#China's crackdown on its tiny congregation of #Jews. ~100 practising in a community of ~1,000. That such a small group can attract the #CommunistParty’s ire shows how far the suppression goes @TelegraphWorld @Telegraph telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/1… #religiousfreedom #Hanukkah
Ancestors of those in #China claiming Jewish heritage – prob merchants from Persia – settled >1,000 yrs ago in Kaifeng, then a bustling imperial capital during Northern Song Dynasty. Through dynasties, wars, natural disasters, Cultural Revolution, they kept their history alive
Pressure now renewed under Chinese leader Xi Jinping's campaign against foreign influence, unsanctioned religions - all part of push to 'Sinicise' faith in #China. But the Kaifeng #Jews are a resilient bunch - as I discovered on a recent visit
No #Torah? No problem! They buy translated #Bibles, read the Old Testament (more or less same as Torah) and disregard the New Testament. Communication happens in code re: #Sabbath gatherings. #Kippahs are hidden away in secret locations
Signs of their #Jewish #faith crop up in unexpected ways. I was served #tea (and baijiu) in an empty jar with the label, "Yehuda Yahrzeit Memorial Candle" - lit in memory of the dead. Kaifeng Jews proudly pronounce #Israel with a #Hebrew accent
But fear blankets the community in Kaifeng, #China. The crackdown is so intense that #Kaifeng residents are afraid to dine together in public. “It’s a small place,” one #Jewish man said. “Restaurant managers know that we are the #Jews, and they will report us to the authorities."
“It’s government policy – #China doesn’t want to recognise us as #Jews,” one man, who dreams of training as a rabbi in Israel, told @Telegraph. “Their goal is to make sure the next generation doesn’t have any #Jewish identity.”
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