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EditorMissionDear Readers:Welcome to the 6 th issue of Asian JewishLife. As I write this letter I am preparing toattend the 2011 ROI Summit in Jerusalem.ROI is a global community, created byLynn Schusterman, that works towardscreating an international network of youngJewish leaders with innovative and diversepaths for connecting to Jewish life.Living in the Far East, Jews findthemselves somewhat ‘off the radar’and a bit disconnected from the majorarteries of Jewish life. The ROI Summitrepresents an incredible opportunity forAsian Jewish Life to actively engage inconversations and partnerships withglobal Jewry, outside the limits of thevirtual world, and another opportunity tohelp put Jewish life in Asia on the map.The massive earthquake and tsunamiin Japan temporarily shifted the Jewishworld’s focus to this region and we sawJewish and Israeli organizations take thelead on humanitarian aid efforts. AJLteamed up with eJewish Philanthropy andutilized the eJewish Philanthropy platformto provide first hand information on howthe Jewish/Israeli world responded inthe aftermath of the quake. Together wehighlighted the efforts of organizationsthat included: American JewishCommittee (AJC), Israel Defense Forces(IDF), Joint Distribution Committee (JDC),ZAKA, Chabad of Asia and IsraAID. AJLwould like to commend all the Jewishand Israeli organizations that contributedto and continue to contribute to the reliefwork in Japan. These organizations, inaddition to providing desperately neededhumanitarian aid, continue to make alasting and positive impression on theJapanese people. They all are the ‘bestof Asian Jewish life’.In this issue, our Best of AJL featurehighlights and recaps the work of theIDF in Japan, again, just one of manyJewish world responders. This missionagain gives a sense of the importanceof Tikkun Olam in our tradition. We alsobring you an Expat Diary piece writtenby Aimee Weinstein of the Tokyo JewishCommunity as she struggled with thedecision whether to leave Japan andwhen to return.Away from Japan, we have also includedan array of creative pieces. AJL officiallywelcomes Allison Heiliczer on board asour Photography Editor and we havechosen to showcase her photographyand accompanying poetry in our poetrysection. Our Books Editor, Susan-Blumberg Kason, has provided aninsightful read of the Battle Hymn ofthe Tiger Mother with a contrast to theeducational values discussed in FortunateSons. Yes, the debate continues.We also have included a beautiful piece byRaquelle Azran, Hanoi and Counting. Herwork appeared previously in our Spring2010 issue. Likewise, I have included oneof my own Hong Kong-based memoirtypepieces, Holy People in the Taxi. Theseare both in our Writer’s Desk section.For the first time, we have a feature focusedon the little known Sri Lankan Jewishconnection. Australian writer and photojournalist Andrew Harris has contributedphotographs and editorial in Secrets ofCeylon - What happened to the Jews ofSri Lanka? As he, more correctly adds,“And did they ever exist.” As for additionallittle known connections, Dr. Shalva Weilconnects Rachel’s Tomb and the BeneIsrael for us in The Tomb of Rachel - theBene Israel Connection. We bring youanother look at India’s Bene Israel in thecover story, Siona Benjamin’s Interviewson Canvas- Faces of the Bene Israel.And surprising, yet true, we offer a look ata new sitcom in the US called Kosher Pig.The show follows a Chinese girl, adoptedby a Jewish family, as she searches forher Chinese roots. On a much moreserious note, Carice Witte, representing anorganization called SIGNAL, out of Israel,will give insight into the Israeli/ Chineseacademic connection and explain theimportance of this partnership. Thoughlooking towards the future in China, westill are looking back. A Travel Diary pieceby Rabbi Mark S. Bloom, gives a tourist’sview of Kaifeng. I hope the addition of aTravel Diary section will give readers agreater opportunity to contribute to AsianJewish Life.I hope you enjoy this tour of Jewish Asia!Erica LyonsEditor-in-ChiefASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6ASIAN JEWISH LIFEA JOURNAL OF SPIRIT, SOCIETY AND CULTURESiona Benjamin’s Interviews on CanvasFaces of the Bene IsraelSecrets of CeylonWhat happened to the Jews of Sri Lanka?Visit to the IDF Field Hospitalin Minami SanrikuAn insider’s viewAsian Jewish Life is a freequarterly publication designed toshare regional Jewish thoughts,ideas and culture and promoteunity. It also celebrates ourindividuality and our diversebackgrounds and customs.Asian Jewish Life is a registeredcharity in Hong Kong. AJL is alsounder the fiscal sponsorship ofthe Center for Jewish Culture andCreativity, a qualified US 501(c)(3)charitable organization.Editor-in-ChiefErica LyonsCopy EditorJana DanielsBooks EditorSusan Blumberg-KasonPhotography EditorAllison HeiliczerDesignerTerry ChowBoard of DirectorsEli Bitan, Bruce Einhorn,Peter Kaminsky, Amy MinesISSUE 6 (JUNE 2011)3

Featureby Andrew HarrisSecrets of CeylonWhat happened to the Jews of Sri Lanka?Photo credit: Andrew HarrisAn old door to a garden courtyard at the Galle Fort4

Featureby Andrew HarrisShabbat at ChabadColombo. Ceiling fanswhoosh languidlyoverhead, muffling thecrowd of us individualdaveners; four men–me, a backpackingIsraeli father and son, and Rabbi MendieCrombie—not even half a minyan,working our way through kabbalatshabbat, concluding roughly together.On the other side of the loungeroommechitzah are the rebbetzin and mywife, Naava. At the only synagogue inthe country, this, Rabbi Crombie latertells me, is an above-average turnout.Rabbi Crombie’s Chabad House is setup to serve the needs of a transienttrickle of Israeli backpackers andJewish businessman who pass throughColombo. It is the only synagogue (andmikvah) in the country. And yet, overmany centuries, Sri Lanka has almostcertainly had a Jewish presence ofsome sort – in fact, the southern port ofGalle is believed to be the biblical cityof Tarshish, from where in 1000BCEKing Solomon once shipped elephants,apes, peacocks jewels and spices.Sri Lanka is an island 432km at itslongest, and 224km at ats widest. TheSinhalese overwhelmingly Buddhistmajority is almost three-quarters ofthe 20.4-million population, the Tamils– overwhelmingly Hindu; some areChristian – just under a fifth, the SriLankan and Indian Moors, who areMuslim, are just under a tenth. About50,000 Dutch Reform Burghers and2000 indigenous animist Veddahbalance the equation.Rabbi Crombie, as I, was aware of onlyone self-identifying Jew, the poetessAnne Ranasinghe, and he couldn’t putme in touch with anyone who could tellme about the synagogue I had heardabout in Colombo, long since vanished.He did point me towards a Queenslandbasedresearcher, Dr Fiona KumariPhoto credit: Andrew HarrisCampbell, whom I’d already tried tocontact before going to Sri Lanka.Tracing Hidden Jewish RootsA couple of days later I sat down with JBMüller, a journalist during the turbulent‘70s and ‘80s, who has devoted himselfto researching the history of his ownpeople – The Burghers – many of whomhe believes to have Jewish roots.Over the course of a long afternoon atthe Dutch Burgher Union, a social club,central meeting place, and genealogicalstorehouse for the Sri Lankan Burghers,JB told me that, fleeing persecutionin Europe across two centuries ofpogroms, from the 16th century to the18th century, many Jews had endedup in the Netherlands, particularly inAmsterdam. When the Dutch neededlabour to send off to far-flung landswith the Dutch East Indies Company,the Jews were only too happy to go– and much earlier, he argues, theRabbi Crombie’s (and Chabad of Sri Lanka’s) backyardsame happened with the Portuguesecolonisers, and the surfeit of fledSpanish Jews on Portuguese soil.As a consequence, he argues, ahuge number of Burgher families withPortuguese or Dutch ancestry haveJewish roots. As evidenced, he posits,by their surnames – a list of whichhe has published in his book, TheBurghers, which contains a chapter onthe subject, ‘Semitic Ancestors’.Fiona Kumari Campbell’s mother’smaiden name is ‘Van Dort’, one of thoseon JB’s list – a ‘nonsense’ surname heexplains these as. ‘Van Dort’ means‘Over There’.I caught up with Fiona on my return toAustralia. It turns out that an illustriousJewish ancestor of hers, LeopoldImmanuel Jacob Van Dort, wasprofessor of Hebrew at the ChristianTheological Seminary in Colombo 1758to 1760, the year Hebrew was removedASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 65

