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Jews in China

Jewish Mandarin Chinese speakers gather in New York City roughly once a month to speak the language and share their experiences. (Jackie Hajdenberg/ JTA)
March 14, 2026, 2:13 am
For Chinese-speaking Jews in New York, ‘Mazel Tofu’ offers a new kind of community
The collective of Jewish Mandarin speakers formed two years ago through an only-in-NYC tale of serendipity and Jewish geography, and now meets monthly
By Jackie Hajdenberg
Books about Jews arriving and living in Shanghai in the late 1930s displayed at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited on May 7, 2013. (Peter Parks/AFP)
June 29, 2024, 7:12 am
How a Brooklyn dentist almost formed a Jewish homeland in pre-WW II China
Seeing a land free of antisemitism, Albert Einstein and Chinese leaders pushed plans to settle 100,000 Jews fleeing Nazis in Yunnan, the Himalayan foothills of China’s hinterland
By Harry Saunders
Rabbi Shalom Greenberg distributed thousands of masks and aid kits to Jews and non-Jews in Shanghai's Hongkou district. (Courtesy Chabad Shanghai)
March 9, 2020, 2:11 pm
In coronavirus-stricken China, Jews adopt new, hi-tech ways to worship
Jewish leaders adapt to serve a small, tight-knit community — under lockdown at home or dispersed around the globe — with virtual activities and modified programming
By Miriam Groner
Protesters with umbrellas and protective gear face off with riot police at Kowloon Bay in Hong Kong, August 24, 2019. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images/via JTA)
August 29, 2019, 5:42 am
Why most Jews in Hong Kong are not involved with the protests
The one-time British colony now controlled by China has a number of Jewish institutions and a community of 5,000, but they quote a number of reasons for avoiding the demonstrations
By Josefin Dolsten
Dr. Jakob Rosenfeld, center, with Liu Shaoqi, left, then-political commissar of the New Fourth Army, and Chen Yi, right, then acting commander of the New Fourth Army, in 1941. (Courtesy Austrian Institute for Research on China and Southeast Asia)
August 12, 2019, 3:02 am
How a Jewish doctor helped form backbone of revolutionary China’s medical system
As the Chinese army turns 92, government continues to remember Dr. Jakob Rosenfeld, a Marxist and Holocaust refugee who fled to Shanghai and started a medical school
By Ronen Shnidman
Anson Laytner
April 28, 2016, 1:14 pm
Anson Laytner
Jewish troubles in Kaifeng
China should brag about the freedom Jews have known there, instead of squashing communal Passover observance
A young Jewish refugee and her Chinese girlfriends in Shanghai during World War II (photo credit: Courtesy Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum)
February 27, 2015, 9:26 pm
China, WJC to mark Shanghai ghetto liberation
More than 23,000 Jewish refugees lived in Chinese city 70 years ago, then occupied by Nazi-allied Japan
By JTA and ToI Staff
Benjamin Netanyahu (center) talks to China's Premier Li Keqiang (right) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 8, 2013 (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90)
July 6, 2014, 1:33 pm
High-level visitors boost Israel-China business ties
Trade between Jerusalem and Beijing is important enough to both countries that government agencies are getting involved
By David Shamah
Harbin's Main Synagogue today. (photo credit: Erica Lyons/Times of Israel)
June 21, 2014, 2:07 am
105-year-old Chinese synagogue reopens to public
After a year-long restoration project, Harbin’s Main Synagogue looks as it does when first completed in 1909
By JTA
(L to R) Stone Shi, MK David Tzur, Hagai Ravid (Photo credit: Courtesy)
June 1, 2014, 6:30 pm
China high-tech zone offers synagogue, kosher food
Changzhou is building a 25,000 sq.m. cultural center so Israelis can feel comfortable doing business there
By David Shamah
So-Han Fan
September 19, 2012, 5:47 pm
So-Han Fan
My two diasporas
On being Jewish and Chinese
Shalva Jin (photo credit: courtesy)
April 11, 2012, 12:27 pm
A ‘serene’ Mandarin teacher for Israel’s next envoy to China
Matan Vilnai, ambassador-in-waiting to Beijing, is studying with Shalva Jin, the first member of the ancient Kaifeng community to convert after moving to Israel
By Raphael Ahren
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