Jews in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Kaifeng
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Posted:Feb 23, 2008 6:57 am
Last Updated:Feb 25, 2008 10:05 am 14834 Views
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BEIJING
I've recently visited Beijing and with the Olympics being held there later in 2008 many of you may be either visiting China or watching it on TV and reading about it.
KAIFENG
You probably already know about Kaifeng where a Jewish community existed in previous centuries but died out. In London, England, a Chinese kosher restaurant was named after Kaifeng.
SHANGHAI
Beijing and Shanghai have Jewish communities. The Jewish Museum has a permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, and can send you on a walking tour.
In Shanghai if you contact a community group you can have a kosher meal at a group get-together.
Historic building with Jewish origins include the Peace Hotel on the bund (waterfront). It had a well-known Jazz bar for years, and a Chinese style restaurant featured in films.
A smaller but equally architecturally stunning hotel is the Hengshan-Moller Villa, once home of Eric Moller, a British Jew. His dreamed of a fairytale castle, so he built this house to realize her dream. The family was originally in shipping so it's full of ship symbols.
Later Eric owned a succesful racehorse. You see a copper racehorse statue in the garden. I'm checking th fact from the hotel brochure. I brought the brochure back to England.
I had tea in the hotel with an ex-pat fried who has been living in Shanghai. Her American husband was working there.
Shanghai has lots of buildings which were former homes of Jewish people or were built by them.
BEIJING
In the hotel I visited in Beijing was surprised to find on the Executive lounge a small library containing a handsome large hardback picture book about the Jews of China.
It didn't tell me much I didn't know, although it had lots of good pictures. You'll find lots of fascinating information if you do an on line search.
In Beijing a kosher restaurant recently opened.
If you know any more about the past or future of Jewish communities in China or what tourists can see please let me know. Thanks.
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What do Jews do for Xmas?
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Posted:Dec 26, 2007 4:23 pm
Last Updated:Feb 23, 2008 5:43 am 17702 Views
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What do Jews do for Christmas? This is a questions which Jews get asked. And national newspapers and TV programmes looking for a new angle on Christmas hunt out different ways of celebrating major holidays.
If you want to know you could also check restaurants and delis to see when they are open. I found what looks like Christmas pudding in a UK Jewish deli labelled vegetarian pudding. Americans sells Xmas pudding all year but call it plum pudding.
Just a selection of ideas I've come across:
1 Send out cards saying Season's Greetings or Happy Holidays or Happy New Year.
2 Give each other Christmas presents of CDs playing Kletzmer or Yiddish or Ladino music.
3 Dress up as Santa Claus to visit 's wards in hospitals and stand in for others so Christians can have the day off. (Of course Christians reciprocate by taking over the shifts of Jews on Jewish holidays.)
4 Avoid the question by going away somewhere hot so it doesn't feel like Xmas e.g sit on the beach on Xmas day in Australia, or by the swimming pool in a hotel in India, or go away to Spain where Christmas is celebrated on Jan 6th.
5 Get multi-cultural and sit tucking into Xmas dinner discussing the fact that it's a pagan mid-winter festival, whilst playing CDs of Xmas carols.
6 New for 2007 in the UK - all religions - buy presents on Xmas day on line in the Xmas day sales.
Any other ideas?
What about other times you are in a country celebrating different festivals on different days?
What do westerners do in Malaysia during Ramadan when you can't eat during daytime? Look for a Chinese restaurant with lights on.
Any other ideas?
What else have you heard of?
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Any statisticians or statistics collectors?
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Posted:Dec 11, 2007 1:04 pm
Last Updated:Dec 26, 2007 5:08 pm 17412 Views
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Anybody want to take a few guesses?
How many Jewish dating sites? I reckon four. Maybe five. Update - six in addition to this one. This one for me has the advantage of the blog.
I think speed dating was started by a rabbi in London.
How many Jewish newspapers? Two based in London. Obviously at least one in Jerusalem. Must be lots more in the USA.
Magazines? At least one in the UK. They seem to open and shut as often as other new magazines.
Maybe somebody could throw in a few more questions. About Schools. Yehivas. Rabbis.
Or maybe a joke. (Do make it clear if it is a joke.)
I remember a few years ago Australia had only one Jewish hotel. I visited it.
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What proportion of the people on this site are Jewish?
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Posted:Dec 8, 2007 11:39 pm
Last Updated:Aug 20, 2008 10:23 am 22702 Views
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Somebody with time on their hands could actually do a survey. Say, take a hundred profiles of men and a hundred profiles of women and come up with a percentage figure.
It would also be interesting to know whether this site attracts orthodox or liberals. I suspect that the more orthodox have arranged marriages and are only on here looking for pen pals. Am I right?
What proportion are not Jewish and what are they looking for?
Some of them are Jews for Jesus. Others are Christian. Others are Moslems. Some may be agnostic or atheist.
Others may be joining just to collect points for joining more sites.
Or they may not be looking for marriage but for sex, notching up a Jewish person because that's one they haven't tried before.
They could be passport seekers. Scams. Anything.
Tell me. What have you found out about other people?
Are you on other sites? And why are you on this site?
If so what success have you had? What does it offer you that is special?
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Jews and South African History
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Posted:Dec 8, 2007 11:29 pm
Last Updated:Apr 4, 2008 1:06 pm 17135 Views
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Jews from Lithuania went to South Africa between 1880 and 1940. Many Jews became dentists and came to England.
South African Jews were prominent in fighting for racial equality.
Mandela
In South Africa Mandela was hidden on a farm bought specifically for that purpose by his Jewish friends.
They went to prison as a result. A whole section of a Jewish Museum in Cape Town is devoted to Mandela. The museum had him as guest of honour at its opening.