Featureby Andrew HarrisJewish identity.” Fiona’s own ancestorsended up in Sri Lanka with the DutchEast Indies Company. They stayed,and apparently lost their Jewishness.Many generations later, Fiona says herdaughter doesn’t know any reality otherthan being a Jew.Fiona says JB Müller was the first toput Jews and Burghers together inthe Sri Lankan media. “He is to becommended,” she says. Although hetends to work not with hard evidence,but with inferences, Fiona freelyadmits that hard evidence is difficultto come by.Roadblocks in the PathAs an academic pursuit, uncoveringthe Jewish history of Sri Lanka hasbeen fraught. From social and politicalsensitivities; separating unverifiablestories from documented proof; anumber of roadblocks have stood inher path.Photo credit: Andrew Harrisfrom the curriculum. Ultimately forcedto convert under Dutch rule in Ceylon,he established a strong relationship withthe Cochin Jews, from whom he copiedscrolls of communal record.Jacob Van Dort also translated the Koraninto Hebrew (from a Dutch translation ofa French translation from the Arabic) – acopy lives in the New York Public library.Carved wooden secondary entrance to an old merchant’s houseAlthough Fiona hasn’t converted toJudaism, she and her daughter keepa kosher home, and live what shedescribes as a ‘pretty Jewish life’. Shehasn’t undergone the process becauseof the difficulty of obtaining anycertifiable proof of descent. “’Van Dort’is a well-known Jewish name. Some ofthe Van Dorts went to a colony in SouthAmerica; to Suriname, and retained their“Sometimes the stories that peopletell, are conflicting and they’re hazy,”she says. “Remember that theserecollections are of people who’ve hadvery little visual and physical exposureto Jews. That’s a problem in itself.”The well-known Sri Lankan writerCecil V Wikramanayake, now in his80s, published an essay entitled ‘Jewsof Old Ceylon’, in which he recalled,“I remember, as a child, seeing manyJews in this country, always dressed inthe customary white robe, head coveredand kept in place with a phylactery tiedaround the head.”Who really knows what he wasremembering – both Fiona and thepoetess Anne Ranasinghe note thatmany Sri Lankans think a ‘Jew’ is somekind of Christian. Additionally, an expatSri Lankan Burgher in Melbourne hadtold me that what I found later to be a6 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Featureby Andrew HarrisPhoto credit: Andrew HarrisThe legacy of Israeli assistance to the Indian Ocean Tsunami on a T-shirtSouth Indian Muslim sect, the Bohras,were Jews.The overarching issue with uncoveringevidence of Jews in Sri Lanka is thetumultuous history of the island itself,and its successive waves of Portuguese,Dutch and British colonisation overhundreds of years, followed by a brief,relatively trouble-free period afterindependence in 1948, and, mostrecently, three decades of civil war.Every new administration and new strifemeant the destruction of documentation,mass flights and displacements ofpopulation. “That’s the whole issue withcolonisation. They were there to wipeout religious sentiment that they didn’tagree with,” she says. “People lose theirconnection, their identity.”Since Fiona published her article ‘AHistorical Appraisal of Jewish Presencein Sri Lanka’ on the Chabad of Sri Lankawebsite, she’s had a trickle of enquiriesfrom people who think they haveJews in their genealogy. “At least it’sopening up a conversation for peoplewho maybe haven’t thought there wassome kind of Jewish descent, to startexploring those issues.”When Chabad of Colombo was firstestablished, Fiona asked whether ornot tourists and businesspeople wasthe entirety of their mission; whetheror not they were looking to reconnectthose in Sri Lanka who had lost touchwith their Judaism, or if they’d workwith the descendents of those whowere forced to convert. The answer wasnot in the positive. “I think it’s a moralresponsibility; with colonisation, thesepeople didn’t say, oh, I want to convertto another religion,” she says. “They arethe legacy of tyranny.”“I am the Only Sri Lankan Jew”The poetess Anne Ranasinghe (bornAnneliese Katz in Essen, Germany)was initially concerned about theestablishment of the Chabad presence;that it would bringing too much attentionto bear on Jews in Sri Lanka.Over a very crackly phone connection,Anne Ranasinghe was resolute. “I amthe only Sri Lankan Jew,” she says.“I am the only Jew with a Sri Lankanpassport.” And it’s true.Anne survived the Holocaust after beingsent to England as a child. She grew upin London, where she met her Sri Lankanobstetrician husband. On starting afamily in Sri Lanka, she decided to raiseher children as Buddhist – not as Jewish.According to an essay published inthe Jewish Quarterly, ‘Our BeginningsNever Know Our Ends’, Anne explainsshe had no option. She was culturallyand spiritually isolated.Meanwhile, Anne kept up contact withthe few Jews on the island of whom shewas aware. One of her Jewish friends,who had married a Sri Lankan, towardsthe end of her life made it clear to herthat she wanted a Jewish burial. In SriLanka, most people are cremated,ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 67

Featureby Andrew Harrisin accordance with the predominantBuddhist rite; otherwise they’re buriedin privately owned Muslim or Christiancemeteries.The Christian owners of the cemeteriesthat may have had plots refused to havea Jew buried in the ground. Anne wasnever able to find a plot for her friend tohave a proper Jewish burial.The Search for Something ConcreteFiona confirms that there was, indeed,a synagogue in Colombo, as does JB,who mentions that it was known as ‘TheRotunda’, after its rounded architecture,a site now known as Rotunda Gardens,a few hundred metres south of whereFiona believes there was a synagogue.Along with many other historicalbuildings across the country, it didnot survive three decades of civil warsand urban development. “There’s notthat kind of archaeological sensibility,”Fiona says. This location also doesn’tcorroborate with any other evidence.In the course of our brief conversation,Anne Ranasinghe though confirms thatshe remembers a synagogue repletewith a mezuzah at the site at which Fionabelieves it to have existed, opposite theCinnamon Grand Hotel on Galle Road,in the upscale Cinnamon Gardensneighbourhood, on the grounds of whatis now a Japanese cultural hall. Thecurrent Chabad House is an art-decovilla not far away.“They come, and they disappear”Fiona is quick to point out that notonly is there no surviving synagogueof the original community, no survivingPortuguese churches and only a feworiginal Dutch sites stand today. “Theycome, and they disappear.”In her essay for the Jewish Quarterly,Anne Ranasinghe mentions that Jewishserviceman, in the British army, used thePhoto credit: Andrew Harrissynagogue, and that it was demolishednot long after her 1952 arrival in SriLanka. She recalls no actual Jewishcommunity, and names in her essaythe handful of Jews she was aware of –also mainly the European wives of localmen.Still, despite the question of thisvanished synagogue building, there iswritten evidence of an historical Jewishpresence in Sri Lanka – Benjamin ofTudela estimated 3000 Jews in SriLanka in 1130; a famously open-minded9th-century Sinhalese king is recordedas having four Jewish advisers to hiscourt of sixteen in total; a 16th-centuryPortuguese trader recounts a 50-daytrade fair in which he specifies Jewsparticipated; the Jewish de Wormsbrothers, cousins of the Rothschilds,Magen David carved into a pew in the Anglican Churchestablished the first coffee, and thentea plantations in Sri Lanka; a handful ofJews were senior in the colonial Britishadministration – what happened to theirdescendents?“In 1948,” JB Müller tells me, “with theestablishment of the State of Israel, theyleft for Israel, and Singapore.”Of the permanent, original SingaporeJewish community, only 300 membersremain. It’s such a small community,so important in the region; it seemedodd that they wouldn’t know about this.And yet, via email, Rabbi MordechaiAbergel of Singapore’s Jacob BallasCentre stated clearly, “To the bestof my knowledge, there are no Jewsin Singapore who migrated fromSri Lanka.”8 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Featureby Dr. Shalva WeilThe Tomb of Rachel -the Bene Israel ConnectionPostcard of the Tomb of RachelWanderers, emissaries,matriarchs and a holy site10 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Featureby Dr. Shalva Weilreferring to it as Rachel’s tomb andmade the claim that it was the site of anIslamic mosque.During the second Intifada in 2000, therewere intermittent attacks on the tombwith altercations between the IDF andPalestinian gunmen. Since then, therehas been a growing wave of supportfor the idea that the site was in fact athousand year-old mosque by the nameof the “Bilal ibn Rabah mosque” until,finally, the UN Educational Scientificand Cultural Organization (UNESCO)endorsed the idea. In October 2010,it was declared a mosque. Out of 58member states, only the United Statesvoted against the decision; 12 Europeanand African countries abstained.In a petition to UNESCO initiated onthe internet, petitioners wrote: “Inattempting to sever the Jewish cultural,religious and natural heritage bond withthe Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel’sTomb, UNESCO denies the history itis mandated to preserve, engages in apolitical maneuver designed to weakena member UN nation, and underminesits own principles. … We demand thatUNESCO, whose purpose it is to protectheritage, also protect Jewish heritage,rather than deny it.”The tomb was even known by the BeneIsrael of Bombay as one of the holiestsites to Jews over the generationseven though they were disconnectedfrom world Jewry. It symbolizedfertility, and is of special significanceto Jewish women. Rachel’s birthday,which falls on the 11th day of the lunarmonth of Heshvan, has become a dayof pilgrimage for thousands of Jewishwomen, who come from all over Israel topray for their loved ones or themselves.The security around the Tomb of RachelBusloads of Bene Israel have in thepast visited the tomb to make vows andpray for suitable marriage partners fortheir children or beg for children for achildless couple. The Bene Israel groupswho visit the tomb today, which nowmore closely resembles a fortificationmarking the checkpoint to Bethlehemmore than an ancient holy site, are fewand far between. The Bene Israel guardis no longer there. The memory, though,is still closely guarded.Dr. Shalva Weil is a SeniorResearcher at the ResearchInstitute for Innovation inEducation at the Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem, Israel. She is aspecialist in Indian Jewry and isthe Founding Chairperson of theIsrael-India Cultural Association.12 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

