Special Israeli-Chinese connections

Although the heart constantly calls for leaving towards the east, I am still in the west. Realizing that things take time and that I’m going to be here in the meanwhile, I try and find small personal connections to things that are happening in Asia. Building Chinalyst and hosting the wonderful community of the “Chinese-Garden” are small examples for projects that help me keep in daily touch with Chinese culture and language. I’ve met quite a few interesting people and experienced several intriguing interactions through my small projects. This week, I re-joined the East-Asia department at the Hebrew University and might even enroll officially as a masters-student to gain credit for whatever it is that life will have for me after that.

One of the recent surprises that I had last week was getting an email about a Chinese girl who was coming to Israel to study Hebrew and who needed help settling down in Jerusalem. I can only imagine how strange it must be for a Chinese to start life here, and I was thrilled at the opportunity for offering my help. After a few emails here and there I met Yang at the Hebrew University’s international school and we went to have a typical student lunch at the cafeteria. Although I’ve recently became aware that there are some Chinese who are interested in learning Hebrew and Judaism, I was still quite surprised to hear her story. Yang studied Arab for her BA and was sent to Israel on an Israeli scholarship to study Hebrew so she can go back to China and start Hebrew studies in her department.

I then figured that it could be wonderful if I’ll be able to connect between the Chinese who are studying Hebrew and the Israelis who are studying Chinese so that they would be able to have a culture and language exchange partners. I started sending a few emails around to see who in China might be interested and I received some interesting responses. One of the answers I got was from Anson who’s (I think) running a website for “The Sino-Judaic Institute” ( www.sino-judaic.org )

The Sino-Judaic Institute (SJI) is a non-denominational, non-political and non-profit organization which was founded in 1985 by a group of international scholars and lay-persons for the purpose of promoting understanding between Chinese and Jewish peoples and to encourage and develop their cooperation in matters of mutual historic and cultural interest. Primary among these are the ancient Jewish community in the city of Kaifeng and the later immigrant Jewish communities of Shanghai, Harbin, Tianjin, and Hong Kong. SJI initially served as a vehicle for the study and preservation of Jewish history in China.

The Institute also has a magazine – Points East – that revolves around many of the issues that I write about in this blog – being mainly about Chinese – Israeli / Hebrew connections. Wonderful.

Turns out there are other Hebrew-related communities in China. It’ll try and get in touch with them as well. I’m hoping that as a first step we’ll be able to connect between the “Chinese-Garden” community and the “Sino-Judaic Institute” community to form a lasting Israeli-Chinese friendship.