Shalom! Today I'm going to discuss with you Jews in contemporary China As we already mentioned, by 1960s those Jews who came to China from the middle of 19th century to the middle of 20th century almost all left But the history of Jewish diaspora in China has not ended up there because very soon, especially since 1979 China adopted a new policy to change the whole course Since 1979, there were more and more Jews coming back to China What caused that change? Or what caused Jews’ return to China? First of all, it was Chinese open-door policy and economic reforms that eventually attracted a lot of western people to come to China to do business with Chinese China wanted to integrate herself with the rest of the world very much As you could imagine, when other western people came to China there were some Jews Indeed, they arrived That brought Jews back we could say, the return of Jews to Chinese society started The second reason was that China and Israel established diplomatic relations in the early 1990s which strengthens the relations between the Chinese and Jewish people and with Israel as a Jewish country Thirdly, China encourages lots of western young people to come to study in China or carry on what we call cultural, educational exchange programs Many foreign students were studying in China among them were quite a few Jews Therefore, from 1980s to 1990s the period saw a growing number of Jews to come to China Some Jewish activities, especially celebrating holidays for instance, started The Jews finally stayed in the cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Yiwu, and etc Their number becomes various because for those people who came to China, firstly, they came to invest or to do business because open-door policy provided economic opportunities and many Jews came to China to invest in Chinese economy or open their own business Secondly, many diplomats came with their families or paid official visits to China which brought many Jews to China Some diplomats, even after finishing their terms serving in China, remain in China Of the students who come to study or scholars to teach in China some fall in love with Chinese culture and history they choose to stay The population of Jews was various You see, in different time, we have a different number But totally, today, we could say there are at least over 5,000 Jews who live in China though in different cities Their existence, or their appearance in China marks Jewish life back to China First, they are in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai In Shanghai, many people have investments or as we mentioned the Kadoories or the Sassoon family they left China before 1949 but now they started to see the opportunity they tried to come back Though the elderly died but their children, their descendants, came back to China A Jewish community started to take shape because when those Jews who lived in China, worked in China they wanted a Jewish life The Jewish life also means the need of a community because Jews, especially when they lived in diaspora like to live together or gather to celebrate holidays together as individual Jews cannot have what we call Jewish life In last 30 years a large number of Jews travelled to China as tourists Especially when China established diplomatic relations with Israel tens of thousands of Israelis came to China as tourists There are also many Jewish people especially those who lived in Shanghai in China or in Harbin, in Tianjin, returned to China for a revisit Many of them take their families with them their wives, their children, or even their grandchildren come to visit China which strengthens the relations between the two peoples Among them, there were quite a few prominent figures For instance, Michael Blumenthal Secretary of Treasury during the Carter’s ministration, came to China in 1979 He was the first senior US officer to visit China since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and the United States When he was in Beijing, finishing his business, he told his Chinese hosts that he would like to visit Shanghai He wanted to see his home there He surprised all his hosts It turned out he was a refugee in Shanghai in 1937 And in 1947, finally, he left China and went to the United States In 30 years, Michael Blumenthal from a Holocaust survivor to Secretary of Treasury Of course his request was met At that time Shanghai was not really totally open to western people He was allowed to go to original home in Hongkew Ghetto to visit Also in Harbin, Teddy Kaufman, son of Abraham Kaufman the president of the Harbin Jewish community, revisited Harbin Not only revisiting Harbin he put a great emphasis to help to renovate the cemetery there He organized an international conference of those Jews who had been to Harbin At the conference, over 100 people appeared Many Jews came with their families In Tianjin, Mr Muller also came with his family to see the original place Of course, former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert came back to pay tribute to his grandfather, who died in Harbin and was buried there Another important Jew in business field is Saul Eisenberg Saul Eisenberg was in China during World War II as a refugee Afterwards, he built up his empire Because of his Chinese experience he cared very much about the relations between China and Israel So in preparation for the normalization of two country’s relations, Saul Eisenberg played an important role He established big manufacturers of glass products His headquarters was actually in Beijing He stayed more than half year in Beijing less than half year in Israel Unfortunately, he passed away in his office in Beijing But three days before he passed away he had signed an agreement with China to establish a diamond center in Shanghai