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Poetryby Allison HeiliczerChildhood in ChinaIn a sea of Chinese,awaiting my visa.Two hours pass,a sweet ounce of childhoodDances around me.Running with red dragons;she radiates golden light.I observe from my seat;she from her heart.Transported to my Chinese childhood,the girl dances.Photo credit: Allison Heiliczer14 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Poetryby Allison HeiliczerPhoto credit: Allison HeiliczerPesach in BurmaTo the synagogue,my Jewish soul floats.Military marches,heart expires.Burmese energy,pulse on fire.Passing over perceived gates,flying, receiving our fates.Pesach arrives in Rangoon.Allison Heiliczer is a HongKong-based photographerwhose photography hasappeared in Condé NastTraveler, Matador, InTraveland Big World Magazine. Sheholds a bachelor’s degree innutrition and food studies,and a master’s in culturalstudies and management,both from New York University. She is about tobegin her graduate studies in psychotherapy. Herwork may be viewed at: www.allisonheiliczer.comASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 615

Writer’sDeskby Raquelle AzranHanoi and CountingThirty eight motorbikes, ten bicycles, seven cars.The light changes and traffic flows by in downtownHanoi. Suzuki FX 125’s, Honda Dreams, HondaWaves. Chinese no-frill bicycles, taxis and carswith diplomatic license plates.When I first came to Hanoi, eleven years ago, the bicyclereigned supreme. Motorbikes were a luxury and cost twoyears of hard labor. One evening, we heard a commotion inthe courtyard we shared with fifty local families. A thief hadattempted to steal a neighbor’s motorbike. He was pinneddown, kicked and beaten until the policeman, who had beensummoned to take him away, took pity on him and hauled himoff to jail.Behind me shimmers Hoan Kiem lake. The legendary giantturtle swims up from its murky depths and lumbers ontothe grassy bank only once or twice a year. Whoever is luckyenough to see it will enjoy hanh phuc, good fortune. I was onmy way to the post office several years ago when I saw peopleswarming excitedly toward the lake. I ran too, and there it was,purply green and enormous. In Vietnam, legends and life areoften indistinguishable.Fifty three motorbikes, nineteen bicycles, twelvecars and four taxis. The number of cars in Hanoi isincreasing geometrically, although female automobiledrivers are still rarer than snow during the monsoon.Walk/don’t walk signs blink at most corners, but in Vietnam,their message is purely theoretical. Pedestrians are the lowestrung on the traffic ladder, and must weave through streamsof speeding vehicles while constantly looking left and right –think of watching a live tennis match – to avoid being knockeddown. It’s easy to identify a tourist in Hanoi: s/he’s the onepawing nervously at the curb. After awhile, you get the hangof it and it’s fun until whoops, you forget to look both ways anda motorbike driver snarls at you, or thuds into you, or both.I celebrated my first day in Vietnam flat on my face in HoChi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The overland crossing fromPhnom Penh, Cambodia was a deadening eight hour trip byshared taxi on rutted roads. We were five people in the backseat, four in the front, of an ancient vehicle. The driver honkedat everything that moved including bicycles and ducks, so thetrip was basically one unending honk. Finally arriving at myhotel, I should have showered and gone to bed, but insteadwent outside, tried to cross the street and was promptlymowed down by a motorbike.After regaining consciousness and checking for contactlenses and teeth, I noticed a worried looking man hovering.He’s the motorbike driver, I was told, you really shouldapologize to him. He could get in a lot of trouble for running16 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Writer’sDeskby Raquelle Azranover a tourist. I apologized, he gallantly forgave me and a tinyscar under my left eyebrow accompanied me for many yearsbefore disappearing under a convenient wrinkle.Eighty motorbikes, ten bicycles, five cars and a lonecyclo. Cyclos, relics of French colonialism, oncewound leisurely everywhere in Hanoi.Drivers pedaled away on their bicycles pushing attachedcarriages piled high with entire families, great bolts of silk andthe marketing. When it rained, a sheet of plastic was tuckedaround the passengers to keep them dry and in the fiercemidday sun, an accordion canopy was opened for shade.Cyclos were once king of the road, but the Hanoi authoritieshave decided they slow down traffic and are bad for the city’smodern image, so the downtown area is now off limits to them.You can still find low-tech transport near the marketplaces.Cyclo drivers ring their bells, looking for business. A peddlerwalks his bicycle, which he has outfitted with display cases.Over the front wheel are hammers, pestles and knives. Theback wheel displays rope, pins and ribbons.Market women, straining under 25 kilo basketsbalanced from a pole across their shoulders, offersugar cane and oranges. Another cyclo passes, twentychicken heads peeping out of their bamboo cages.A silver-haired orange seller points to her pyramid of fruit. Verysweet, she insists, and pushes an orange into my hand. No, Isay, I really don’t need any oranges. No problem, she smiles,peering into my face. How old are you? Fifty. You look young,she says. Here, we’re old at fifty. Are you sure you don’t wantto buy my oranges?A native New Yorker, Raquelle Azrandivides her time between Hanoi,Vietnam, where she specializes inVietnamese contemporary fine art(www.artnet.com/razran.html) andTel Aviv, Israel, where she writes inher inner city aerie overlooking theMediterranean.Azran has been widely published. Some of heraccomplishments include her short story ‘By theRoadblock of Bethlehem’ which was awarded honorablemention and published in the International Herald Tribuneliterary supplement of the Middle East edition (2002).Her work has also appeared in publications such asThe Writing Group Book (Chicago Review Press, 2003),Aunties:Thirty Five Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother(Ballantine Books, 2004), the Culture supplement of theHaaretz/International Herald Tribune, Yuan Yang, a HongKong based literary journal and the 2009 Tel Aviv ShortStories anthology.ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 617

Message from the Chairman of theIsraeli Chamber of Commerce in Hong KongWe are dedicated to promoting trade and development betweenHong Kong SAR and Israel for mutual benefit.Our loyalties lie first and foremost with our members,acting as their voice in advising the Israeli Government in mattersaffecting businesses and the economy, providing members withbusiness information and opportunities, and facilitating networkingthrough a variety of chamber activities.Rafael AharoniTel. 852-2312-1111Fax. 852-2311-6999E-mail : icoc@netvigator.comc/o The Jewish Community Centre, One Robinson Place,70 Robinson Road, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong

CoverStoryby Erica LyonsSiona Benjamin’s Interviewson CanvasFaces of the Bene IsraelPortrait of a young Bene IsraelASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 619

