A Chinese Jew: Prime Minister in China

 Li Gang 

China’s Israelite Prime Minister: 

Hero of the Defense of Kaifeng

By Tiberiu Weisz

 

In January of 1126 CE, Kaifeng the capital city of China, was under siege: the Song Dynasty (960- 1279) was on the verge of collapse.  As a last resort to save the empire, the Chinese Emperor charged Li Gang with the defense of Kaifeng, and appointed him Prime Minister. 

Li Gang was a Chinese Jew...

Now for the first time, the story of the Chinese Jewish Prime Minister is brought to Western readers.  Please contact the author for a free copy of the article @  

kaifegnstones@yahoo.com

A History of the Kaifeng Israelites (2018) 

(available on Amazon)

Author's Note

The current Chinese government does everything to erase the classical Chinese term of youren for Jews in modern Chinese language. Instead they use the modern word of youtairen, a term with a very short history and conveniently refers to the Western Jews who live in China since the 18th century. It replaced the word xibolai, a more traditional Chinese term for Jews, still in use in Taiwan. Ever since the Communist takeover in 1949, the descendants of the original Chinese Jews had been denied recognition as Jews. 

This book , "A History of the Kaifeng Israelites" is based solely on original Chinese texts, translated here for the first time, proves that Israelites resided in China in antiquity, they participated in the Chinese way of life, and some Judaic concepts sprouted seed in Chinese way of thinking. 

No revision of history will change that. 

Synopsis:  "A History of the Kaifeng Israelites"  adds a new chapter to the history of the Jews, bringing to light the sanctuary that Israelites priests had established in China in biblical time and they were known in Chinese literature for their erudition and skills.
The book traces a small group of Israelites in Chinese literature who migrated and settled in China in biblical times. New addition to the history of the Jews is the identification of the Chinese terms (Chinese characters) that denoted Israelites in Chinese literature, and based on that the book provides documentation that attested to their presence and activity. Their sanctuary in China was mentioned in the Zhou Dynasty  (7th century BCE) or 1000 years before the West became aware of their existence. This is their story collected from Chinese literary works.

Reviews:

1 Villager January 31, 2018

The [Highland] Villager features  author Tiberiu Weisz in an article by Dave Page:

"Author helps uncover 1000-year history of Jews in China."

2. February 28, 201

The author and book Is featured: 
https://twitter.com/tsdm/status/968979260592607232

3. Kyoto Journal 92 posted a review  of the book: 
https://tiberiuw.blogspot.com/2018/10/kyoto-journal-92-reviews-history-of.html

Israelite "holy men" in China

The Roots of Israelite

“Holy Men” in China

Tiberiu Weisz

“We call ourselves yi-zu-le-ye [Israelites], not Jews” said a Chinese Jew to a Jesuit priest in Beijing in China in the 17th century. The Chinese word was a transliteration of the biblical term for Israel. And just like Western languages had a non- biblical term for Israelites, Jew in English, Jude in German, Juif in French and Yehudi in Hebrew, so did China: youren, 猶人 (holy men) was the word for Israelites in Chinese. Not to be confused with youtairen, the modern term for Jews in Chinese. Youren referred to the Israelite priests and their descendants who lived in China since biblical times; while youtairen is the word used for Jews in general since the mid 19^th century.

The word youren first appeared in the Chinese literature in the saying of Laozi, c.a.7th century BCE, who wondered how could the youren [Israelites] remain faithful to their religion with so few followers.

Confucius (551-479 BCE) also mentioned youren in a cryptic message saying: “I am youren”. This sentence puzzled scholars and translators who erroneously rendered it  ” I am like others”. Chinese commentators found it unexplainable, and for no better alternative, they accepted the interpretation of Zhu Xi (d.1200 CE), China’s most prominent commentator: “there was a defect in the text”.

Lesser known works in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) pointed to the erudition of the youren and their lasting impression on the Chinese. They praised the skills of youren [Israelites] for their accomplishments as physicians, healers, and musicians. It became evident the youren had a long history in China, long before the Han Dynasty. 

How did youren become associated with Israelites in China? 

After the Babylonian exile (536 BCE), the Jewish masses [am ha-arez] were in need of guidance of the Law, so they turned  with their questions to men of letters, called scribes. Traditionally, the scribes were the Cohanim and Levites, the priestly class, well versed in the laws of the Torah and the ceremonies of the Temple period. They talked to the people about Temple, Torah, government, holidays, rites etc… but most importantly, they emphasized their priestly roles in Jewish life. 

Initially the wisdom of the scribes was transmitted orally, but later, the disciples jotted them down to compile the Mishnah, the original written version of the oral law in Hebrew and Aramaic, and completed in the 2nd century CE.

Eventually, the scribes attained a certain recognition, and to protect their reputation and elevated status, they appended their name with an iah (pronounces  yau/yah/you). Thus, an original name of Abbad became Abbadiah, Azar became Azariah, Hanann became Hananniah, Nehem became Nehemiah and so on…

However, when Prophet Ezra demanded the Cohanim and Levites in exile to separate and leave their gentile wives behind, many of them decided not to return to Jerusalem. Instead, they headed eastwards to India. Several generations later, their descendants wandered further East and reached the outskirts of China. According to Chinese sources they established sanctuary in China. 

In China, the Israelite priests maintained a low profile. They emphasized modesty, did not glorify themselves, nor their personalities; they remained anonymous, only their wisdom was preserved. They strived to perpetuate the customs of the community as it was before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE. Those customs are preserved today, frozen in time, in the four stelae that the Chinese Jews engraved in stones. (For details, see: The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions.) 

