Definition of Kaifeng Jews

When we talk about Jewish communities in the world, we generally tend to think in those that we find in Europe, America (especially in the United States), and naturally Israel.

Some people also think of the communities that are or were in Arab or Arab countries. Muslim majority, as in North Africa, and Ethiopian Jews, but surely few will think about China. And, indeed, in China there are also Jews.

The Kaifeng Jews were a community of Chinese ethnicity and Jewish religion who lived in the city of Kaifeng, in eastern China.

Its presence is documented in the region, at least from the mid-twelfth century to the end of the nineteenth century as an articulated community, going on to maintain, in a familiar way, the tradition Jewish in family to this day, but no longer as an articulated community.

The Kaifeng Synagogue was erected in 1163, and demolished in 1860 after a series of riots that dispersed the Chinese Jewish community. The last rabbi of this community died in 1867.

This synagogue could be one of the most curious in the world, because at the architecturetraditional Chinese, he added the necessary elements of Jewish tradition.

The birth of a native community of Jews in China is probably due to the arrival of merchants of this religion from the west.

Before the establishment of the silk road medieval, Europe and the Muslim dominions (North Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Asia) had already maintained commercial relations with imperial China.

Such is the case of the Romans, a relationship accredited by the discovery of Roman coins in China, and of products manufactured such as silk in Rome.

Other theories to explain the birth of this community point to a migration Jews expelled from Persia in the 3rd century AD. C, or even that they were one of the ten lost tribes, which would give the most religious meaning to their existence.

Although initially they would have been communities of Jewish merchants and merchants that settled in China, marriages with locals would have led to a mixture of ethnic groups.

Currently, Chinese citizens of the region can certify, through genetic analysis, their kinship with the Jews of Kaifeng, something that has raised interest in the subject both locally and globally, as well as in Israel itself and among the Jewish communities of the diaspora.

Although their numbers vary according to sources, and could range from a few hundred to thousands, Israel accepts them as citizens and, in fact, a few have emigrated there.

Photo: Fotolia - Kai Zhao