CoverStoryby Erica LyonsSiona Benjamin with Cantor Satkiel BhastekarWhen artist Siona Benjamin, an American,set out on her trip back to the India ofher childhood in 2010, she arrived with anintense sense of purposefulness heavilyladen with nostalgia. She was intent onrescuing the stories and narratives of these people, her people,the Jews of India. Benjamin was awarded the Fulbright SeniorScholar Fellowship 2010-11, which enabled her to embark onthis four month intensive research study in India that allowedher to photograph, interview, and record the Bene Israel’sstories lest they fall into oblivion. She concentrated her workon the Jews living in higher concentrations in Mumbai, Thaneand Pune (though once three distinct groups of Indian Jews,the Bene Israel, the Cochini Jews, and the Iraqi Jews, alsolived in concentrated numbers in Cochin, Calcutta, Delhi andin small towns along the coast near Mumbai).The story of the Jews in India goes back 2,000 years and is oneof peaceful coexistence in a colorful world that embraced themyet one of isolation from global Jewry. With the establishmentof Israel, many of the Bene Israel began to understand thatthey had a hunger to connect with world Jewry. Benjaminexplains that today the community, mainly as a result ofmigration to both Israel and the United States, has dwindledand estimates that a mere 4,000 remain in India. Many people,amidst growing concerns over the safety of India’s tiny Jewishminority, the reality of economic tensions, the ease of travel in aglobal world and the decreasing number of Jewish educationaland social opportunities within the Jewish community in India,expect these numbers will continue to dwindle. For Benjamin,the tragedy would be for this community to become a merefootnote in Jewish history. “I have concerns of what wouldbecome of the Bene Israel Jews and my Jewish past for mydaughter’s generation. I fear there would just be memories.”As a Bene Israel herself, she explains how she is often askedabout the community: what did they look like, what did theysound like. Her “Faces: Weaving Indian Jewish Narratives”is a chance to immortalize these stories on canvas, virtuallyunknown to what is thought of as ‘mainstream’ global Jewry,in other words, the predominantly European-centered Jewry.Benjamin identifies herself as a multi-cultural artist, glossing20 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

CoverStoryby Erica Lyonsher work with her now very American outlook while painting witha palette that is very much out of India, foreign, mysterious andexotic. All the while, the voices of these images leap from thecanvas with words that are deeply spiritual and clearly Jewish.The images are most defiantly strong and feminine. To say,though, that she is only one of these things, a woman artist, aJewish artist, an American artist or an Indian artist would be aninjustice. Each stroke is all of these identities woven together.She relies heavily on narrative, myth and history in her workand draws on her own identities as well as the identities of thecultures around her. Having roots that have never been firmlyplanted, she paints rather from a “spiritual borderland”.In addition to this, Benjamin’s expressed desire is to documentthe faces, heritage and stories of the Bene Israel, “before theirexistence becomes a cultural relic of India”. Benjamin alsoaims to raise awareness of this 2,000 year history of Jews inIndia. She wants people to understand, through her art, boththe impact India had on them and the impact they have hadon India and to open viewers up to a very different face ofJudaism. Lastly, and highly personal, Benjamin, in returning toher ancestral home and the home of her childhood, wishes tofurther explore the theme of home that runs through her earlierworks. As she explains, “the desire to find ‘home’, spirituallyand literally, has always preoccupied me.”From the Siona Benjamin collectionUnderstandably, with this type of sensitivity, a common themerunning through all of Benjamin’s works is the idea of findinghome. She has lived as a minority in India, surrounded by apredominantly Muslim and Hindu population. And as a foreignbornIndian Jew in America, she finds herself within a smallminority in the Jewish world. Her art is a roadmap to her home.“Visualizing the Bene Israel Jewish faces and the paintedornamentation around them, they could be the ghost imagesfrom my past, my childhood in Jewish India, weaving new andold stories. Are these faces from dreams and memories orare they just other faces on passports or immigration cards orperhaps from my family’s photo albums? These faces wouldbe like maps, leading me to link the past, weave narratives,trace paths and blur boundaries,” Benjamin muses.In order to achieve her goals, Benjamin is relying on a numberof mediums and techniques. While she has returned fromher research-focused phase in India, which took her back toplaces like Magen Hassidim Synagogue and the Tifereth IsraelSynagogue, where she worshiped with her family as a child,she has a tremendous task at hand. Now armed with a seriesof photographs, video tapes and highly personal interviewsSamson Solomon (Korlekar)ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 621

CoverStoryby Erica Lyonsthat have captured the intense interplay between myth, legend,tradition, history and modernity that these people carry,she has to interpret this ‘data’ and convert it to graphic art.Between ten to fifteen faces that she has captured through herphotographs will be printed and converted to cutout portraitson 3’ x 3’ canvases. Benjamin will then paint their individualand collective stories in a narrative form around memorializingtheir unique perspective, history and traditions.Benjamin will utilize her signature mastery of the Indian/Persian miniature painting technique with gouache and22-karat gold leaf, which is prominent in her earlier works,to weave in their stories and iconography. As Benjaminexpresses, this miniaturist technique “would best representthe cultural aesthetics of India, while the large cut out portraitswould be inspired by the oversized portrait paintings of thecontemporary artist, Chuck Close.”Benjamin says ultimately it was the terror attack in Mumbai’sChabad House that actually prompted her to begin thiscelebration of diversity in an effort to bring, to the West, anunderstanding of who the Jews of India are and to help peopleunderstand that the Jewish presence in India predated, bymillennia, Chabad’s current presence there. Benjamin isdetermined to use her art and these faces to offer a muchbroader view of the Indian Jewish world.Queenie and Ralph Moses Best (Bhastekar)Sharon Galsurkar at Magen David SynagogueSophie Judah Benjamin (Kasookar)22 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

BookReviewsby Susan Blumberg-KasonEducation Comes FirstTiger Mothers, Chinese nationals and US schoolingOne of the most controversial books this year, Amy Chua’sBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Penguin, 2011) is known forits portrayal of a strict mother who stresses academics andmusic above everything, including playdates, sports, andother extracurricular activities.But little has been made of the common Chinese-Jewish familydynamic Chua describes early on in her memoir. Accordingto Chua, this group “may sound exoticbut actually forms a majority in certaincircles, especially in university towns.”In her case, she and her husband agreeto teach their kids Mandarin and raisethem Jewish. Later in her memoir,Chua briefly recounts when her eldestdaughter, Sophia, has her Bat Mitzvah attheir home. At that time, Chua’s motherin-lawwas suffering from leukemia andliving with them. Holding the Bat Mitzvahat their home allows grandma Popo toattend. She passes away two weeks later.It’s not until her younger daughter Lulugets ready for her own Bat Mitzvah thatChua discusses how she and her husband share in Lulu’sBat Mitzvah preparations. She writes “As with Sophia, wewere being unconventional and having the Bat Mitzvah inour home. Jed handled the major responsibilities, but Iwas the one constantly haranguing Lulu to practice herhaftorah portion—I was going to be a Chinese mothereven when it came to Hebrew.” (page 199)What makes Lulu’s Bat Mitzvah even moreunconventional is that Chua asks Lulu to perform“Hebrew Melody” on the violin at her Bat Mitzvah. And intrue Tiger Mother fashion, Chua pushes Lulu to perfection.Tensions rise so high that Chua isn’t sure Lulu will agree to play“Hebrew Melody” when she wakes up the morning of her BatMitzvah. Fortunately for Amy Chua, Lulu’s bat mitzvah goesoff without a hitch, but not without a tiger’s share of tension.As strict as Chua appears in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,her original ideas about education and extracurricular activitiesstand in contrast to the intellectual elite in China 150 years ago.In Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came toAmerica, Went to School, and Revolutionized an AncientCivilization (WW Norton, 2011), Liel Leibovitz and MatthewMiller chronicle the changing views of education in China inthe late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Their book opens with the annual Yale freshman-sophomorefootball game in the fall of 1850. Freshman Yung Wing capturesthe ball toward the end of the game and runs like a typhoon,his long braided queue swaying as his Chinese robes fan inthe wind. He kicks the ball for a field goal, seizing a victory andfeels American for the first time.As Leibovitz and Miller write in Fortunate Sons, recreationalactivities become important to university education backin nineteenth century American universities. And it’sthis aspect of their education that makes such animpression on Yung Wing, the first person from Chinato study in the US.Yung Wing learns English in missionary schools inChina before embarking on his university years at Yale.But he flunks calculus and barely passes Greek while atYale. These subjects involve more critical thinking thansimply reciting the Confucian classics.After Yung Wing returns to China with an undergraduatedegree from Yale, he struggles to find a placein the country he left behind as ateenager. Eventually he moves backto Connecticut to supervise a groupof 120 Chinese male high school anduniversity students in the late 1870s.The students sail to San Francisco,see firsthand how the Chinese built thetranscontinental railroads, visit importanthistorical cities, and then settle in to begintheir studies on the east coast.Fortune Sons tells the stories of thesestudents and their overseer Yung Wing all whilenarrating the rapid changes in late-Qing andearly-Republic China. As long as Yung Wing hassupport back in China, the study abroad programin the US is safe.Sadly, the mission is aborted prematurely after the program’spatron in China is stripped from his position of authority.Without another supporter and with increased anti-westernsentiment during the Boxer Rebellion, the program comes toa sudden halt. All students must return to China, although onestays back in the US to marry a local woman. But among thosewho return to China, many land in top government, military,and industry jobs.Leibovitz and Miller’s book is fascinating in that it shows how abalanced education, including physical education and criticalthinking, paved the way for modern China. And as Amy Chualearns at the end of her memoir, a well-rounded student is notsuch a bad thing after all.ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 623