(An image of a traveling youren ("holy man") in the 8th century CE as described in the  Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary called Tongdian. -Tiberiu Weisz.

But their anonymity did not last long. The appended iah (pronounced you) to their Hebrew names attracted the attention of the Chinese as it corresponded to the Chinese word of you 猶, that in antiquity meant “monk, priest.”  According to the Tongdian, the most comprehensive encyclopedic Chinese dictionary at the times (published in 801 CE), the character you referred to people who serviced temples and performed religious ceremonies. Suitably, the Chinese named the Israelite Cohanim and Levites, youren “holy men.” 

As youren, they enjoyed the same privileges as any other monks in China. They were granted land to build their place of worship and follow their beliefs. Over time they realized that their own teachings conformed with many of the Confucian values, and differed only in details. Inevitably, that hastened their rapid assimilation. By the time of the Later Han Dynasty (25 - 220 CE), the youren were so integrated that one Chinese scholar remarked: “they [youren] do things like we do, they are one of us.”  Gradually they lost their Israelite identity and became han Chinese, to live in the shadows of the Chinese culture. 

The current Chinese government adheres to the policy that youren became han (Chinese) in antiquity, therefore they no longer to be considered Jews. Instead, the Chinese prefer the modern term youtairen for Jews, a relatively new word with no prior history in China. Subsequently, references to youren , as Israelites , have been redacted in the simplified versions of ancient Chinese literature, their history expunged. Fortunately, the original full character archives are preserved in Taiwan.

[For an in-depth history of the “youren” [Israelites] in China, please read my book A History of the Kaifeng Israelites (2018)], and for a translation and annotation of the Chinese stela in a dual cultural context, see: The Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions (2006)] 

Book review: The Covenant and Mandate of Heaven

Scholarly Work Contrasts 

Jewish and Chinese Cultures

by Tiberiu Weisz

IUniverse 2008.

Reviewed by Eric Shoag

The Jewish Journal Boston North

September 25, 2008

In the aftermath of all the spectacle and rhetoric that characterized the recent Olympic Games in Beijing, one may discover a growing unease and curiosity concerning the strange land many are predicting will become the next superpower.

In his new book, The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven, scholar and author Tiberiu Weisz has done an outstanding job not only collapsing thousands of years of Chinese history into one short work, but also comparing that rich fascinating history of that of the Jewish people, pointing out the many parallels, differences and ironies between the two unrelated cultures.

The concept is a unique and curious one, and Weisz performs adorably under the circumstances. The author exercises superhuman focus and restraint to touch on the key points and figures throughout the centuries and not get bogged down in too many details or digressions. The result in a very readable, sometimes dizzying journey from Biblical ties through Antiquity to Modernity, and somehow, improbably, it works.

Beginning with the basic idea of God and Creation, Weisz shows immediate parallels between the two peoples, whose concept of Supreme Being forbade the construction of images or idols and demanded high moral standards its worshippers. Weisz also shows how the Torah of the Jews and the Liji, or Book of Rites, for the Chinese, have been instrumental in shaping the philosophies and destinies of both, providing a basic moral framework aw well as of inspiration. 

Though some of the connections the author makes are a bit tenuous or contrived, and the unavoidable promotional blurbs attempt to tie everything together in an neat, pithy package of “yin and yang”, what emerges is an enlightening study of two cultures that have overcome many challenges and catastrophes to not only survive, but thrive and outlast many other civilizations that have come and gone. The way both Chinese and Jewish people have met and overcome those challenges are at times remarkably similar: by re-examining their past and reinventing themselves again and again for the future.

Some of the similarities are truly uncanny, from the importance of an “oral tradition” of learning that grew out of the teaching of Confucius for the Chinese, and who eventually became the books of laws and commentaries that are the Mishna for the Jews, to the appearance oft charismatic figures at a particularly dark time to reinvigorate both cultures. 

Though they lived two hundred years apart, both Shabbatai Zvi (1626-1676) and Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864) had grandiose Messianic ideas of their personal destinies, and inspired legions of followers who had become disenchanted be the restrictive rules of their respective cultures. Though both their movement ultimately failed, they were instrumental in shaping the Jewish and Chinese futures, injecting an essential celebratory, ecstatic element into what had become in both cases a dry joyless observance.

Most fascinating, however, are the sometimes startlingly ironic differences between the two people , and the opposite ways they met some of their challenges. While both the Chinese and Jews were isolated from the rest of the world, the forms of that isolation were quite different. Where China was cut off physically from its surrounding neighbors, the Jews wandered through many lands and were separated from others by their own beliefs and practices. 

In the early 20th century both people had new challenges. To facilitate the Zionist dream of settling a Jewish homeland, the Jews had to learn to become farers and laborers. Conversely, to combat the threat of Colonialism, China with its enormous population of illiterate workers, had to cultivate a new class of intellectuals and in sense join the modern world they had long ignored.  

And yet, strange similarities persist. In both cases language was a major uniting factor, as the Chinese began their journey of literacy and the Jews resurrected  their biblical language of Hebrew to unify their own nationalist movement. 

As Weisz writes,”…this was the beauty of their heritage: they could be influenced by other cultures and absorb foreign ideas, but they always rose above the challenges and reached new heights.” From exile and disunity, the destruction of the Temple and the Mongol conquest to the Holocaust and Cultural Revolution, The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven is a crash course in the history of two fascinating contrasting cultures and people, and cannot fail to excite even the most casual reader.

