In a ‘small’ province in Eastern China between Shanghai and Beijing, lies the region of Shandong, traditionally associated with the long history of the Middle Kingdom, it has a population of 90 million people and boasts an impressive list of cultural and historical centers of Buddhism and Dao. It is especially proud in its association as the birth and home region of China's most famous philosophers; Confucius and Mencius. It is also the province where – in the 21st century - Judaism is being taken seriously amongst some ambitious Chinese academics who have identified the Jewish tradition and its wisdom as an important intellectual and cultural discipline worthy of China’s attention and useful for its nation-building aspirations.

In the tradition of China’s own philosophic openness, the School of Philosophy and Social Development at Shandong University, under the leadership of its dean Professor Youde Fu, opened a centre for Jewish studies over ten years ago. Fu, who had visited Oxford’s Centre for Jewish Studies and been a guest at Leo Beack College in London was inspired by his experience and decided to develop a Chinese centre to disseminate Jewish studies, which he believed represented a cross section of most major currents in Western, Eastern and religious philosophies and represented a model of reference for the development and reform of China’s own unique spirituality.

Apart from being recognized as one of the most famous philosophers in China, an expert on the British philosopher – Berkeley – of great importance for Chinese national thinking, Youde Fu heads the School of Philosophy at Shandong University, which is currently ranked as one of the top philosophy and religious studies departments in China. He is also the president of the Shandong philosophic society and holds a number of senior positions at the university. It comes therefore as a surprise to discover that he  leads a group of scholars preparing, editing and translating a stream of translations of Jewish masterpieces into Chinese including works on the Bible, Jewish history, Talmud, Jewish Mysticism and modern Jewish thought.

Under his leadership, the Centre for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies has received the support of the Chinese Education Department which designated it as one of 100 prestigious key research institutes in China, uniquely permitting it to take on larger numbers of graduate, masters and doctoral students, to run conferences and summer schools, to build large archives. In the course of these developments, this writer was appointed as one of the first foreign professors into the ranks of Chinese academia to  teach Hebrew Bible, Talmudic Thought and Kabbalah. We are now developing a library, resource and research centre which aspires to service all other Chinese centers and departments of Jewish studies with books, curricula, services and scholars. The center is actively recruiting new students from around China, holding an international conference in May and hosting our first summer school in Jewish studies in July. In due course we hope that eminent scholars from around the world will begin to participate in these projects. The School will also begin to host visiting Jewish and Israeli groups to China in order to advance its academic and cultural reputation around the world and encourage philanthropic assistance. We have even developed an M.A and Ph.D program for foreign students wishing to come to China and combine studies. The aim is to develop an international atmosphere at the Centre, to bring Jews and Gentiles from all parts of the world to exchange their interests and expertise in Judaism, inter-religious studies, Chinese religions such as Confucianism, Buddhism or Taoism as well as Marxism and Chinese political thought as well as learn Chinese and interact with the Chinese students at the Centre.

The Center is full of initiatives and is seeking partners. The students watching the developments see that there is a future to their studies and are getting excited and more continue to enroll. In due course it is hoped that a Chinese National Association of Jewish Studies will be established and after a process which requires receiving governmental level support hopes to unite all the centers of Jewish studies and their scholars into a framework that promotes higher academic standards, regular international exchanges with similar organizations and scholars, the efficient coordination of limited resources, sharing of visiting international scholars and presenting a united front to raise funds from philanthropists in order to develop Jewish studies resources, centers and Jewish intellectual studies in China.