Writer’sDeskby Erica LyonsHoly People in the TaxiPhoto credit: Terry ChowThe streets of Hong Kong’s Wan Chai districtare bustling with traffic. Yet people seem to beentirely oblivious to the cars and wander acrossstreets pushing rickety carts piled with coloredplastic house-wares, flattened old cardboardboxes and the occasional pile of dead pigs with wobbly flesh.Shirtless men run across the street carrying plastic bucketsfilled with water and eels attempting escape. They splashmurky water as they run. Old ladies over-laden with dozensof colored plastic bags with recent wet-market purchasesshuffle around the people crowded in open air shops hagglingover the price of animal parts I care not to try to identify.The shouts of street vendors fill even the quiet space insidethe taxi. The taxi cab jerks as it continuously stops for thepedestrians as they stream to and from the bustling streetmarket. It is hard to believe that in less than 5 minutes, if wecan just navigate through the wet-market crowd, we will be inCentral where the streets glitter and ultra-modern skyscrapersreflect the images of the endless array of chic couture shopsthat align street level.The taxi cab driver makes small talk. I try to appear busy withmy blackberry but it does not deter him. “Where you from?”he asks. “Live Hong Kong, eight years,” I respond.I have learned to simplify my speech, removing all ‘extra’ partsof speech, especially prepositions which entirely fail to exist inmy taxi cab lingo. I am concise, perhaps a bit terse. In transit,my eight year old has often asked me why my English is sobad, as I break every grammatical rule I have ever drilled intoher: “Make right”, “Make left” with an occasional Lido (here)or Do (Road) sprinkled in.“What country you come from?” he clarifies.“United States,” I hesitantly offer. Fortunately, in Hong Kong,unlike other places I have traveled to, this usually does notinspire tirades, but rather sometimes an occasional footnotethat they would like to go, their brother has been or they sawone or another American television show.“No,” he insists, “No U. S. of A. You not look U. S. of A. Not24 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Writer’sDeskby Erica LyonsAmerican,” he insists glancing at me in the rearview mirror. Ilook quizzical.Don’t look American? This is one of the strangest commentsI have heard. What does an American look like I wonder? Ithink of the faces that make up the America I know. They arediverse. They are colored. They are white. They look like anyof the jean-clad Asians on the passing street. They look likethe occasional Western tourist being shoved along with acrumpled map in hand in the rush hour frenzy. I certainly fitsomewhere in that patchwork. When strangers try to guessmy nationality, Italian, French and American all certainly makeit to the top three. He sees my perplexed expression.“No Blond. No ponytail,” he responds.“Watches too much Beverly Hills 90210. Too much BayWatch,” I think to myself.“Who are your people? Where your people come from?”he asks.I should just ask him where he thinks I am from, agree and endthe conversation.There is in fact no easy answer. As my great-grandparentsfled the pogroms of Eastern Europe and divorced themselvesof any connection to the Old World once they arrived inEllis Island, to say I am Russian would be absurd. Theyweren’t Russians. I am certainly not. They lived in a shtetl,spoke Yiddish and dreamed of the day they could flee frompersecution.Traffic is at a standstill. I could respond Russia though andjust end this conversation. I should.“I am Jewish,” I respond.“The Jesus. The Jesus. The Jesus?” he says as he bobs hishead with his hands pressed together.Again, I can agree and end the conversation here. I notice thesmall Buddha statue on his dashboard, placed between theeclectic display of gumball machine-type trinkets, miniaturetaxis and the golden cat with the one arm that bobs up anddown as the taxi cab totters on the old cable car tracks.“No, Jewish…Judaism…Jewish…Israel” I say. He looksperplexed. “The Chosen People. People of the Book.The Promised Land,” I offer. By his expression, I see I amgetting nowhere.“Youtai (Chinese word for Jewish),” I hesitantly offer.He abruptly removes his hands from the wheel and turnscompletely around to look at me.“So lucky,” he sings. “I never before have the Holy People inmy taxi. Never before. So lucky, lucky.”“Not THAT lucky,” I remonstrate. “Turn around! Please! Puthands back on wheel.”For a second he returns his hands to wheel and looks at theroad ahead.But again, he lets go and turns completely around to look at me.“So smart. So clever,” he says. “The Holy People in my taxi.Make so much big money. Read so many books. Study somuch. Lucky.”I assure him again that I am not so lucky. Rules of the road andbasic properties of physics are very much still in effect, evenin my presence.Truth be told, I would actually very much like to continue thisconversation and wish that we both had the communicationskills to do so. So many interesting preconceived notionshave come up somewhere between Johnston Road, WanChai and Queens Road, Central. He has a definite idea ofwhat Americans look like, which apparently I don’t fit nordo most of the people I know, and although he has nevermet a Jew before he also has a very detailed perception ofJewish characteristics. I am wearing ripped jeans, conversesneakers and obviously only possess the ability to speakabout 15 word of his language despite the fact that I havelived here for 8 years, yet I am now in his mind clearly bothwealthy and smart.We are approaching my stop. “Lido (here),” I shout as heexcitedly chatters in Cantonese into the headset connectedto one of the five phones he has attached with rubber bandsto his dashboard. He simultaneously chatters over the staticto the dispatcher. I assume he is busy spreading the news ofhis good fortune.Again, “Lido! Stop here,” I shout to get his attention. He abruptlystops. With my open wallet in hand, I look at the meter. Heplaces his hand over the numbers and turns around and smiles.“No charge for you. So lucky, lucky for me. Holy People inmy taxi.”ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 625

Best of AJLby Philip RosenfeldVisit to the IDF Field Hospitalin Minami SanrikuAn insider’s viewPhoto credit: Hannah Rosenfeld26 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Best of AJLby Philip RosenfeldIt was early in the morning on April5th when I had the opportunityto witness firsthand the impactthe Israel Defense Forces (IDF)mission had on the lives of theJapanese. These were people amongthe most severely affected by thetsunami. It was also a look at the powerand potential of organized cooperationin the Jewish world.I left the safety of Tokyo and met IsraeliAmbassador Ben-Shitrit in Sendai andfollowed him to Minami Sanriku, thetown in which the IDF field hospitalis located. Upon arriving at the fieldhospital at approximately 8:30 a.m., wewere met by Dr. Ofer Merin and otherkey staff members who, despite a busyschedule, graciously took the time toexplain the field hospital operations andthe role the field hospital plays in theaffected area.ophthalmology, orthopedics, pediatricsand urology. The hospital also providesx-ray imaging and is equipped with anintensive care unit, medical laboratoryand pharmacy with medication availableto treat an extensive array of illnessesand diseases. The IDF practitionerswork in close consultation with localJapanese doctors and this alone isextraordinary. In many cases the localJapanese doctors accompany theirpatients to the field hospital. As ofthe morning of April 5th, the IDF fieldhospital staff had treated approximately130 patients on site and an additionalnumber of individuals in the surroundingarea either in their home or in anevacuation shelter.The IDF practitioners provide a vitalservice to the affected community andthe equipment donated by the AmericanJewish Joint Distribution Committee(JDC), including a portable ultrasoundunit, an endoscope, and LumiView(head lamp with amplifier) also plays acritical role in enabling them to do so.In many cases, the care they provide isotherwise not available within a two hourradius of the field hospital. For patientswith chronic conditions and pregnantpatients, this service is critical.Minami Sanriku is a coastal fishing townlocated in northern Miyagi Prefecture.Prior to the earthquake and tsunami,Minami Sanriku had a population ofapproximately 18,000 people of whichit is estimated that approximately 1,200individuals perished in the disasterwith another 5,500 people beingleft homeless. The destruction anddevastation that I witnessed in MinamiSanriku was utter and complete. Thetown simply no longer exists. Thescene is difficult to describe in wordsbut it looked as though a bomb haddestroyed the area.Photo credit: Hannah RosenfeldThe IDF field hospital team arrived inMinami Sanriku on Monday, March28th and began its operations that verysame day. The field hospital, locatedon the outskirts of Minami Sanrikuadjacent to a gymnasium that is beingutilized as an evacuation shelter, hasa staff that includes thirteen doctors,seven nurses and approximately thirtysupport/logistics members. Specialistservices provided include ENT, internalmedicine, gynecology, obstetrics,Photo credit: IDFASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 627

