Do you know that in Kaifeng , there are a group of Jews who speak Henan dialect in ? How did they come to China? Why has a united Jewish nation been reluctant to accept them? How are these Jews with Chinese nationality doing now? Today we will explore the past and present lives of the Jewish community in Henan.
When it comes to Henan, the first thing that comes to mind is the hinterland of the Central Plains, the origin of Chinese civilization, and other labels with great Chinese characteristics. But what many people don’t know is that on this great and sacred land, there are a group of Jews who have been sinicized. According to them, their ancestors traveled to China during the Tang and Song dynasties in China and settled with Kaifeng, Henan. After thousands of years of reproduction and growth, they found the current Henan Jewish community. According to historical records, the first time in the West was to discover that Jews lived in China was in the late Ming Dynasty. In 1605 AD, the famous missionary Matteo Ricci came to China and met a Jew in China, and learned that a group of Jews lived in Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty. He immediately wrote to the European church about this discovery, which was the first time that the Chinese Jewish community was known to the Western world.
According to Matteo Ricci's description, there are about 500 families in the Jewish gathering area in Kaifeng, with a number of four or five thousand people. They are already able to use Chinese proficiently and generally integrate with foreign nationalities intermarriage. They are even the same as Han Chinese in terms of clothing customs. In addition, the court took great care of their policies at that time, and it can be said that they treat them equally with the Han people. They were able to find employment freely, and they were able to take the imperial examinations organized by governments at all levels to obtain fame and fortune. It is worth mentioning that in the international community in the Ming Dynasty, the Jewish nation was not the protagonist, or it had no status. Therefore, Matteo Ricci's discovery of gathering Jews in China is more like an interesting thing to the West, and no one regards it as a serious matter.
After Matteo Ricci, the Jewish community in China lost contact with Europe. According to historical records, in 1810 AD, the last clergyman recognized by the Western Holy See passed away. Since then, no one among them will speak Hebrew with a strong Henan accent. Time flies. After entering the 20th century, Jews in the foreign concession in Shanghai inadvertently heard about the news about the Jewish community in Henan, so they launched a detailed investigation. To be honest, they all have experience working and living in China and have a high sense of identity with Chinese culture. Therefore, the Jews in Shanghai Concession still have a simple idea, which is to help Kaifeng Jews restore national traditions. We have no way of knowing the twists and turns in the middle, but the result is obvious, and the Jews in Shanghai failed to succeed. At this time, there had been no festival with its own national characteristics in Kaifeng Jewish community for centuries. Instead, they celebrated the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Qingming Festival, tomb sweeping, sending gods , and receiving gods like Han people.
Actually, it really depends on the last time they held the Passover with Jewish characteristics. That was in 2014 a few years ago, and it was the first time in nearly 200 years. Of course, even in 2014, this time it was only possible to start the activity with the help of foreign Jews. From these aspects, you can understand why the beginning of the article says that they were sinicized Jews. Well, here comes the question: Israel is the only country in the world that is based on a Jewish nation. So what do they think of our Jewish community? I checked the information and found that many mainstream Jewish media, including the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post, , and , have tracked and reported on this matter. Israeli officials are positive about the Jewish community in Kaifeng, China, but refuse to admit that they are Israeli. They stressed that if Chinese Jews want to obtain Israeli nationality, they must follow all the procedures in accordance with the current return law, just like most non-foreigners.
Everyone knows that the Jewish nation has always been united. Why do they treat their compatriots in Kaifeng this time so cruel and ruthless? Is this a kind of discrimination? Regarding the doubts from the outside world, the Israeli side also gave sufficient reasons for rejection. They believe that the Jews living in Kaifeng, Henan, China have essentially lost the basic customs of the Jewish nation and cannot be regarded as Israelis and must return in accordance with relevant laws and regulations before they can be accepted. In 2006, the Israeli ambassador to China also said in an interview with the media that from the perspective of the Jewish nation, the Jewish descendants who settled in China could no longer be considered real Jews. This statement is obviously sharper than the statement given by Israeli officials before. Of course, this is not the most direct. According to the famous Jewish Shaboli , there are no Jews that exist as a nation on this land of China, and there are no Jewish that exists as a religion.