Song and lyrics of Kaifeng Jews

Rabbi Josh Snyder offers, in the link below, a song of the Kaifeng Jews based on lyrics from my translation of the Neo Confucian inscriptions of 1512. This particular inscription enshrined in stone  several liturgical traditions of the Chinese Jews that were transmitted orally ever since they settled in China in biblical times. While the original Chinese text reflects the mixture of Judaism with Chinese characteristics, the accompanied song is the composers modern interpretation.


http://shma.com/2013/12/from-the-1512-stele-of-the-kaifeng-jewish-community-song/

The US- China Review

Israelites in China

By Tiberiu Weisz

Published in The US-China Review, Spring 2019 vol LIII, 2

This topic of the Israelites in China has puzzled scholars and researchers ever since a limelight was shone on the remnant of the Jewish community in Kaifeng in 1605. On that day, a Chinese Jew named Ai Tian walked into the office of Mateo Ricci, a Jesuit priest serving in Beijing, and revealed that the he was a descendant of Chinese Jews. It caught Ricci totally by surprise, and he was in disbelief.  Nobody in the West had the slightest indication that Jews lived in China, let alone Jews of Chinese origin. After that meeting, a swirl of activities surrounded scholars, diplomats, missionaries, and Jewish travelers and adventurers in the West who embarked on a search for the Chinese Jews. They wrote reports, articles, and books that were cycled and recycled to explain this strange event in Western media, but none came close to explaining the story of the Chinese Jews. It did not help that the translation of the Kaifeng stelae by Bishop White (1873-1960) could not find any trace to biblical references in the Chinese text, nor did it help that the Jewish artifacts found in Kaifeng could not provide conclusive results of their origin (attributed to late 17th-18th century imports from Persia). 

And of course it did not help that the dynastic Chinese language was very difficult to interpret, let alone make sense of in translation. The Chinese characters youren 猶人 for Israelites [Jews] appeared in the earliest Chinese literature.They were a tribe and treated as such, but never occurred to Westerners or translators to verify their roots, though some Chinese commentators suggested biblical origin. Unlocking the mystery of the community without a thorough knowledge of literary Chinese proved to be elusive.

We almost got a break in the mystery of the Chinese Jews with the introduction of the term youtairen 猶 太人 into the Chinese vocabulary. This combination was attributed to an article written by Dao Guang (1821-1851), and had been hastily accepted as the official term for Israelites/Jews. But prior to this, youtairen had no history. Yet, the tribe of youren had a recorded history in Chinese literature, and “by any other name” they were Israelites.  

Neither Chinese lexicographers nor commentators found an appropriate definition to the term of youren. Though this term was used in the writings of Laozi (7th century BCE), Confucius (551-479 BCE), and later in dynastic histories, it was translated as either “other people” or “as if, like…” It frustrated Chinese commentators to the point that the most famous commentator Zhu Xi, (d. 1200) declared that there was a “defect in the text.” These sages were the bedrock of Chinese civilization, yet when they encountered youren, they did not realize that they faced people of a tribe who followed biblical customs. Only the sage Mencius (372-289 BCE) left us a fragmented description of some of their customs that I found to make sense in a Sino-Judaic context. But spiritual belief in China was a matter of tribal privacy.  

So who were the youren and how did they find their way to China? Their identity is revealed for the first time in my book A History of the Kaifeng Israelites, that digs deeply into Chinese literature, in Chinese, to trace their presence and activities. 

The earliest reference to China in Western literature can be traced to King Solomon in biblical times (9th century BCE). According to biblical history, King Solomon’s agents purchased war horses in a place called Kve/Kue: “…and the king’s  traders bought them [fine horses] from Kue/Kve at a price” (1 Kings 10:28). Until recently, Kve was believed to be a place in Anatolia [Turkey today] but when juxtaposed with comparative Chinese literature we learn that the market place for the finest warhorses was in Kucha [Kocha] in the Western Regions (south Azerbaijan today). Kucha was famous for breeding the finest “Heavenly Horses” (as the Chinese called them) and traders from “the four corners of the world” had come to purchase them. Incidentally, allowing for linguistic variations, the Hebrew name for Kue was identical to the Chinese name of Kucha. In other words, King Solomon’s agents purchased warhorses in the same place where the Chinese military purchased “Heavenly Horses”. Even if trade often was conducted through intermediaries, each side could have heard, or even come in contact with each other. 

Almost simultaneously, a reference to a biblical God in Chinese literature was enshrined in a ballad of a tribe, descendants of the Shang Dynasty in the Book of Songs, (ca. 7th century BCE) called the “Black Bird”:

 “The Ancient God commanded Adam (Wutang)

To occupy the four corners of the world”.

In rendering this translation, I followed the Chinese commentaries that pointed out that “since everything originated in Heaven, God can be called Ancient God, therefore it referred to the Israelite biblical God. Wutang was the Chinese name for biblical Adam.” Other translations had overlooked the connection between Ancient God, and Wutang to the biblical God and Adam. Yet, these clues were important indicators that the ancient Chinese had been aware of biblical stories just about the time that the Prophet Isaiah mentioned the “Land of Sinim” (Isaiah 49:12) (7th century BCE). The word “Sinim” is the Hebrew word for China. 

Was it a coincidence?