Best of AJLby Philip RosenfeldAs of April 5th, Dr. Moshe Pinkert,an IDF obstetrician together with IrisBedrak, an IDF midwife, have used theportable ultrasound to examine fifteenpregnant women, twelve of whom wereexamined in their own home. Accordingto Eriko Takahashi, a midwife at MinamiSanriku’s Shizugawa Public Hospital,which was destroyed by the tsunami,local authorities have been able toconfirm the whereabouts of twentypregnant women in the Minami Sanrikuarea since the disaster. Accordingly,as of April 5th, the portable ultrasoundhas been used in conjunction with theexamination of 75% of the pregnantwomen in the area.the field hospital who he diagnosed ashaving an acute blockage that at somepoint would require surgery.The work the IDF field hospital teamhas performed in Minami Sanriku hasbeen extraordinary, not only in termsof the actual medical care deliveredbut also in terms of the understandingand goodwill that it has engenderedwith the Japanese people. This is nota tie that will be forgotten. As Dr. OferMerin told me, “The importance of thedelegation goes beyond the number ofpatients treated; it goes to the heart ofthe relationship between countries. It isa milestone to be able to work in Japanand to assist the people of Japan, and itis a privilege for me to be part of it.”Philip Rosenfeld has lived andworked in Japan for sixteen years.He is the Vice President andTreasurer of The Jewish Communityof Japan and is the Co-Founder andManaging Director of JapanQuestJourneys, a boutique firmspecializing in customized luxuryjourneys to Japan. He is currentlyserving as The American JewishJoint Distribution Committee’srepresentative in Japan.The portable ultrasound gives Dr.Pinkert and Iris Bedrak the ability toexamine not only the patient’s physicalcondition but to also provide thepregnant mother with a large degreeof comfort and relief knowing thather unborn child is fine after all of thestrain and anxiety of the past severalweeks. In the words of Eriko Takahashi,“When visiting patients at their home,Dr. Pinkert and Iris have brought joy toentire families by giving them the chanceto share in the experience of seeingthe healthy fetus, which under normalcircumstances they would not be ableto do as a family. Children are clappingas they, their parents and grandparents,see the ultrasound images and share inthis wonderful experience.”Photo credit: Hannah RosenfeldThe endoscope and LumiView are usedby the field hospital’s ENT specialist,Dr. Udi Katzenell. According to Dr.Katzenell, “the equipment donatedby the JDC really upgrades the ENTservices.” It is important to note thatthe LumiView has its own power unitenabling Dr. Katzenell to take the deviceon visits into the field such as at a nearbyevacuation shelter. During my visit, I sawDr. Katzenell use both the endoscopeand LumiView to examine a patient atPhoto credit: Hannah Rosenfeld28 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

ExpatDiaryby Aimee WeinsteinExperiencing the Exodus(from Japan)“May all who are hungry comeand eat with us.” As Jewswe say these words fromthe traditional Haggadahduring the first two nightsof Passover every year,but this year, they rangespecially true for meand my family as wemuddled through theevents surroundingthe Japan earthquakeand subsequent tsunami.By the time Passover camealong over a month later, we weregrateful for the chance to celebrate.Though I am an American I live in Tokyo, Japanwith my husband and two children. We have been herefor quite a long time – six of the past eight years, and wereally do consider it home. The kids attend an internationalschool that attracts children from all over the world. We asforeigners are a part of the landscape, but we remain external– not directly part of the culture. Japan is a homogeneoussociety and while foreigners are welcome, it is not easy toblend in. Like the Jews of yore creating their shtetls, we live ina “gai-jin ghetto” – a ghetto for foreigners.That being said, Tokyo is still an easy city in which to live asa foreigner. We joke that living in central Tokyo like we do, isjust like living in Manhattan, only it’s clean, safe, and quiet.Orderliness is a part of the Japanese ethos. On escalators,everyone stands on the right side, with room on the left forpassing. No one jaywalks and even though there are no trashcans visible on the sidewalks, there’s never any trash either.Japanese people follow rules.Then, the big earthquake hit. At first, panic. But the Japanesepeople are calm by nature – unflappable, so we went withit. In the immediate aftermath, life didn’t seem so abnormal.Sure, my son’s basketball practice wascancelled, as was the kids’ Sundayschool, and our pre-Purim party,but soccer practice went onas normal. We met friends toplay in the park and go out forlunch to a favorite restaurant. Thesun shone and it was nearly 60degrees all weekend. However,we were rolling with theaftershocks; wewaited on thegas lines; and weshopped earlyin the day sowe could stockup. We criedfor the people ofNorthern Japanand listened tothe news whenpossible.The following Tuesday morning at about 5am, there wasanother earthquake that, even though it only measured 4.0,was right under Tokyo, and felt much larger. Then we got thegrim news about the nuclear reactors. By 3pm we were on aflight to the U.S. Was it the right decision? We’ll never know;but it was the right decision for our family and we were by nomeans alone. There were hundreds of people at the airportabout to create a Japan diaspora – a diaspora of multi-nationalforeigners all displaced from Japan. The idea was dizzying.We spent the better part of five weeks watching and waiting.Will the Japanese get the nuclear situation under control?What is the real situation with radiation in the food and water?Will there be food deliveries in Tokyo? Will there be extendedblackouts in the city, and if so, will they affect our house?An entire Japan diaspora of Americans in America askedthemselves these questions.ASIAN JEWISH LIFE WINTER 2010-1129

