The Jews of China and the Far East

The Jewish community of Kaifeng, in China, represents the oldest attested Jewish presence on the continent, dating back probably to the medieval period and linked to the trade routes connecting China to the Muslim world. Established over a long period, it had a synagogue and Torah scrolls, but gradually assimilated over the centuries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, new communities formed in the ports and cities open to international trade, notably in Shanghai, Harbin, and Hong Kong, fed by Baghdadi merchants, Russian refugees, and, later, refugees fleeing Nazism. Shanghai thus welcomed thousands of European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. These varied experiences illustrate Judaism's capacity to adapt to cultural environments very different from its traditional heartlands.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