In re-reading early Chinese literature (in traditional Chinese characters) I noticed that the characters youren had also been used in the Chinese sage literature as early as the 7th century BCE, if not earlier. In the writing of Laozi, a mythological figure in the 7th century BCE, and the founder of Daoism, he clearly referred to the religion and activities of youren when he said: “How could a belief survive if it did not have enough followers? The teachings (religion) of youren [Israelites] were sacred, and people would say that they [youren] acted just as like us, the natives” (Guodian: Laozi). Evidently, Laozi was aware of the religion of the youren, he had either heard of them, or perhaps even encountered them in his travels. Even Confucius mentioned youren when he talked about court proceedings and praised them for their debating skills (Lun Yu). While these two sages referred to youren directly,  Mencius had an apparent encounter with a Western tribe, whose features seemed to him to be that of hanren (Chinese), but with very strange attributes and customs. Only when the text was framed in Sino-Judaic context, it became evident that Mencius described the conduct and activities of Israelite priests, or cohanim in Hebrew. This is perhaps the first sighting of youren as Israelite priests in China in 4th century BCE, and had already been sinicized, according to Mencius. 

Yet, the word youren was not entered the Chinese lexicography. It had neither dictionary form nor definition. Perhaps due to the lack of dictionary entry, scholars, translators, and Chinese commentators found this combination troublesome. In modern Chinese it means “still, as if, like” but in Classical Chinese it is a different matter.

To give you an idea of how words in Classical Chinese change, I will illustrate this point with a recent example. A colleague of mine who had lived and taught in China for a long time, asked three Chinese scholars to help him translate a text on an ancient vessel. When he got the translations back, there were three different versions. He was puzzled and asked me how was it possible. My answer surprised him. I acknowledged that all three translations could be correct, depending on how the text was segmented, measured and punctuated. It was an eye-opener for him. Doing research on China based on translations, or with only a rudimentary knowledge of the language carries its own perils. 

But, segmentation did not apply to the identification of people, tribes, religions, etc. in Classical Chinese. Characters for a place, country, nationality, or religion followed by the character ren, (people, person) were quite straightforward and meant the person, people, tribes from that place, country, religion. Thus, a Chinese person was called hanren, a mongol was manren, an arab was huiren, a teacher of religion was jiaoren, but when it came to youren these rules seemed to evaporate. For lack of a proper definition, translators usually rendered youren as “other people” or otherwise omitted it. 

Not only was youren lost in translations, so were the texts of the four Kaifeng stelae. Bishop White, a missionary with the  Anglican Church, rendered the most comprehensive translation of the Kaifeng stelae into English in the 1920s. Almost instantly it became the “official” translation. Unfortunately, the translation missed several critical Chinese historical markers, and the use of local vernacular, that later led to major misunderstandings. He also missed the Neo-Confucian style of the 1512 inscription, and any references to Judaism contained therein. This particular inscription frustrated scholars to the point that they asked, “Why was this written?”. Aggravating the problem was that Chinese scholars did not have enough knowledge of Judaism to recognize the distinctive Jewish characteristics of the texts. It followed that misconceptions became so ingrained in Western circles that they were convinced that Jewish traders were the original settlers in the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE).

But, a reading of the Kaifeng stelae in both native Chinese setting and Sino-Judaic context, offered a completely different picture. Perhaps “Western cloth” was contributed by Jewish merchants, but those who presented their case to the Song Emperor were descendants of a long line of Israelite Cohanim/Levites (priests) who had established sanctuary in China since biblical times. Their presence was interrupted by their expulsion in the Tang Dynasty in 845 CE, along with all other non-native Chinese religions, but with the establishment of the new Song Dynasty in 960 CE, they returned at the invitation of the emperor. 

The eloquent Chinese presentation of the Israelite priests to the Emperor cannot be conveyed in translation. They were well-versed in both Jewish and Chinese customs, rituals and court proceedings. They also had a good command of the Chinese language, and followed the proper protocol that was indistinguishable from that of any high-ranking Chinese official. It was impressive by any standards, and even the emperor was in awe of the erudition of the Israelites. He bestowed upon them land to build a place of worship (details in Kaifeng Stone Inscriptions).

They were the youren, or the youshang (Israelite priests) as they were called in the local Kaifeng literature. Priests had a special status in Chinese society and irrespective of their beliefs, they were granted equal rights. Emperors bestowed land on priests to build their temples, a benefit that did not apply to other classes, certainly not to merchants. Traders were the lowest class in the Chinese social ladder, below the status of the uneducated farmers. 

The Jews of Kaifeng came into the limelight when Prime Minister Li Gang (1083-1140?), a Chinese Jew, assured the emperor in 1127 that the “Israelite monks (youshang 猶商) were utterly loyal to the empire and would die defending Kaifeng.” What Li Gang called youshang in local Kaifeng dialect, was what Laozi and Confucius called youren. In other words youshang 猶商 and youren 猶人 in Chinese literature were synonyms, meaning Israelite monks, priests. I devoted an entire chapter to the story of the Chinese Jew and Prime Minister, Li Gang in my book, A History of the Kaifeng Israelites.

In summary, a group of Cohanim and Levites (Priests) seemed to have found sanctuary in China after exile (6th century BCE), while  a Chinese tribe, descendants of the Shang Dynasty had immortalized the biblical Israelite God in one of their ballads. Chinese sages highly respected the youren for their erudition, medical skills, and musical abilities. In addition, since the beliefs of youren were congruent with the Chinese, their integration was followed  by rapid sinicization. The youren had already lost its original meaning in antiquity as the Chinese considered them natives and indistinguishable from han Chinese. Only their faith remained, a private affair that survived the vicissitudes of history. For over 2500 years, Jewish minorities lived in China in the shadows of the Han people, but their spiritual life was “like water without a source, a tree without roots” 无源之水, 无本之木 wu yuan zhi shui, wu ben zhi mu (Mao Zedong: On Practice), but their legacy is not extinct, and a day may still come that they may celebrate their faith in the open. 

