the specials

It was definitely one of the most exciting moments in my travels, and my Jewish life. In a small, humble room, thousand of Miles away from the home, or from the Beijing and Shanghai synagogues, six Chinese and one Israeli were receiving the Shabat together. There was something both extremely encouraging and dispiriting in watching these few lonely Jews, that with one stroke of a Kipah seemed suddenly less like their fellow citizens, and much more like their “brothers”, the ones I met in Caracas, Indiana, Berlin, Jerusalem or Dharamsala. I thought of my mother, who would have doubtless burst in tears of excitement being there. Even I, while reading the blessing in Hebrew (the honor of the extinguished guest), got something caught in the eye. Heck, what are forty years in the desert in comparison with the wonder of a thousand in nowhere China?

But as far as I gathered (not much), the Jewish community of Kaifeng is today far from being a thriving community. Internal fighting about prestige, authentication and – of course – money, tore this rare flock apart. To that you can add the long years of being treated like some marvelous zoo animal, and the cold shoulder they have presumably been given from China, and from Israel’s governmental and Jewish authorities.

“I wanted to study in Israel”, told me a 20-something youth, the only one who could read and understand the words Sh’ma Israel on my Kipah. “The China government has no problem with people leaving the country. My petition for a visa was rejected on the part of Israel. At first there was no institution to accept us, then when that was found the government itself didn’t want us. Maybe now that the government is changing again.”

"I will be their savior!", I was flushed with inspiration during the service, "I will contact the Israeli Embassy, I will make Kaifeng my home, live amongst them, grow to speak their local dialect (which makes Mandarin feel as familiar and explicit as English), and will teach them Hebrew. Together, we will create a real, world-wide known community! One that people, especially Israelis and Jews, would love to come and be a part of. We will build a hostel for these travelers, maybe even a synagogue. If we built it, they will come!"

Quickly enough crept the anti-thoughts in: screw this. Finding out that you are different in China’s giant masses must be every young Han’s dream, on a par of winning the lottery. Yet instead of bringing them together, their uniqueness brought them more apart. Instead of acting together to sustain some kind of identity, some right of existence, they have succumbed to the old way of doing things – grudge, social accounting, connections, competitions, feuds. Guess being both Chinese and Jewish is simply too much tension and guilt-trips to withhold. Kaifeng has great potential, but they are grown-up people, and if they do not feel like pulling themselves together, I should not get myself all mixed-up. And anyhow, let them do their own thing. They have lasted for a thousand years, and can last another without a conceited well-wisher coming to tell them how to do things.

*********************

The final result is somewhere in between. But for now, this dilemma was spared. I just arrived to the big Xi'an, and may have left Kaifeng totally, in search of a place where I can get a Visa.