Peony

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The Jews of China 1000–1932

Between 200 and 1000 A.D. many Jewish traders from Turkestan and refugees from Persia had settled in China.

884 Revolt of Jewish and Muslim merchants. Many massacred.

Towns which probably had small Jewish communities by 1200 A.D. Many of these had certainly been founded over 500 years earlier. All but Kaifeng had disappeared by 1650.

In 1286, Marco Polo wrote of the strong commercial and political influences of the Jews in China.

By 1890 the only Jews left who still recognized their Judia nsm were 200 families at Kaifeng.

“During the past forty or fifty years our religion has been but imperfectly transmitted and although its religious writings still exists, there is none who understands as much as one work of them. … It has been our desire to repair the synagogue and again to procure ministers to serve in it, but poverty prevented us.”

Letter from the Jews of Kaifeng to the British Consul at Amoy, 1850

THE JEWS OF KAIFENG

1163 Kaifeng synagogue built.

1427 Jewish officials organize famine relief.

1642 Jews active in the defence of the town against bandits.

1663 Restoration of the synagogue.

1850 Jews appeal to British Consul at Amoy.

1914 Site of the synagogue and cemetery bought by Canadian Church of England Mission.

1932 Jews photographed by an American traveller.