About the author:

Tiberiu Weisz, an independent scholar of Chinese. He pursued his interest in Classical Chinese and comparative cultural studies of Judaism and China for 40 years. He taught Chinese and served as an in-house China consultant to a Minneapolis based company, while continuing to write and translate from Chinese. He has authored three books and published over a dozen articles about Judaism and China. This article is based on his latest book, A History of the Kaifeng Israelites (2018). Currently, he holds workshop classes on Chinese calligraphy in retirement.   

Meng Yang : Chinese perspective of US Jews

The Divide of the American Jews on 

Anti-Semitism and Refugees

By

Meng Yang

Translator: Tiberiu Weisz

Published in : The Paper (Peng Bai News), Shanghai, 

November 11, 2018. 

Language: Chinese

About the author: Meng Yang, lives in Shanghai and has an interest in Yiddish language and folklore. Her research is on the Jewish Community in Shanghai during the Holocaust. She wrote this article: “for the Chinese audience because little is known about HIAS background in China and most Chinese have no idea about the Jewish standing in America on the issue of refugees and the diversity of their opinion of Trump and, most importantly, about anti-Semitism in current America.”)

Translator’s Note: The original Chinese article contains phrases and idioms that make sense to the Chinese but do not necessarily translates well. To clarify some of these phrases I attached short explanatory notes in italics).

November 9 was a special day in Germany, it was called Schicksalstag, or Day of Fate. On Nov. 9, 1918, Emperor (Kaiser) Wilhelm II abdicated and the Republic of Weimar was  established.  On Nov 9, 1923, Hitler launched the change in government in a Munich bar; and on Nov, 9, 1938, on what is called “Kristalnacht, Nazi symbols “adorned” [the Chinese word meihua means to beautify. tr.] the entire Germany while Jewish houses, businesses, and synagogues were smashed robbed and burned (reference to the “Night of the Broken Glass”- tr.], The Weimar Republic government was weak, its economy was in chaos and that offered Hitler the fertile grounds for his rise. Hitler’s popularity and leadership at the “Night of the Broken Glass” was the prelude to the extermination of 6 million Jews, followed by  Nazi Germany starting the war, that ultimately ended in her unconditional surrender. Germany was split into East and West [Germany]. Coincidentally, the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, and East and West Germany reunited. 

Only two weeks ago, a shooting incident occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with 11 causalities and 16 injured. This was the most targeted terror attack against  Jews on American soils since the establishment of America and it  attracted the attention of the world Jewry. In the process of laying the blame, many left-wing American Jew pointed a finger at Trump, and the strange fact is that Trump election victory was on Nov, 9, 2016 which gave rise to conspiracy theories. 

The Chinese media covers this as an international issue. Regrettably, the same media had ignored the background cause of this issue and treated it as a tragedy of gun control in America. In reality, this incident had exposed the deep divide and fierce debates among the Jews in American under the Trump Administration, and it influenced the attitude of the Jews in the November 6, 2018 elections. At the 80th year commemoration of  “the Night of Violence” [Night of the Broken Glass- tr.], we will spotlight its migration from Europe to across the ocean directly to the anti-semitism in times of refugees. 

Was it a the plan of madman under the lax 

of guns culture? 

Many Chinese language media translated the place of the incident as “Jewish Study Hall”, actually it should be translated as  “Jewish Assembly Hall” [Synagogue]. Jewish synagogue is not only a place for traditional Jewish rituals [prayers], but also a place to celebrate the holidays and life events [ceremonies]. [The incident] occurred on Saturday, Jewish day of rest, October 27, 2018 about 9:50 AM when three ceremonies took place at the same time. It was Saturday, during the morning prayers when the synagogue was full of people and a circumcision ritual for a new born baby was performed. The excitement can only be imagined. 

On the day of the incident, a gunman drove for half an hour from his home to the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh -one of the places with the largest Jewish presence in the US with 26% of the population Jewish. Before he left, the gunman made a statement to a right extremist paper: “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics. I am going in.” Before this gunman started spaying the synagogue with bullets, he yelled at the assembled Jews :”All Jews must die!” He the police arrested him, he still yelled: “Jews committed ethnic murder against Americans.” 

In other words, this was not a simple “madman just picking up a gun and spraying bullets” but a carefully planned attack of a hatred filled madman with the intent of causing serious harm and damage to the target with his tools.  He planned the half hour drive, the exact time of the hit, calmly entered the place where those he hated had been congregating and committed this heinous crime. That is anti-semitic crime. 

Anti-Semitism at the Times of Refugees

Basically, this terrorist had stated in a far right-wing media that: “The Jewish Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society [HIAS] helped the refugees to enter America, harm America so all Jews must die” .

Why did the HIAS  get on the nerves of this gunman? HIAS was founded in 1881 to assist immigration and refugees. Since its inception 137 years ago it succeeded in helping over 5 million displaced households. Initially, this non-profit enterprising organization helped East Europeans to start a new life in the US. But their assistance was not limited to Jews only. As early as 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was enacted  [restricting Chinese immigration to the US, 1882-1943- tr], HIAS helped the overseas Chinese to bring their case to the Supreme Court to uphold the law for Chinese immigrants. During WWII the organization helped and offered economic assistance to the European Jews to flee to Shanghai. Before the Pearl Harbor incident [1941], HIAS helped the Shanghai Jewish refugees to stay in touch with their relatives overseas and facilitated them to get economic assistance from the outside and to seek asylum in Shanghai. In the 1970’s HIAS was the only organization that helped Jewish immigrants to resettle in the US, and the Defense Department authorized HIAS to help resettle over 3,600 South Vietnamese refugees. 

