Kaifeng Jews

Kaifeng Jews

Jews of Kaifeng, late 19th or early 20th century
Regions with significant populations
China	600–1,000[1]
Israel	19 (as of 2016)[2]
Languages
Mandarin Chinese
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Han Chinese, Hui people Other Jewish ethnic divisions

Kaifeng Jews (Chinese: 開封猶太人; pinyin: Kāifēng Yóutàirén; Hebrew: יהדות קאיפנג, romanized: Yahădūt Qāʾyfeng) are a small community of descendants of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng City, Henan of China. In the early centuries of their settlement, they may have numbered around 2,500 people.^[3] Despite their isolation from the rest of the Jewish diaspora, their ancestors managed to practice Jewish traditions and customs for several centuries.

The distinctive customary life of the Kaifeng community slowly eroded, as assimilation and intermarriage with non-Jewish (Han Chinese and Hui) neighbors advanced, until, by the 19th century, its Jewishness largely became extinct, apart from its retention of memories of its clan's Jewish past as the Jews became Chinese.^[a]

The place of origin of these Jews and the date when they established their settlement in Kaifeng are sources of intense debate among experts. While the descendants of the Kaifeng Jews are assimilated into mainstream Kaifeng Han culture, some of them are trying to revive the beliefs and customs of their ancestors. In the 21st century, efforts have been made to revive Kaifeng's Jewish heritage and encourage the descendants of its original population to convert back to Judaism.^[4] Via the offices of the Shavei Israel organization, 19 young Chinese descendants of Kaifeng Jews have made aliyah, and in the process have had to do a formal conversion.^[5][6][7][8] Since 2015, descendants of the Kaifeng Jews have come under government pressure and suspicion whether or not they qualify as Jews.^[9]

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