As you all know, Pauli is from Israel, raised in the Jewish culture. Here in China, he often gets comments that, at times, could be perceived as racists, if only be of the innocent look in the face of those giving them away. "Jews are good, they make lots of money". "Jews are smart, they are good in business". And various variations on the same theme. 犹太人 "YouTaiRen", the Jewish People. Pauli often jokes that I am more Jewish than him, taking him to the holiday dinners and making sure we have all the required Judaic paraphernalia around the house. In any cases, this last week, we joined a few friends for two(!) Passover dinners (Seders), and I have to admit humbly that my enthusiasm got watered down by the length of the readings, and by the delays incurred in the food service. I mean we did not really have anything to eat until 21:15 on the first evening!!! Anyhow, that aside, the Jewish community here is very well organized, with several groups of people meeting in various places. There are also numerous Israelis in town, as we were able to witness at our first Seder dinner. But the Jewish community in China has been here for numerous years. In fact since the beginning of the century, numerous Jews, mostly from Russia, and later from Germany, came in Northern-China. They settled mostly in Harbin, several hundreds of kilometers North-East of Beijing. The city today still has a few buildings which withstood the passage of time and testifying of the Jewish passage. Interestingly a few weeks ago, while strolling in PanJiaYuan Market with my parents and Pauli, we found a couple of old books talking about the life of the Jewish community in Harbin. Numerous photos showed buildings, people and other elements of importance to the community then.
More interestingly, last Sunday, after our Easter brunch, Pauli's old university teacher, Zvi came over for the afternoon. He taught Pauli several years ago, in Israel. He had landed that day in Beijing from Tel Aviv, to do some studies in the area of Chongqing, with Pauli's team. Both of them flew off there the same evening. The interesting part to this story is that while answering my question about if this trip was a first in China, he told us that he was born in here, in China! He had spent the first ten years of his life in Harbin! Me and Pauli were both astounded. He glanced at our book, commented on a few people, pointing at a famous rabbi that used to come to visit his parents, remembering a building or a name. His dad was an immigrant from Russia, while his mom, daughter of a Russian immigrant, was born in China. Zvi lived there for the first few years of his life, and then moved with his family in Israel. I am still amazed that he did not appeared emotional about this first return to China. I probably would have been. I wish he had stayed longer with us so to tell us more about his childhood and life in China. Zvi came over with a wonderful present: a Hanukia - the candle holder for Hanukah, from the Museum of Jerusalem. A wonderful present, more meaningful than he could have imagined, as last Hanukah I have gone to the four corners of Beijing trying to find one, unsuccessfully.
MOHON DIBACA : http://coplansinchina.com/2012/04/24/jews-built-ne-china/
BalasHapushttp://inthemoodforbeijing.blogspot.com/2009/04/harbin-and-youtairen.html
BalasHapusAs you all know, Pauli is from Israel, raised in the Jewish culture.
BalasHapusHere in China, he often gets comments that, at times, could be perceived as racists, if only be of the innocent look in the face of those giving them away. "Jews are good, they make lots of money". "Jews are smart, they are good in business". And various variations on the same theme. 犹太人 "YouTaiRen", the Jewish People.
Pauli often jokes that I am more Jewish than him, taking him to the holiday dinners and making sure we have all the required Judaic paraphernalia around the house. In any cases, this last week, we joined a few friends for two(!) Passover dinners (Seders), and I have to admit humbly that my enthusiasm got watered down by the length of the readings, and by the delays incurred in the food service. I mean we did not really have anything to eat until 21:15 on the first evening!!! Anyhow, that aside, the Jewish community here is very well organized, with several groups of people meeting in various places. There are also numerous Israelis in town, as we were able to witness at our first Seder dinner.
But the Jewish community in China has been here for numerous years. In fact since the beginning of the century, numerous Jews, mostly from Russia, and later from Germany, came in Northern-China. They settled mostly in Harbin, several hundreds of kilometers North-East of Beijing. The city today still has a few buildings which withstood the passage of time and testifying of the Jewish passage.
Interestingly a few weeks ago, while strolling in PanJiaYuan Market with my parents and Pauli, we found a couple of old books talking about the life of the Jewish community in Harbin. Numerous photos showed buildings, people and other elements of importance to the community then.
More interestingly, last Sunday, after our Easter brunch, Pauli's old university teacher, Zvi came over for the afternoon. He taught Pauli several years ago, in Israel. He had landed that day in Beijing from Tel Aviv, to do some studies in the area of Chongqing, with Pauli's team. Both of them flew off there the same evening. The interesting part to this story is that while answering my question about if this trip was a first in China, he told us that he was born in here, in China! He had spent the first ten years of his life in Harbin! Me and Pauli were both astounded. He glanced at our book, commented on a few people, pointing at a famous rabbi that used to come to visit his parents, remembering a building or a name. His dad was an immigrant from Russia, while his mom, daughter of a Russian immigrant, was born in China. Zvi lived there for the first few years of his life, and then moved with his family in Israel. I am still amazed that he did not appeared emotional about this first return to China. I probably would have been. I wish he had stayed longer with us so to tell us more about his childhood and life in China.
Zvi came over with a wonderful present: a Hanukia - the candle holder for Hanukah, from the Museum of Jerusalem. A wonderful present, more meaningful than he could have imagined, as last Hanukah I have gone to the four corners of Beijing trying to find one, unsuccessfully.
BUKU SETEBAL 285 MENCERITAKAN PERJALANAN BANGSA YAHUDI "ISTRAEL"
BalasHapusBUKU INI HANYA BEREDAR DI KALANGAN KOLETOR SAJA.
SAYA INGIN MENJUAL DENGAN HARGA 250 ribu
DI BUKU INI BANYAK SEKALI FOTO-FOTO ASLI DAN DISERTAIN DENGAN TAHUN SERTA KETERANGANNYA.
TERTARIK??? SEGERA HUBUNGIN SAYA DI 089-999-26-779. DITUNGGU TELEPONNYA YAH. MINIMAL SMS DEH. SIAP KIRIM KE LUAR KOTA.