So, among the Jewish descendants in Kaifeng, how many people have successfully returned to the land where their ancestors lived, and how are they doing? It is reported that as of the first half of this year, about 50 people have successfully returned to Israel from Kaifeng, with most of them women and relatively few men. Isn't this very interesting? Does Israel still discriminate against men and only like beauty? This is not the case. You may not know much about Israel and the Jewish nation. On the surface, it seems that you immigrated from China to Israel, or it is called recognition of ancestors from a cultural perspective. Middle-aged and elderly. But from a realistic perspective, the so-called immigration to Israel is essentially a re-conversion to Judaism.
As one of the oldest religions in the world, its scriptures clearly stipulate that men must be circumcised. If it is an infant, the risk and sequelae of the operation will be minimal, and it will be fine in more than ten days. But when it comes to adult men, they have to endure huge pain, and the recovery cycle will be much longer. At the same time, if you want to immigrate to Israel as a Jew, you must first learn Judaism-related knowledge from their local area, and you must also undergo a systematic and strict assessment. Finally, the clergy will conduct the next round of inspection and lead you. All tests will be recognized and qualified to be naturalized in Israel.
The most important point is that it is not peaceful within Israel, and it carries many more extreme religious organizations. They have never recognized that the Israelites who have converted to join the Jewish nation are pure Jews. So, dozens of Jewish descendants who returned from Kaifeng will inevitably be criticized or even deliberately excluded, especially the status of men will be greatly reduced in their country.
According to Israeli media reports, a Jewish descendant who first immigrated from Kaifeng to Israel, whose Chinese name is Jin Guangyuan. He has been trying his best to return to his ancestors since 1995. After more than five years, finally in 2000, the three of them moved from Nordic to Israel through a tourist visa and began their return to study journey. Their family was not accepted by local Jews in the first few years because according to the requirements of the Regression Law, the identity of the Jews was inherited from the maternal line, and in our China, family inheritance is one of the things like family inheritance comes from the patriarchal line. In other words, your father is Jewish Israel, which is useless. If others don’t recognize him, you must provide evidence to prove that your mother is Jewish, and the other party will greet you with a smile, give you a big hug, and say you are welcome to go home. However, Kim Gwang-won was obviously lucky, and he passed all the assessments and finally won the State of Israel. That is, he became the first member in the Kaifeng Jewish community to obtain true Jewish status.
Later, a reporter interviewed him. He said that he was very grateful to China for taking in his ancestors and would like to thank China for its tolerance and love on behalf of my parents and family, which allowed the Jews to reproduce and reproduce in China. Kim Gwang-won's daughter who went to high school was more willing to accept pure Hebrew culture than her parents.She told reporters that returning to Israel is like returning home. I have already begun to blur many of my Chinese concepts, but after all, I grew up in China, and that relationship is still there, so I miss China as well. Now that China has developed rapidly, I feel very happy. I hope to go back to China in the future, because I still feel that part of it belongs to that land.
It is naturally a normal thing for people to go back to their hometown, for most tolerant Chinese people. However, for the vast majority of Jewish descendants living in Kaifeng, it seems that returning to their ancestors’ homeland is not the best choice, and it is not the only choice to say the least. For example, the son of Shi Xinguang, the head of Kaifeng Jewish Research Association, successfully completed his master's degree at an Israeli university. Logically speaking, with his qualifications, it is easier to gain recognition from the Jewish nation than Jin Guangyuan and become naturalized in Israel. But he did not do this, but returned to Kaifeng after completing his studies and lived with his parents as before. In short, everyone has their own choices, but whether they return to Israel or choose to stay in China, what they have never changed is their fluent Henan dialect and a heart that loves China. , What do you think about this? If you were Jewish, what choice would you make?