So even though Judaism is still not officially recognized in China, Jewish studies has made its way into mainstream academic thinking and its horizons are burgeoning in the most unlikely places. If you walk into a classroom today at Shandong’s department of philosophy, in the leafy old campus adjacent to the towering old Cathedral left over from the city’s former missionary days, you are likely to find students reading the Tanach in Biblical Hebrew, studying ancient Israelite history, conjugating Modern Hebrew grammar, quoting from the Mishna - Ethics of the Fathers or from Maimonides or learning about Herman Cohen, Moses Mendelson or Ehad ha-Am or the comparisons between Judaism and Confucianism. You may find in the corridors or library a few visiting scholars from Israel or the U.S or a tourist coming in to say “hello” or a doctoral student researching her dissertation on ‘Jewish Mysticism and Buddhism”, or his research essay entitled “The Jewish Enlightenment and Lessons for China’s Future”, or a Master’s thesis on “Jewish and Chinese Woman: Comparisons on the Road to Liberation”.

What is remarkable is that this phenomenon is not limited to Shandong province. There are at least ten other universities which offer courses in some areas of Jewish studies. Beijing University’s School of Foreign Languages teaches a four year course in Modern Hebrew with twelve students per year. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences under Prof Pan Guang has approximately 15 post graduate students researching primarily on modern Jewish politics, Arab-Israeli conflict and modern Jewish thought. The University of Henan in Kaifeng under Prof Zhang Qianhong (who is currently on a sabbatical at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) has the same. These students are mainly focused on Holocaust studies. Yunnan University’s department of International Relations under Prof Xiao Xian also runs courses in Jewish studies. In 2005 they hosted a conference entitled “Israel and Diaspora Judaism”. Other universities with courses in Judaism include the University of Harbin, where a significant Jewish community used to live and Jewish travelers go to visit their old homes and the graves of their beloved. There are other provincial universities and Christian religious seminaries that teach courses in Jewish Bible and Biblical Hebrew.

Nanjing University under Professor Xu Xin has developed an impressive Jewish studies curriculum and raised funds from Jewish philanthropists abroad to build a library and Jewish studies centre. Professor Xu Xin has become especially prominent in the international Jewish community for his books “Legends of Chinese Jews of Kaifeng” (KTAV 1995). The prospect of Chinese Jews still remaining in distant Chinese provinces fascinated many Jews worldwide and he was subsequently invited to speak at many venues about his research. His contribution to Jewish studies in China is significant and his translation and summary into Chinese of the Encyclopedia Judaica and other works ushered in a process which has begun to snowball. While once he was one of a few full time professors of Jewish studies in China, today, his students and those emerging from Shandong University under Prof Fu and other places are becoming the next generation of scholars, professors and Chinese experts of Judaism.

So what is the reason for this interest in Jewish studies? I was prompted to think about this question more seriously after one day bumping into the Russian language professor during a bicycle ride through the old campus (we since became regular chess partners). “How many students do you have”? “Why are they learning Russian – not Hebrew” I joked with him. In a thick Russian accent and stoic rational he answered “there are 5000 km of border between China and Russia”. He had 15 undergraduate students! Then he asked me how many I had and why they were learning such an obscure subject and little spoken language such as Hebrew and Bible. Though I had practiced answers to such questions asked of me regularly, his comment had stumped me with the stark differences in our student’s motives. I had 12 students, a little less than him. But the Jewish people did not have a 5000 km boarder with China and billions of dollars of trade and exchange or even strong historical links. Why were these very bright and ambitious, mostly post graduate students dedicating themselves to the study of biblical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew and Talmudic thought, areas which had nearly no application, no business component and very little potential to earn them even a meager income. I have not been able to answer all these questions but have since explored the subject in more depth and in various forums tried to address some issues.

At a general symposium at the School of Philosophy and Social Development I read a paper entitled “Exploring the Possibilities for a Judeo-Sino Socio-Intellectual Exchange” or in other words – what can Jewish studies offer to Chinese nation building? At the upcoming International Symposium of Inter-Religious Dialogue to be held at Shandong University I will read the paper “Chinese Jewish Studies: Scholars, Research and Motives”.

