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Among the Jewish Descendants of Kaifeng

Judaism, Wntr, 2000 by Irwin M. Berg

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(5.) Xu-Xin, Legends, pp. 16,23,103. Wang, "The Descendant soft he Kaifeng Jews," pp. 168-171. Wang believes that originally they were seventy surnames of Jewish families ; but after the great flood of 1642, the other families perished, or were scattered, or were so impoverished that they simply abandoned their religion. All seven of these names are common Chinese family names. Because status and religion are based upon the paternal line, Jewish descendants in Kaifeng today almost exclusively have six of these seven names, there no longer being a Zhang Jewish dan in Kaifeng (p. 170).

(6.) A graphic account of the historic meeting between Al and Ricci may be found in Pollack, Mandarins, pp. 5-11

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(7.) Pollack, Mandarins, p. 114. Xu-Xin, Legends, pp. 81-86.

(8.) Eber, "Kaifeng Jews: The Sinification," p. 26. Xu Xin, Legends, pp. 83-86. Pollack, Mandarins, pp. 325-326.

(9.) He is referred to as "Zhanijiao." Xu Xin calls him a "Rabbi" (Legends, p. 121). Eber believes that the term implies wider and different responsibilities than those of a rabbi. "Kaifeng Jews: The Sinification," p. 34, note 5.

(10.) Wang Yisha who interviewed many of the Kaifeng Jewish descendants in 1980 reported that Zhao Pingyu's grandfather, although he had no objection to eating pork, drew the line at raising pigs. Wang, "The Descendants of the Chinese Jews," pp. 178-179. In 1985 two descendants told Dr. Wendy Abraham that their families used to celebrate Passover by eating flat cakes and abstaining from pork. Wendy Abraham, "Memories of Kaifeng's Jewish Descendants Today," in The Jews of China, Historical and Comparative Perspectives, Vol. 1, edited by Jonathan Goldstein (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1999), p. 81.

(11.) Xu Xin estimates that Kaifeng Jewry reached a peak during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 C.E.) of 5,000. Xu Xin, Legends, p. XIV.

Wang estimates, based upon a 1679 tablet, that sixteenth-century Kaifeng had between 3,000 and 4,000 Jews. As of 1980, Wang counted 140 former Jewish families in China with the six Jewish surnames. Of these, 79 families numbering 166 persons still live in Kaifeng. Wang, "The Descendants of the Kaifeng Jews," pp. 171-172.

Pollack, who painstaking reviews the evidence of the Jewish population of Kaifeng, reports some 2,500 Jews "in the first centuries of their settlement"; about "a thousand or so individuals" after the flood of 1642 C.E.; about 300 to 500 (adults or families) during the nineteenth century; and about 100 families as of 1957. Pollack, Mandarins, pp. 317-319.

Isenberg states that in 1849 informants reported 1,000 Jews in Kaifeng. Shirley Berry Isenberg, "The Kaifeng Jews and India's Bene Israel: Different Paths," in The Jews of China, p. 94.

Among the Jewish Descendants of Kaifeng

Judaism, Wntr, 2000 by Irwin M. Berg

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