Barney Barnato
The museum mentions Barney Barnato (1852-1897)who came from London's East End and made a fortune in mining. On the way back to England he apparently committed suicide by jumping from a cruise ship. Neither his family nor I believe it was suicide.
A sketch of him wearing a tophat is in London's National Gallery. See it on line.
He is in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Wikipedia has an article on him. And there's a book about him.
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Switzerland and Chagall
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Posted:Oct 5, 2007 4:59 am
Last Updated:Oct 23, 2007 4:16 pm 17349 Views
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Switzerland has several sites of interest to Jewish travellers and I recently saw some connected with painter Chagall in the capital Zurich.
Two of the city's major attractions are the Chagall windows and the art museum. The Chagall windows are in a church. They are the main attraction in the building.
The windows are in a separate chapel at the 'back', the opposite end to the altar. I'm not sure which was is north or whether the church is orientated towards Jerusalem as many religious buildings worldwide are.
(Maybe somebody could comment on this.)
The chapel is small high, echoing and peaceful. People ender and stand at the back reverently looking up at the window which are pencil thin.
A few chairs are either side of the doorway and people sit contemplating. It is quite uplifting.
It was a haven of cool on a hot day in September. So calm. And restful.
I recognized some symbols. Jacob's ladder.
I bought a book about the windows, hoping for more enlightenment.
What I learned was the interesting history of the commissioning of the windows. The city had run a competition for local people to submit designs but nothing was considered suitable. Then a Chagall exhibition at the nearby art gallery showed his windows in the chapel of the hospital in Israel.
Chagall, already quite old and very busy, was asked if he would consider a commission. It seemed doubtful that he would. However, he visited the site and was so delighted with its atmosphere that he accepted.
Only a proportion of the necessary funds had been raised to pay both the designer Chagall (who had to travel from France I believe) and the makers of the huge windows (plus no doubt transportation and installation and lots of other costs). However, new donors appeared.
Only a few steps across the bridge to the other side of the 'river' from the nearby lake, and a determined march up the cobblestoned alleys of the old city brings you to the skyscrapers of the new city and the art museum which houses Chagall paintings.
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Lemberg/Lvov/Lviv
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Posted:Jun 16, 2007 10:58 am
Last Updated:Jun 16, 2007 11:07 am 16571 Views
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Lemberg is in Ukraine. I gave a talk on it and was told we should not say The Ukraine. It's just Ukraine, like America or Australia.
Kiev is Ukraine's capital. I used to muddle up Ukraine and Lithuania. Then I realized that Ukraine and its capital both contain the letter K.
Lemberg was the second city. It was in the west, near the border, on the east west road and the east west railway line.
In the 1880s when my ancestors lived there, Jews were not allowed to ride on the railway trains nor work in the post office.
That explains why they left for England. And of course the pogroms. I'd like to go back some time and see the city.
Simon Wiesenthal the Nazi-hunter came from Ukraine. My family fared better than his in WWII because mine were in England. (I was born after WWII.) So I have to thank my ancestors for leaving that part of the world and coming to England. Because they made the journey I am city here writing and you are reading my words.
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Why Jews Would Enjoy Toastmasters International
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Posted:Jun 16, 2007 10:43 am
Last Updated:May 14, 2008 7:41 pm 19129 Views
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Toastmasters International was started in the USA many years ago so that would-be speakers could gather together and pracise giving speeches and get contructive feedback from a supportive group.
America, naturally has many groups. So do the major cities in most countries of the English speaking world.
Most groups speak English. But there are also a couple of groups which speak European languages in Western Europe and one in London, England. Singapore has a couple of groups where they speak Mandarin. I don't know whether there's a Hebrew-speaking club in Israel.
The orthodox can go to a shul anywhere in the world and meet the rabbi and make friends. Non-religious Jews, non-Jews, and of course religious Jews can go to a Toastmasters group anywhere in the world and have an evening's entertainment listening to speeches.
If you type in the words Toastmasters and International and then find a club you can find a club in your nearest big city or another place which you are visiting on holiday.
I have belonged to a group overseas and two in London. I also attended meetings in Shanghai, Singapore and Thailand.
In London one of the groups I went to had a large Jewish South African membership. Another has a member who is a rabbi who wants to improve his speech-giving. He is already very good.
Why should you go to a Toastmasters meeting? Why not? Why do Jews always answer a question with a question? Why not?
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The Kennedy Assassination - Guess Who Was Jewish?
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Posted:Jun 12, 2007 3:06 pm
Last Updated:Jun 16, 2007 10:48 am 16412 Views
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I'm in London and I've been to Dallas a couple of times. I actually visited Dallas at a travel convention. We went to the Texas schoolbook Depository, later opened as a museum.
I was interviewed by the local newspaper. I saw the trail of the motorcade, and the markers. I recommended running Kennedy Assassination weekends as a tourist attraction. These were introduced later.
Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, had the nightclub where the police met. Ruby was Jewish I believe. Because the police all knew him he was able to wander into the police station unchallenged.
A local guide told me that Ruby could not understand why he was not considered a hero.
I have lots more to say. I'll write another blog.
Do you have any views on the assassination?
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Who Is On Which Site?
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Posted:Jun 11, 2007 10:06 am
Last Updated:May 6, 2024 3:19 pm 15552 Views
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One man told me that the women on this site are looking for husbands, whilst he women on other sites run by the same management are looking for something more short-term.
I commented that I was surprised at the number of non-Jews keen to meet Jews.
There are two possibilities which spring to my mind:
a) Some people actively want to meet Jews.
It would be nice to think that this was because Jewish food is so good and Jews are universally loved. However, this might be because Jews in some areas are perceived as being rich.
b) It is possible that some people are on every site simultaneously, or spend a month on each site.
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