The subject of Jewish interest to the Chinese is not immediately understood, but as an appetizer it is worth noting that the 1970’s, the translation into Chinese of the “Diary of Anne Frank” sold a startling 40 million copies in China. The fascination with a universal experience such as those of Anne Frank interested the experience starved Chinese who were just exiting the trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Many Chinese scholars view Jewish subjects as a canvas for observing their own condition. Many are fascinated with the absence of censorship, the liberal criticism heaped on Jewish protagonists, the lack of uniformity in thinking and practice and the high degree of innovation exuding from the Jewish experience. They are curious how the Jews can remain united without consensus, without obsession with land and without homogeneity of any sort. These may be some of the motives in studying Judaism. Chinese students of Western philosophy attribute the field to two major influences; Greek and Jewish thought. Many therefore feel that studying Jewish philosophy and the life of Jewish philosophers is an excellent entry point to understand the fundaments of Western thinking and civilization.  They may study Philo as a Greek thinker, Maimonides as an Aristotelian, Spinoza as the father of modern philosophy, Herman Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber as entry points into German philosophy.

But there are also less enlightened interests in Jews and Judaism. Many ideas are informed by superficial or even anti-Semitic works. Even though Chinese are not anti-Semitic they are familiar with some of the stereotypes, which they find to be more complimentary than contemptuous.  In the last year alone there were  at least ten popular books published in Chinese with titles such as “how to become a Jewish millionaire” (I told a Hasidic man at the Shanghai synagogue about this book and he enthusiastically requested of me to get him a copy to read), “65 portions of Jewish wisdom”, “The secrets of the Jews”. Most of these deal with financial, political and corporate subjects and appeal to superficial stereotypes of Jews and do not venture into the body of Jewish thinking, spirituality and ethics.

So what is the future of China and its relations with Judaism? People have only begun to ask this question. At present the only ties between Jews and China noted by the media are those of military and commercial import. But these are not the material that long term spiritual and cultural relations are built on.

Recently the Jewish Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem under the aegis of Shimon Peres and Dennis Ross published a strategy paper written by Dr Shalom Wald on the subject of relations between the Jewish people and China. One of his main proposals was the establishing of strong academic ties in Jewish studies as the basis for a meaningful, long term and strategic relationship.

But still many people ask me why teach Jewish studies in China? “Why the effort towards people who are in no way connected to Judasim”? I remind them of two historical turning points for the Jewish people. In the tenth century, as the Golden era of the Jews of Arabia was coming to an end, a Jewish dignitary of Arab extraction - Hisdai Ibn Shaprut, won high office to the Caliph in Cordoba and began bringing Jews from the centers of learning in Baghdad over to Spain to serve as advisors, physicians, scholars, astronomers, writers and poets. At that time the relatively isolated Spain had few ties with Jews or Judaism. Nonetheless, this initiative paved the way for one of the most magnificent periods of Jewish civilization lasting 700 years.

And I remind critics that in the mid 1800s the rabbis and leaders of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe looked upon America with contempt and disdain calling it the “treife medina” and threatened excommunication to those who expressed a desire to immigrate. Within a century it had become one of the few places of refuge for Jews, the Jewish people’s closest ally, saving millions from the ravages of Nazism and Russian oppression, helping establish an independent State and becoming a centre for Jewish learning and cultural activity unparalleled in Diaspora Jewish history.

If the Chinese treat the study of the humanities in general and Jewish subjects in particular as seriously as they build cities, grow their economy and embrace universal knowledge and intellectual infrastructure, then her study of Judaism and her contribution to Judaism’s continual re-interpretation  may prove yet to dwarf that of Spain’s and of the U.S. That China does not have the same biases towards Jews as did Christian countries, is also powerfully significant. As the Chinese economy grows and it becomes an economic super power, it is also likely (based on past Jewish immigration patterns) that more Jews will wish to immigrate to China and the communities of Shanghai (about 1500 Jews at present) and that of Beijing (1000 Western Jews and 500 Russian and Azerbaijani Jews) will grow significantly and other smaller communities may flourish.

The long and winding roads of the Jewish Diaspora have been colorful; this neck of the wood may prove the most interesting. So when you come to China, don’t forget to visit us!