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Members of the Tribe Thriving in China

(Ha'aretz) Amiram Barkat - "There are at least 3,000 Jews now living permanently in Beijing alone," says Dr. Avrum Ehrlich, a professor at the Center for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies at the University of Shandong. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in China during the last 200 years, starting with Sephardi merchants who arrived there along with the British, and continuing with Russian Jews who settled in Harbin (one of whom was Ehud Olmert's grandfather). At least eight of China's 300 universities are now offering courses in Jewish studies. Ehrlich estimates about 100 students nationwide study Hebrew each year. He says the Chinese see studying the Jews as essential to understanding the underpinnings of Western thinking.
2006-05-19 00:00:00
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