It is worth noting, that the organization helped not only Jews but also held out a helping hand to people from different countries and backgrounds, [different] religion, tribes and refugees. Recently the organization helped Moslems refugees to enter America, and this behavior angered the gunman. After the terror attack, the media in the US had joined in solidarity with HIAS and  proposed to offer support and condemn the terrorists. 

Once we understand the background of HIAS, it is not hard to see the progress of the violence from “anti-refugees” to “anti-semitism”. From Christian persecution of Jews for a thousand years, to the systematic massacre of Jews by the Nazis, and from the increasing hatred of Jews by Islam to the Palestinian question, members of the “anti-Israel” left-wing” in the West became “anti-semites”. This poisonous hatred of Jews had elevated the “White Supremacist” in America to higher levels. Because of their hatred of immigrants, they vented their poison on the organization that assisted immigrants (HIAS) and turned that cancer towards the entire Jewish population. From here we can see, that anti-semitism today is a culmination of sentiments and attitudes of various hate groups that influenced each other emotionally and ideologically in different countries in the West.  

This kind of American anti-semitism was extremely rare in England and continental Europe, but it was well received by the left wing American Jews at top political echelons. The population of Jews in America is about 6 million, or 1/3 of the world Jewish population, and about equal to the number of Jews in Israel. Most of American Jews support freedom, immigration, minorities and women rights to abortion etc. In other words, most American Jews are fans of liberal Democrats leaning towards an environment of social government. They feel uncomfortable with the two year of anti-immigration policy of the Republican Party and of Trump’s policy of limiting immigration and refugees. 

 American Jews feel historical affinity with the immigrants and refugees. Many American Jews are survivors of the Holocaust and many of their ancestors migrated from Europe  to America at the end of the 19th century to follow their dreams. This first generation of dreamers went through bitterly difficult times and hostile immigration policies, and they worked in sweat shops for years. The second and third generation were ready to enter universities, obtain meaningful jobs, and they gradually established roots. They were grateful and proud for the American generosity, and deep in their heart they treated America as their native country. Being a generation of immigrants and refugees themselves, they saw America as the country of free immigration and they sympathized with the refugees. They wanted to extend a helping hands to refugees irrespective of their background. 

Within the race conflict in the US, the left-wing Jews assisted many color people in their struggle for equal rights. For example, the late History Prof. Iggers of the University of Buffalo invited the author to a public library that was open and accessible to everybody, (during the separation of races period in the US, public libraries did not allow black people to enter). He also advocated freedom of speech to all and access to education to black people. As a Holocaust survivor, he fled Nazi Germany on the eve the “Night of the Broken Glass”, and entered North America to become a exemplary Jewish representative of the Left Wing. He joined the “National Association for Advancement of Colored People” and for 50 years he struggled for the rights of graduate students and minorities, and selflessly assisted many of the embarrassingly poor Chinese foreign students.

It is worth noting, that although the Arab -Israeli conflict in the Middle East has not stopped, most of American Jews support Muslims Americans, and oppose the “Muslim ban” of the  Trump Administration. They welcome the entry of Muslims into the US from Arab countries. This issue became truly the reason for the “white supremacist” to kill Jews.  The Jewish left-media reported that because of this incident,  Muslim organizations in the US have raised over $180,000 in donation for the families of synagogue victims. Looking at this from a Jewish Muslim cooperation point of view, these two minorities in the US had  integrated successfully far better than in Europe. 

Although anti-semitic incidents have raised their ugly heads in the US in recent years, but they are pale by comparison to Europe. Just because Jews have not been directly threatened for a long time in the US, synagogues dropped safety precautions. The reason that a white extremist could walk into the synagogue was because traditionally synagogues were open to non- Jews as well. The irony is that this uninvited guest bloodied the synagogue precisely at the same time when rabbi gave a sermon on “Welcome stranger”.

The contrast between Jewish communities in Britain and continental Europe are quite evident. Because of long and deep history of Christian persecution, of the Nazis’ racial legacy, and of support of the Palestinian left by the modern Muslims world, European Jews are highly sensitive to slander from the outside world. Every Jewish synagogue, school, museum and other institution in Europe are under year around, 24 hours security measures. Israel’s Ambassador to Germany advised that Jewish boys stop wearing kipah (head cover. tr ) in public so as avoid trouble and physical harm in the streets. It can be seen that European Jews are cautious in their attitude to assist refugees. 

The background of hatred to European Jews and the terror attack on the Jewish Synagogue in the US are incomparable. In Europe, the tide of anti-semitism has been growing more intense,  and the European Jews feel threatened by the entry of waves of  refugees. In America, the Jews met hatred because they offered assistance to the refugees. The indifference of European Jews to the refugees inflamed anti-semitism; and because the American Jews assisted the refugees they met with hatred from the racist White Supremacists. 

The Divide of American Jews in Trump times.

There is a joke in Jewish culture: “Two Jews together have three different opinions”, meaning  Jews often have their own opinions, and it is hard for them to agree. The Jewish communities response to this terrorist incident reflected disunity, especially when it came to the issue of responsibility for the crime. Both the left and right contested the issue hotly.  It is quite common in the Jewish communities to have different views. But the debate on issues of the terror attack on the synagogue, there were three different views, one from the reconstructionists and two from conservative movement. Because of this [difference of opinions], Chinese readers should not confuse “division” with “disintegration”. Holding different views is often the common thread in Judaism, and Jews call it “diversity” . It is just that in the era of Trump, the question of refugees has been fermenting and added extra stress on the Jewish community. 

