Kaifeng Jew shares history of Chinese community

By Polina Olsen

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They’ve been in China for 1,000 years but Shi Lei is the first to study in Israel. Rabbi Joshua Stampfer welcomed the descendent of Kaifeng Jews at the Feb. 14 lecture at Congregation Neveh Shalom.

On a United States tour sponsored by the Sino-Judaic Institute, Shi Lei stopped in Portland where the crowd of 70 listened, fascinated by his story.

Jewish cotton cloth traders from Persia, Shi Lei began, traveled over the Silk Road to Kaifeng around 1100.  By 1163, the Kaifeng Jews lived in two city lanes near their synagogue.

The world knew nothing of this Jewish community until the comical 1605 meeting of Ai Tian, a Kaifeng Jew, and China’s first Jesuit priest. Since the priest was monotheistic, Ai Tian thought he must be Jewish. Friar Matteo Ricci assumed Ai Tian was a long-lost Chinese Christian.

Confusion cleared somewhat when Ai Tian saw paintings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and wondered aloud why the artist painted only four of Jacob’s eight sons. But the elderly Kaifeng rabbi needed a replacement and thought Ricci would be fine–if he stopped eating pork.

The discovery of Chinese Jews reportedly excited Ricci. Catholics at the time believed Talmudic rabbis removed references to Jesus from the Bible–and that Chinese Jews left Israel before the Talmudic period. Hoping to find proof of censorship, Ricci instructed Christian missionaries to buy or steal a Sefer Torah from Kaifeng.

Shi Lei explained how inventive Jews of Kaifeng worked around royal edicts. When the emperor ordered houses of worship to hang the imperial tablet, Jews didn’t want an idol above Hashem. Since only they understood Hebrew, they painted the word Sh’ma above the tablet. They kept Hashem above everything, despite the emperor’s decree.

Assimilation was gradual, according to Shi Lei. Unlike Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism did not separate Jews from the majority, and intermarriage made Jews physically indistinguishable from Chinese.
Since passing the civil service test was key for success, Jews abandoned Torah study to concentrate on required Confucian texts.

Poverty forced the community to sell their scrolls and artifacts to missionaries and museums around the world. By the 20th century, scholars considered the Kaifeng Jewish community dead.

Still, Kaifeng Jews told their children, “We are Jews; we are from Israel.”

When Shi Lei met a rabbi from the Sino-Judaic Institute, he arranged to study at Bar-Ilan University. Now Shi Lei is back in Kaifeng, anxious to share with other descendents. He started a small Jewish Museum in his grandfather’s house, and teaches Hebrew, Judaism and Jewish culture.

Rabbi Stampfer, founder of the Institute for Judaic Studies, which hosted the Feb. 14 lecture, visited Kaifeng in 1983. He said he saw a community without knowledge or interest in Judaism.

“It was indeed lost,” he said.

Last week, anticipating Shi Lei’s visit, Stampfer got out old photos of his trip.

“He took a look at one and said–that’s my grandfather,” Stampfer said.  “Whoever would have thought that when I saw his grandfather in Kaifeng, I would one day welcome his grandson here in Oregon?”