, its Jewish exhibit has been removed.
Private Family Museums
Esther Guo Yan and the Zhao family maintain a small private museum in the last remaining Jewish home on the old South Teaching Torah Lane.
Shi Lei and the Shi family created a private museum, the status of which is unknown.
JEWISH TOURS OF KAIFENG
Rabbi Marvin Tokayer - Offers kosher tours of China www.jewisheyes.com
Cantor Joy Katzen-Guthrie http://www.joyfulnoise.net/tours/china.html
KAIFENG JEWISH TOURS
Note: Since 2015 Jewish tour groups have not been permitted to visit Kaifeng.
KAIFENG TRAVEL CONSULTANTS
Dr. Wendy Abraham
Esther Guo Yan - Kaifeng Jewish descendant - Fluent in English
Shi Lei - Kaifeng Jewish descendent - Fluent in English and Hebrew
Kaifeng Resources
Kaifeng Resources
Abraham, Wendy Robin. The Role of Confucian and Jewish Educational Values in the Assimilation of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, Supplemented by Western Accounts, 1605-1985 (EdD Dissertation: Teacher's College, Columbia University, 1989)
Bernstein, M.Y. Globalization, Translation and Transmission: Sino-Judaic Cultural Identity in Kaifeng, China (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2017)
Buck, Pearl S. Peony [novel] (1948)
Chan, Sui-Jeung. Jews in Kaifeng: Reflections on Sino-Judaic History (HK: Hong Kong Jewish Chronicle, 1986)
Kublin, H. (comp.), Jews in Old China: Some Western Views (1971)
_____, Studies of the Chinese Jews: Selections from Journals East and West (1971)
Laytner, A. The Jews of Kaifeng: Yesterday and Today (Lecture Video, August 2021)
Laytner, A. and Paper, J., eds. The Chinese Jewish of Kaifeng: A Millennium of Adaptation and Endurance (2017)
Leslie, D. D. The Survival of the Chinese Jews: The Jewish Community of K'aifeng (1972)
Loewenthal, Rudolph. Jews in China: A bibliography (1939)
______. Jews in China: An annotated bibliography (1940)
_____. Early Jews in China: A supplementary bibliography (1946)
Paper, J. The Theology of the Chinese Jews, 1000-1850 (2012)
Perednik, Gustavo, "The Chinese of Jewish Descent at Kaifeng," in Alternative Orientalisms, (UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007)
Pollak, M. The Torah Scrolls of the Chinese Jews (1975)
_____. Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries: The Jewish Experience in the Chinese Empire (1980 and 1998)
Rebouh, Caroline. The Jews of China: History of a Community and its Perspectives (2018)
Shapiro, S., trans. and ed. Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholar (1984 and 2001)
Simons, C. Jewish Religious Observance by the Jews of Kaifeng China (2013)
_____. A History of the Kaifeng Israelites (2018)
Urbach, Noam. “What Prevented the Reconstruction of the Chinese Synagogue?
Kaifeng Jews between Revival and Obliteration,” in P. Kupfer, ed. Youtai— Presence and Perception of Jews and Judaism in China, (Frankfort am Main: Peter Lang, 2008)
_____. "Kaifeng Judaism Today: Revival or Reintroduction," in Tudor Parfitt and Netanel Fisher, eds., Becoming Jewish: New Jews and Emerging Jewish Communities in a Globalized World (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars, 2016)
Weisz, Tiberiu. The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions: The Legacy of the Jewish Community in Ancient China (New York: Universe, 2006)
(Points East, A Publication of the Sino-Judaic Institute, Vol. 23, No. 2, July 2008)
White, William Charles, comp., Chinese Jews: A Compilation of Matters Relating to the Jews of K'ai-feng Fu (1966)
_____. Chinese Jews (1962)
Xu, Xin, The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion (2003)
_____. Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (1995)
Zhou, Xun. "The 'Kaifeng Jew' Hoax: Constructing the 'Chinese Jew'," in Ivan
Davidson Kalmar and Derek J. Penslar, eds., Orientalism and the Jews (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2005)
(Note: Although most scholars accept a Tang or Song dynasty date for the entry of Jews into China, a few scholars, both Chinese and Western, hypothesize a much earlier arrival time, in the Han dynasty.)
Films:
Steven E. Calcote and Jonathan M. Shulman, Minyan in Kaifeng (Waltham, MA: The
National Center of Jewish Film, Brandeis Univ., 2001)
Joan Grossman & Paul Rosdy, The Port of Last Resort: Zuflucht in Shanghai
(Waltham: National Center for Jewish Film, 1998)
Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann, Shanghai Ghetto (2005)
Robert Kirk, Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness (Year?)
LIC Australia, China From Within: Shanghai Jews (200?)
Karen Shopsowitz, A Place to Save Your Life: The Story of the Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai, China Montreith Inn Productions (NY: Filmakers Library,
1992)
Yossi Turisky, Chinese Jews on the Banks of the Yellow River (Waltham: The National
Center for Jewish Film, 198?)
Zhao family in front of their home on South Teaching Scripture Lane, early 20th century
DONATE
The Denise Yeh Bresler Kaifeng Scholarship Fund
The Denise Yeh Bresler Kaifeng Scholarship Fund
The Denise Yeh Bresler Kaifeng Scholarship Fund
Arthur H. Rosen Sino-Judaic Memorial Fund
The Denise Yeh Bresler Kaifeng Scholarship Fund
The Denise Yeh Bresler Kaifeng Scholarship Fund