The Jewish magazine Forward, publishing since 1897, is a leftist publication with the mission to be  “Fearless”. This paper has suspended temporarily its subscription policy so that everybody can read it online without charge since Nov. 7, 2018, to attract more Jewish readers. On that day the Chief Editor of the paper, a women called Eisner (Jane) lost no time in writing an essay: “What Has Trump done to us, America?” pointing a finger at Trump and criticizing his two years of speeches and policies.  She [Eisner] claimed that Trump’s anti-refugee speeches and hate broadcasts inflamed the anti-refugee sentiments of the White Supremacists and the Jews were met with anti-Jewish terror. 

At the same time, she questioned the Jewish right-wing supporters of Trump, who actually helped the rise of nationalism, and to a certain degree, the gunman who used violence against Jews. The woman editor [Eisner]  urged the readers of her article to vote on Nov. 6 for change.    

The strange thing is, that the gunman was not only anti-Jews, anti-immigration, and anti-refugees, but at the same time, he was also, “anti-Trump”. In his view, Trump is a “globalist” influenced by Jewish money and control. Obviously [the term] “Jews control the government” derived from the classic story of “anti- semitism”. In reality, most American Jews dislike Trump, and consider his administration and policies a failure.

There were many attacks against Jews before Trump in America , but the perpetrators were not the White Supremacists. Anti- Jewish sentiments and haters of Jews had been in America for a long time, but they were not from one defined group, rather from multiple backgrounds. The views of the Chief Editor of Forward, like other leftist writers, and just like their European counterparts claimed that anti-semitism derived from dissatisfaction with Israel’s policies, but this time Trump’s hard policies were the scapegoat. There are Jews on the left who are not willing to confront Trump’s powers, but they used his daughter’s conversion to Judaism as a target, to brush off his anti-semitic tendencies. Not only that, the left has also included Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, and Senior Advisor to the White House, pointing out that his grandparents had benefitted from assistance from HIAS; they fled the oppression in Russia and emigrated to the US. After the incident, he [Kushner] accompanied Trump to Pittsburgh to offer his condolences, but he had yet to voice his gratitude to the organization that helped his parents.

Is Trump an anti-semite? After all, what was his role in the terrorist attack? The writer interviewed Prof. Bauer, head of the Holocaust Memorial and Global Antisemitism Research Department in Israel and Holocaust survivor. He said: “Trump is not an antisemite, but tends towards racism and hatred, and helps create an atmosphere in which white racists can shout that all Jews have to be killed.” In other words, even if Trump is not anti-Semite, he created a climate in which anti-immigration, anti-refugee and Make America Great statements contributed to a social environment that encouraged extremism and racial hatred. This incident became the catalyst for “anti-Trump”.

Yascha Mounk, a Harvard lecturer of Political Science and Technology had drawn a wonderful analogy to address Trump’s responsibility for this incident. He said that there is no way scientists can predict exactly whether or not climate change creates a particular storm, but they can determine that, because the earth is warming, the frequency of extreme weather is intensifying immensely. Comparing this to Trump’s speeches, although there is no way to determine whether or not extreme political speeches lead to crime, Trump’s rhetoric on violence and anti-people has led to increased criminal activities. Therefore, there is no way to judge whether or not Trump is responsible for this particular act of terrorism, but he bears responsibility for the increase of similar criminal activities.

Professor Ruth Wisse of Harvard, an avid supporter of the Republican Party sent her article to the author in defense of Trump. She wrote that the US deployed 4 million soldiers in WWII to fight Hitler, while Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party, was attacking Jews. Now the leader of the US has just signed a bill to punish terrorists; four US policemen courageously helped save precious life; after the violent attack, the people in the US  came together so we don’t have to be afraid of anti-semitism.  

From the above we can see that two weeks after the most serious anti-semitic violence in the US history, the fight between the Jews on the left and right is getting worse. Recently 80,000 people signed a petition opposing Trump attending the memorial ceremony in Pittsburgh. Even the Mayor of Pittsburgh advised him not to come. But Trump went to Pittsburgh and as a result he encountered an array of his opponents.  The gunshots in Pittsburgh blew wide open the sentiments and mixture of racism, of anti-immigration, of white supremacy and of anti-semitism [that has been building up] in America, while served as a wake up call to the American Jews on race relations, both on the left and on the right. In addition, it resonated in what the Jews called the    “October Surprise”, just before the US mid-term elections on November 6, 2018. 

The difficult road to combat anti-semitism in America

According to a report by the International Jewish Non- Government Organization (NGO), and the US Civil Rights Group - the Anti-Defamation League -- anti-semitic incidents in America rose by 57% between 2016 and 2017. Each year there were reports of 1200 to 1800 cases of anti-semitic incidents in the US. In 2017, the American public thought that  31% of the American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America, therefore they are untrustworthy.

Regrettably, there are a lot of misconceptions between the perceptions of Americans about Jews and the American Jewish identity. American Jews speak English without an accent, all the [Jewish] communities are interconnected socially, and they see US as their native country. The author was invited to celebrate the Independence Day with a New York Jewish community, they hoisted the American flag, ate American food, and cake to celebrate the American Independence Day without any reservations. America is their native country. 

For many American Jews, post war anti-semitism is an“old hat” European problem. The writer visited the headquarters of the Community Security Trust in England. The person in charge has stated proudly, but sadly to the author: For many years, the organization has the funds and manpower to protect the British Jewish communities from terrorists attacks. American Jews were smug and believed that they did not need this kind of protection. From now on more and more, American Jewish organizations such as synagogues, Jewish schools, museums need to take safety measures to “emulate” Europe. After this terrorist act, Trump said: “If the synagogue had an armed guard, the casualties would be less serious”. 