ExpatDiaryby Aimee WeinsteinWe were still in the US when Passover rolled around. Sincewe live across the globe from family, we took the opportunityto have a Seder with my family in New York, including mygrandmother, who is 89 years old and as feisty as ever.My daughter, Sydney, age 8, asked the four questions withsome help from her older brother, just as she had done theyear before in Tokyo. We drank four cups of wine and weopened the door for Elijah, just as we had done every yearin Tokyo.There were complications involved with having made thedecision to leave Japan. Not only were the Japanese nationalsunhappy with our decision, but so were other foreigners whohad decided to stay. The Japanese term for foreigner is “gaijin.”We were now referred to as “fly-jin”. This senselessjudgment made me ache inside. I had tried to make the bestdecision possible for my family, and people who did not agreewith me were denigrating me. It was never that I didn’t loveJapan. It was a bit of fear, a bit of familial pressure, and a bigdose of two children unoccupied for two weeks that tipped thescales as I agonized over the decision to stay or go. I don’t feelthe need to defend what I did, but the idea that my actions callfor disparaging remarks, saddens me.I am now back home in my lovely little house in Japan. Thefood is plentiful; the water is safe and the people are stoic. Ididn’t have to wander for forty years like my ancestors did inthe desert, but my road back home was long. My faith andmy family sustain me, as they should in times of crisis. It maysound trite, but I do pray for Japan and its people.The lessons of Passover resonate even more than usual thisyear. Love thy neighbor; take strangers into your home whenthey are needy; teach your faith diligently unto your children.Now we are slaves; next year may we be free men. This year inNew York; next year in Jerusalem (or Tokyo).30 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Viewpointby Carice WitteA Vision of China -Israel Academic InterchangeIn early 2010, I met Zhang Yangjia,a graduate student in economicsfrom Nanjing University whowas preparing a presentationfor a class on the developmentof the Israeli economy since the state’sbeginnings in 1948.She wanted to learn how this small,distant country, born of seeminglynothing, had quickly developed tohave first-rate welfare, healthcare,education, and financial institutions.She wanted to place the statisticsand numbers in their proper contextto understand this apparent miracle.She was thirsty for knowledge, buteven with the university library andinternet research tools at her disposal,her ability to research was limiteddue to sparse availability of books,publications and articles in Chinese. Mypersonal inquiries over the years haverevealed that indeed, into 2010, thereremains a dearth of reliable Chineselanguage source material on Israel andthe Jewish people.Yangjia is part of a growing trend of youngChinese academics and business peopleprofessionals who desire to learn moreabout the Middle East in general and Israelin particular. As China becomes a moreactive player in Middle East affairs, startingwith energy negotiations and expandingto regional stability and other diplomaticissues, Chinese academics and scholarshave recognized the prerogative ofenhancing their knowledge of Israel.The recent publication in Chinese ofDan Senor and Saul Singer’s bestsellingbook Startup Nation thensparked the curiosity of China’sentrepreneurial-minded community.Would-be innovators seem eager tolearn how a country lacking naturalresources and hampered by a 63-yearlongongoing conflict with many of itsneighbors could achieve such highlevels of success.Since 1985 the number of Chineseinstitutions invested in teaching Jewishstudies has steadily grown. Today inChina there are nine centers dedicatedto Jewish studies, hosting classes onHebrew language, Talmudic studies andRabbinic literature. Of these, only one,the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai,32 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Viewpointby Carice Wittetouches on matters pertaining to thestate of Israel. Today there are about150 Chinese students studying inIsraeli universities, a number which isprojected to grow significantly over thenext few years.Despite the strong increase in studentand academic demand to understandthis small nation with 7.5million Jewish,Muslim and Christian citizens, basicresources to develop a comprehensiveunderstanding of Israel are unavailablein Chinese. A plethora of books on theJewish people, Jewish civilization andthe secrets of Jewish money-makingtactics appear on bookshelves in China.However, the number of materialspublished on the modern state ofIsrael can be counted on one hand.This also holds true for online sources.Although news items regularly appearin Chinese media on the Arab-Israeliconflict, analysis of Israel’s historicalunderpinnings and a broader view ofIsraeli society are scarce.While trade and business developmentbetween China and Israel continue toforge ahead, there is poor understandingof each other’s culture, history and evenpolitical systems. Such imbalancescould hamper the long term strengthof ties between the two nations. Forthe people of China and the people ofIsrael, both of whom place heavy andsignificant emphasis on educationand informed viewpoints, this situationshould be promptly remedied.Fortunately, conditions are now ripeto fill this vacuum. There is demandfor knowledge, on both sides, amutual appreciation by Jews andChinese for each other’s past,current and potential contributions.Even within China’s politburo circles,there is awareness that Israel Epstein,Sidney Rittenberg, and Sidney Shapiro- all Communist Party supporters in theearly days of the PRC - were Jewish.There is a clear unmet need and akey opportunity to influence a futureof positive interactions. A number oforganizations are beginning to addressthis gap including Sino-Israel GlobalNetwork and Academic Leadership(SIGNAL).SIGNAL is an independent non-profitorganization created to enhancethe strategic, diplomatic, culturaland economic relationship betweenChina and Israel through academiccooperation. Through its strongemphasis on long term China-Israelacademic programming, SIGNAL isestablishing a foundation for enduring,multi-level partnership between Chinaand Israel that will ensure long-termcooperation between the two nations.This should lead to a strong appreciationby the Chinese of the multifacetednature of Israel and its people.Based in Israel, SIGNAL operates itsprogramming in both countries. InIsrael, Chinese students are takenon day trips to get to know the land,the people, the customs and historyas well and invited to attend semiannualseminars at various Israeliuniversities. Such programming aimsto provide background knowledge onthe country where they are studyingand offer an arena for students fromChina to share their experiences, gainnew perspective and build a supportsystem amongst themselves.In China, SIGNAL coordinated the firstcontact between the municipality ofChongqing and Israel’s Embassy inBeijing. A few months after this initialintroduction, Israel’s Ambassador,Amos Nadai, presided over Chongqing’sfirst-ever Israel Business Forum thereand officiated over the start of SIGNAL’sIsrael Studies Program at SichuanInternational Studies University (SISU).The Ambassador called the program“a significant contribution to greatermutual understanding between ournations.”SIGNAL’s main programming withinChina is its Israel Studies Programsfor Chinese universities. Working incollaboration, SIGNAL and universitiesacross China are developing thefirst comprehensive programs forundergraduate and graduate study inChina on Israel as a modern nationstate.Just as Israeli universities haveprograms in China Studies, the SISUIsrael Studies Program is to be the firstof its kind in China, a parallel effort toteach Israel Studies in China. Thanksto the initiative of Dr. Fu Xiaowei andher Jewish Studies Center, the forwardthinking administration of SISU andthe good work of the new China-Israelacademic organization, SIGNAL SISUis laying the groundwork to launch thecountry’s first Israel Studies Program.Embassies of both nations haveexpressed this as a historic milestonein the development of Sino-Israelacademic relations.Reaching beyond location-basedprograms, SIGNAL will soon launch itsVirtual Resource Center, an academicwebsite providing comprehensiveinformation on Israel and its people inChinese. The site will include articles onIsraeli history, culture and society. It willprovide answers posed by users aboutthis unique nation. The Virtual ResourceCenter (VRC) will include information onIsrael’s universities and how to applyto the vast range of degrees that aretaught in English. In addition to essays,articles and other academic materials,the VRC will have a Video Channelproviding Chinese language narrativeto the many sites of great historical andcultural significance in Israel.ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 633

Viewpointby Carice WitteIsraeli academia has been ahead ofthe curve in its commitment to Chinesestudies. Hebrew University in Jerusalemopened its first Chinese class in 1958,more than three decades beforeofficial relations began between thetwo countries were established. Today,Israeli universities have waiting lists ofIsraeli students from around the countrywishing to enroll in Chinese classes.There are workshops and seminarsheld on an almost weekly basis onissues related to China and Sino-Israelrelations, topics ranging from tradepolicy to re-assessments of Confuciantexts. In line with recent global trends,the Ministry of Education in Israel aimsto incorporate China into its educationalcurriculum; it is considering the nationalincorporation of Chinese languageinstruction into primary and middleschools. Already a pilot program has afew hundred children in grammar schooland junior high learning Chinese.Sino-Israel relations are enteringa new era of deeper ties andinterconnectedness in the politicaland economic arenas.However, such formalized institutionalstructures can only succeed in thelong-term if they are understood tosupport the interests of the greaterpublic. This is an opportune moment toreach beyond superficial perceptionsof one another’s political processand regional conflicts, and to gaintruer understanding of each other’sexistence by envisioning creative areasof cooperation between the two statesthrough academic interchange.The past five years have ushered ina strong wave of growing businessrelations between Israel and China.Now, as Israel turns 63, the coming fiveyears have the potential to bring thedawn of strong intellectual, academicand scholarly relations. Strengtheningties between Israel and China will helpnot only scholars, business people, andgovernment officials, but will extend tobroader regional peace and stability.This article was contributed byCarice Witte, the Founder/ExecutiveDirector of SIGNAL, along withAurora Carlson, SIGNAL’s Head ofStrategic Research.34 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

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Film in Focusby Jana DanielsMulticultural Mayhem:Kosher Pigs, Jewish Lawyersand Chinese GangstersThe Jewish FamilyTelevision producer MoonCho isn’t Chinese and sheisn’t Jewish either, neitheris co-writer and director EricPatton but together they arethe force behind Kosher Pig. (Is it evenkosher put those two words together?)For the producers, though, this inherentparadox in their sitcom’s title perfectlyrepresents the complications involvedin attempting to bring together twodisparate cultures. And what if, likecharacter Joy Cohen, these twoseemingly disparate cultures wereboth critical parts of her own complexidentity? Joy Cohen is in most wayslike any other Jewish girl raised in thesuburbs of Los Angeles and studying tobe a lawyer, except, she happens to havea bit of an Asian look about her. Adoptedat birth by her oh-so stereotypical LosAngeles Jewish parents (no offense tomy in-laws), Chinese culture is entirelyforeign to Joy. She makes gefilte fish,not shao mai (very definitely, very treifeChinese dumplings).The sitcom follows Joy Cohen as shesearches for her biological parents.Cohen dreams of bringing togetherthese two families and making peacewith her own multicultural identity.36 ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 6

