The Chinese Jews Of Kaifeng

Even today there are people in Kaifeng who remain aware of their ancestry and register as Jews on official census forms.

This scholarly collection examines the origins, history, and contemporary nature of Chinese Judaism in the community of Kaifeng. These essays, written by a diverse, international team of contributors, explore the culture and history of this thousand-year-old Jewish community, whose synthesis of Chinese and Jewish cultures helped guarantee its survival. Part I of this study analyzes the origin and historical development of the Kaifeng community, as well as the unique cultural synthesis it engendered. Part II explores the contemporary nature of this Chinese Jewish community, particularly examining the community’s relationship to Jewish organizations outside of China, the impact of Western Jewish contact, and the tenuous nature of Jewish identity in Kaifeng.

This collection examines the origins, history, and contemporary nature of Chinese Judaism in the community of Kaifeng. Among other topics, the contributors analyze the community's unique synthesis between Jewish and Chinese thought, the tenuous nature of its Jewish identity, and the impact of Western Jewish contact.

Explores the history of the Chinese Jews and how their theology's focus on love, rather than fear of a non-anthropomorphic God, may speak to contemporary liberal Jews. By the mid-eighteenth century--cut off from Judaism elsewhere, synagogues destroyed, their community impoverished and dispersed by a civil war--their Judaism became defunct.

This comprehensive textual treatment of the Kaifeng Passover Rite is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion as to the Community’s origins in particular and to comparative Jewish liturgy in general.