Although anti-semitism in America today is not as raging as in Europe, but it has been popular for years, and it runs deep. Which way will anti-semitism and the refugee issue go in America under Trump administration? Will the hiatus of the Jewish left and right deepen more? After so many years, will the 80 year old acts of vandalism intersect historically with the policies of the winner of the White House of two years ago? The “Night of the Broken Glass” was a prelude to the Jews in modern times 80 years ago; gunshots still shatter and blood still flows 80 years later. The Jewish fight against anti-semitism in America is increasingly difficult, their “burden is heavy and the course is long.” (A quote from of Confucius: “the warrior must be open minded and with vigorous endurance, his burden is heavy and his course is long”.tr.)

Kyoto Journal 92 Reviews: A History of the Kaifeng Israelites

A History of the Kaifeng Israelites:

Encounters with Israelites in Chinese Literature

(Outskirts Press 2018)

 by Tiberiu Weisz.

Review published in Kyoto Journal 92

        By Any Other Name...

In writing this book I set my goal to identify the name of the Israelites in Chinese literature, and trace their history to their earliest presence there. 

This intriguing monograph tells the story of the Kaifeng Israelites whose origin has been shrouded in mystery and a matter of some controversy since they first appeared under Western eyes when Matteo Ricci met one of them in Beijing in 1605. Their history was recorded in four stone stelae, first translated by Bishop White, an Anglican missionary working in China, in 1924. According to White and the bulk of scholarly opinion since then, the Kaifeng Israelites had existed in China since some time in the Northern Song Dynasty (960 – 1127CE).

Weisz contends that contact between the Hebrews and the Chinese started probably sometime around 980BCE. If this is true, Israelite presence would have left traces in the historical records kept by the Chinese since their earliest dynasties. Where other commentators, both Chinese and Western, ancient and contemporary, have failed to find such traces, Weisz claims to have found records of very early interaction between the two civilisations. Here he takes us through the evidence, from the very earliest 詩經shī jīng (Book of Poetry) to the stelae themselves.

Part of the problem, he asserts, is that ancient Chinese historians and commentators had no characters with which to describe the Israelites, and furthermore, that where such traces of the Israelites’ presence did exist, they have been hidden by mistranslations and misconceptions, and, crucially, in linguistic changes occurring throughout China’s long history. Weisz offers new translations of hitherto largely ignored, misunderstood or mistranslated characters in the literature, in particular the character 猶 yóu, and the collocation 椎髻 zhui ji, and new interpretations of the literature based on those translations.

The character 猶yóu in classical Chinese means something like ‘as’, ‘like’ ‘similar to’, and the combination 猶人yóu rén was frequently (mis)understood as meaning ‘like this person’, ‘like this man’. Weisz contends that this character stood for the Jewish religion, and that the combination actually means ‘Jew’. He traces it through several canonical works of Chinese historiography and literature, carefully unpacking the real meaning from the accumulation of misreadings. The collocation椎髻 zhui ji appears in the書經shū jīng (Book of Documents), where it is used to describe a “strange headdress” worn by a people beyond the far Western reaches of the Chinese Empire. Weisz asserts that this is in fact either a description of the payot, the earlocks worn by Orthodox Jews, or the mitznefet, the turban worn by the Jewish high priest when serving in the Tabernacle. However, when the Book of Documents was rendered into simplified characters in the 1950s, these rather obscure characters were changed to the more well-known 多须 (鬚) duō xū, which are close synonyms in Chinese, but which more accurately means “lots of whiskers.” Subsequent scholars working from modern editions of the Classics have therefore missed these references to the Israelites.  “This simple substitution greatly impacted the story of the Kaifeng Israelites. It altered the meaning of the text, changed the historical context and more worrisome, erased the identification of the tribe… ,” writes Weisz. Weisz lays out his theory with meticulous readings of classical Chinese texts in the light of Jewish culture, displaying the most awesome erudition and deep understanding of Chinese culture as he does so. In this he is extending his earlier work on new translations of the Kaifeng stelae (2006) and a comparative study of Chinese and Hebrew cultures (2008). 

The problem, as I see it, is a certain circularity in his argument. The character 猶 yóu quite uncontroversially stands for  “Jew” or “Jewish” in modern Chinese. Lin Yu Tang in his dictionary of 1972 assigns this meaning to the character, and it has this meaning in the vernacular. Weisz finds the evidence because he is looking for it, but there are dangers inherent in reading our present knowledge into the past. Likewise, Weisz’s method of cultural comparison might be regarded by some as an illuminating practice but by others as the worst kind of Orientalism. When he implies that Laozi’s famous description in chapter 80 of the道德經 (dào dé jīng) of the ideal kingdom could be a description of the Kingdom of Israel during the time of King Solomon; and that Laozi must have “incorporated several of Solomon’s sayings in his writings” because he is known to have journeyed to the West and may conceivably have encountered Jews there (ignoring the facts that the道德經dào dé jīng is believed to have been composed before Laozi’s legendary journey and that Laozi himself is an entirely mythical figure), one feels that Weisz’s enthusiasm for his theory has got the better of his caution as a historian.

Weisz’s book is nonetheless fascinating, especially for students of Classical Chinese, for readers interested in Jewish or Chinese culture, and for anyone with an interest in preserving cultural identity when living for an extended period in an alien culture.

Quentin Brand lives and teaches in Taiwan