Monday, March 14, 2011

Jews in China: Who Knew?

Jews have traveled all over the world, settled in lands as far-reaching as Afghanistan (though currently only one Jew still lives there), India, and now. . .China.

Jews have a wide and varied existence throughout the Earth.

Following their first Diaspora at the sword of the invading Assyrians, the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel (Minus Judah and Benjamin, who had formed the rump state "Judah") were flung throughout the world.

The remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin held on to their independence for a few more centuries, only to be conquered and captured by the Babylonians. That captivity of Jews, after seventy years in Babylon, returned to the land of Israel, rebuilt the Temple, and endured domination or repulsed foreign invasion until the Romans came, saw, and conquered

them.

AD 70, the Jews rebelled against the Roman occupiers one last time, crushed to the last. In a consummate act of desecration, a Roman general sacrificed loathsome swine on the altar of the Holy of Holies, the City of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Jews were expelled or enslaved throughout the known Roman world.

It is a testimony to God's grace the his people live on throughout the world, including China.

In the city of Kaifeng, a contingency of 500 people, 100 families, composes the Jewish community in China. Despite frequent intermarriage, slow erosion of rabbinical and Judaic practice, the residents of this community have maintained reminders of their Jewish Heritage.

On a side not, let us not forget that non-ethnic Chinese Jews also inhabited the Middle Kingdom. During World War II, Jews fleeing the war-ravaged continent found refuge in China.

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