Film in Focusby Jana DanielsTo Cohen’s surprise however, herbiological family is not living in a ruralChinese countryside, but rather also arein LA and are the owners of a ChineseRestaurant named “The Joy Luck Pig”(yes, this play on Amy Tan’s Joy LuckClub is almost too silly to believe).Ok, so where is this going? A kosher pig,The Joy Luck Pig Restaurant, a Jewishlawyer, even Chinese gangsters. First ofall, the show is funny but jokes aside,there are themes and issues behindthe laughs. As Patton explains, “Wetried to focus primarily on the comedy,but that’s not to say we neglect thenecessary pathos. Without an emotionalconnection you’ll never care for thecharacters, so we took those momentsto build a connection to the audience.”According to Cho, multiculturalism andblending cultures are very commonthemes in American sitcoms now.Patton furthers this idea by saying thatmulticulturalism is the ultimate Americantheme, as it is a country of immigrantsand a veritable ‘melting pot’. As for theChinese-Jewish connection, neitherCho nor Patton was aware of how hot atopic this combination is now, but theyboth found they were incredibly easyto blend. As Patton learned, “They mayappear to be very disparate but they’reincredibly similar. They are both deeplyrooted in tradition and have a resoundingrespect for older generations, incrediblytight families and strong family values.Not to mention that both cultures havean almost ritual relationship with theirfood.” Cho adds in that there’s a sharedemphasis in the value of education andachieving success. (Also, quite simply,we Jews really do love Chinese food.)In order to research the cultures, themulticulturalism in Los Angeles itselfprovided much of the context andreadily available information as well asinteractions with both cultures. The teamalso relied on the resources available atthe Skirball Cultural Center but foundtheir own cast itself was an invaluableresource drawing on information fromactors Jim Lau, Elizabeth Sung, TammyKaitz and John Pleshette. Pattonexplains that through the cast, “thecharacters and their traditions reallybecame more three-dimensional…Theidea was to set those stereotypes upin a pilot episode so that as the seriesprogresses we can deconstruct someof those stereotypes and the audiencecan learn the depth of the charactersthroughout an entire series.”Again jokes aside, her nuclear familystructure suddenly must also be alteredin order to make room for her biologicalparents, creating a most unusualarrangement and an unconventionalfamily. Ultimately, Cho suggests that ifthere is a message, the show is aboutself-acceptance. The character JoyCohen’s struggles to reconcile theThe Chinese Familyseemingly incongruent parts of her ownidentity are not dissimilar to those ofothers with multiple layers of ethnicity.The reality is, though, that Joy Cohenas an Asian-Jew must repeatedly beforced to defend her own ‘Judaism’,something Jews of European descentwould never have to do. In koshershops, when buying her matzah forPassover, she would be faced witha barrage of questions. She wouldconstantly have to prove that she wasJewish just because of how she looks.The world would see her as Chineseand yet she would have no culturalcontext for her Chinese side. The ironyis that, in some respects, life is simplerfor her parents in that they fit well intoJewish stereotypes and her biologicalparents who fit so well into Chinesestereotypes. They don’t have to dealwith the complexities of multiculturalidentity that she struggles with.For a show that ‘focuses primarily onthe comedy’ these are some weightyissues to tackle.ASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 637

The Hong Kong Jewish Historical Societyis planning a tour of Harbin, China.This tour will take placeon September 8-11, 2011.The trip will include an English speaking tour guidewith a background in Jewish history.Keynote lecture on Shabbat evening byProfessor Dan Ben-Canaan,Chairperson of the Sino-Israeli Researchand Study Center of Heilongjiang University.Mark your diaries nowand save the dates!More details will be available shortly.If you are interested to join, please email the JHS at hshkg@yahoo.com

Travel Diaryby Mark S. BloomUncovering theMysteries of KaifengShi Lei with Rabbi BloomFor many people, includingmost Jews, even lesserknown than the Jewishrefugee story in Shanghaiduring World War II, is thestory of the Jews of Kaifeng, China.While both stories have been somewhatrecently ‘rediscovered’, the Kaifeng storystill carries a certain air of mystery to it.Today, there are not a lot of Westerntravelers in Kaifeng, as, by Chinesestandards, it is a relatively “small” city of800,000 people (with a metropolitan areaof 4 million), but at one time, it was thelargest city in the world. This height ofKaifeng’s glory was during the time of theSong Dynasty, which lasted from the late10th Century to the late 13th Century.For my family this was just one stop ona journey, during my sabbatical, thathas taken us to Fiji, Australia, China,Dubai and then ultimately onto Israel forfour months.We enjoyed our time in Kaifengeven beyond the Jewish part of thetour, because it felt somehow moreauthentically “Chinese” to us afterShanghai, since the residents therehave very little contact with Westerners.We were introduced to this communityby Shi Lei, who is a descendant ofthese Jews and who spoke in Oakland,California just before we left forsabbatical. He also served as our tourguide in Kaifeng, and it was like drinkingwater directly from the spring insteadof from bottles. (Of course, in China,as in many parts of the region, you canonly drink water from bottles, but that’sanother story entirely.)The Kaifeng Jewish community is trulyshrouded in mystery today, but mostscholars believe that Jews first settledthere during the Song dynasty fromPersia. There they were welcomed bythe Emperor and were called, literally,the “people who remove the sinew fromthe cow.” This appellation is based onthe idea that those who keep Kosherdo not eat any part of the animal thattouches the sciatic nerve, derived fromthe scene in the Torah where Jacobwrestles with the angel.The Jewish community remainedintact for centuries, though they oftenintermarried with the local population sothat they eventually became physicallyindistinguishable from other Chinese.For centuries, they maintained theirtraditions, more or less. We learnedthat in the end though they all almostcompletely assimilated. Then, of course,there was the Cultural Revolution of thefifties and sixties under Mao Tse-Tung.As a result, there are only about 50members of the community that caneven trace their roots back.In Kaifeng there is now a three roomexhibit in the very large MilleniumCity Park detailing the history of thecommunity and telling their storythrough painting, writing, and photos.There is a wonderful model of the oldsynagogue and its courtyard, whichlooks just like any other Chinese holyplace and courtyard rather than like aEuropean synagogue.Shi Lei also took us to his own familymuseum, which is also where thecommunity gathers on some Shabbatot.There he has more photos as wellASIAN JEWISH LIFE ISSUE 639

Travel Diaryby Mark S. Bloomas ritual objects. Unfortunately, theroof recently caved in, so they are notmeeting anywhere, and thus he wasunable to gather them for me to meetwith them or do any teaching. He alsoshowed us the site of the former mikveh,which, believe it or not, now is the boilerroom of a local hospital. It is locked, sowe were unable to peek in. Shi Lei hasseen it, and the people in town refer toit as the “old Jewish well.” The hospitalis also the site of the former synagogue,so just outside, we sang “Ma Tovu, howgoodly are your tents, O Jacob, yourdwelling places, O Israel,” to remindus that we were standing on formerlysacred space.He also took us to what they call“Teach Torah Lane,” where the Jewishcommunity used to live. It is now arather poor part of town, where we sawtwo very sad sites: a cock trained forfighting was walking around and a pileof animal excrement. This lane has longbeen forgotten. How far it is from theTorah that used to be taught there.We all connected with the story of theseJews. One really memorable part of theKaifeng trip involved my son Jonah.On the Shanghai Jewish tour, the tourguide had him go to a little toy shopand told him he could pick out any toyin the store. He picked a basketball,and if you know Jonah, that is not asurprise. Because we don’t have thespace to carry around a basketball for5 months, he decided he wanted togive it to a boy in Kaifeng about his ownage. He wanted to give it to someonein the Jewish community, but since wecouldn’t meet any, he decided to give itto the first boy he saw at “Teach TorahLane.” It was a very sweet moment.It was an emotional parting from Shi Lei,who was such an amazing host. Beforemy trip I was contacted by an individualwho had lived in Kaifeng for a year andtaught Judaism to some of the membersof the community. This person hopesto get rabbis interested in convertingthe community formally. Shi Lei’s take,along with other teachers, is that thissadly has divided the community ratherthan uniting it. It is hard to know whoor what to believe. The situation isfurther complicated because thereare definite cultural differences thatare hard for us in the West tounderstand. Many of us wouldwelcome the descendants of the KaifengJewish community to the fold withouthesitation, but they may not be willing togo there in the way that the rest of theJewish world would require in order forthem to gain acceptance. Regardless,controversy aside, it was a specialmoment and a meaningful journey thatwe will remember forever.Rabbi Mark S. Bloom joined TempleBeth Abraham of Oakland, Californiaas its rabbi in July of 2001.Previously, Rabbi Bloom servedpulpits in Cranston, Rhode Island,South Salem, New York and Sydney,Australia. He was ordained at theHebrew Union College in Cincinnati,Ohio in 1995 and received bothBachelors and Masters Degreesin Communication Studies fromNorthwestern University. He is theauthor of Out of the Mouths ofBabes: What Children Can TeachUs About Spirituality, Jewish Issuesand the Jewish People.40

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