27 Jun, 2006 in
Asia-Israel connections by
Fili
Fili’s world
A different look at Asia, China and Taiwan
Latest
Taiwan
Taiwan’s best travel spots - What do you think are the top attractions in Taiwan? Cultural Sensitivities in Global Education and International Programs Taiwan’s Wild Berries Movement - NCKU Taiwanese students protest Revisiting Yang Ming Shan
Walking around the Hebrew University today, I picked up a copy of the student newspaper called Pi-Haaton (verbal meaning the female donkey’s mouth, or something) and was surprised to see an article with a word game titled “Korea Heart” (which is suppose to sound like heartbreaking).
Not only isn’t it my own imagination that prices went up, it is now official that I haven’t gone insane seeing Asians all over the university. Yep, according to the article the Hebrew University hosts a live community of 100-200 Christian Koreans studying the holy scriptures. Assuming that there are a few dozens more from Japan and China and some more at the other campuses, that might explain why I see so many of them, especially around the library.
I won’t go into translating the whole article, but here are some highlights :
- “The Mount-Scopus campus there’s a community of 100-200 Korean students (estimated by the Korean community). They form one of the largest foreign students communities…”
- “Across from me sits a cross-eye person from a far away country I know little of and he talks in fluent Hebrew with almost-Israeli gestures…”
- “The Korean students main study the Bible, archeology, Hebrew and History. The fund their studies through a scholarship from the church or the support of their parents…”
- “Lee says : “There’s a problem in Christian religion in Korea which has to do with the fact that it’s an imported religion. To make it more authentic, people want to come to Israel… Eventually, Jesus wasn’t Christian, but Jewish, his language and culture were Hebrew, therefore - knowing the Jews and Hebrew has great value”.”
Here’s a scan of the article
Asians studying Hebrew » fiLi’s world
| October 6th, 2006 at 5:27 am #
[...] While in Israel I've had some interesting encounters with other Asian nationalities who have come to Israel to study more about Judaism. One "Messianic Judaism" Korean girl I met by coincidence in Jerusalem's downtown was fascinated with the Jewish people and have been staying in Israel for ages, speaking Israeli level Hebrew with no accent. There were also reports on a growing Christian Korean community in Jerusalem. [...]
The Korean Center in Jerusalem » fiLi’s world
| January 18th, 2007 at 8:39 pm #
[...] Korea is still a big mystery to me. I don’t really know much about Korea, but I came across Korean influences in almost all the Asian countries that I’ve been to, and they were always in a positive context. Korean culture - Korean movies, Korean fashion and Korean food are regarded of very high quality and of good style in both Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore. The only Korean influences I’ve noticed in Israel so far were the growing Korean community at the Hebrew University, a Korean restaurant in Jerusalem and a Korean girl that I met downtown. It weird that almost nobody in the East Asian Department takes the Korean courses and Korea wasn’t represented in the East-Asia day we had last year. I guess China and Japan are more trendy. [...]