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PAGE 12RH THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 3, 1986
INTEERS
ISRAEL
Wishes A nmn nw
FOR
To The Five Thousand Volunteers
Who Went To Israeli Army Bases,
To The Israeli Soldiers We
Befriended, To Our Supporters,
Contributors and Friends.
May You Be Inscribed
“In The Book Of Life”
VOLUNTEERS FOR ISRAEL
Atlanta contact: Bernie Lovitky
(404) 331-2931 • (404) 432-0644
40 Worth Street, Room 710
New York, N.Y. 10013 Phone 212-608-4848
^ApiNTEERS % EUZLHLTWS
Hadassah
wishes
you and yours
L’Shana Tova
CHAPTER PRESIDENTS
Ein Karem Carol Rubin
Ketura Carol Lynn Birnbaum
Mount Scopus Manuela Bornstein
Neurim Vicki Newman
The Jews of the Orient
by Rabbi Bernard S. Raskas
Seven Arts Feature Syndicate Inc
The Jews of the Orient, specifi
cally Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bang
kok and Singapore are a fascinat
ing study in Jewish survival.
In general, these four Oriental
Jewish communities are made up
of four layers of Jewish popula
tion. The first layer was made up of
the Jews who came prior to 1940.
They mostly followed the silk trade
routes of China, India and Syria or
had a spirit of adventure. Few of
them are left, but they were rather
wealthy.
The second group came after
1940 fleeing from persecution,
whether in Europe, Syria or other
lands. They are today for the most
part prosperous.
The third layer is made up of
Israelis who are in the diplomatic
services or are “technical advisers."
Other Israelis deal in gems, pearls
and stones and have become most
successful.
The latest group of Jews to arrive
are the managers of banks, indus
trial plants, clothing factories, or
are connected with international
firms which sell pharmaceuticals,
or such products.
All the communities are formally
Orthodox. That is, the form of the
services is absolutely traditional.
The service is all in Hebrew and
not a word is skipped. The men
and women are separated and in
some instances the women sit in
the galleries.
There usually are about 200 Jew
ish families formally with the syn
agogue, but there are more Jews
who come only for Yom Kippuror
a yahrzeit.
However, the story does not end
there. In each synagogue there is a
struggle between the progressive
and the more rigid observers that
breaks out-periodically. It is typi
cal and at once tragic and comic
They are all in a state of decline.
Because what Jew would want to
stay in Asia and be a tiny minority
except for financial reasons. By the
way, there are no authentic Orien
tal Jews left. I met one Japanese
woman and one Malaysian woman
who were converts. And, that is
about it.
Tokyo has about 400 Jews. They
have services every Friday night
and Saturday morning. The rabbi
is a younger colleague, Rabbi
Michael Schudrich, a graduate of
the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Because there is literally no one
else there, he has to preach, con
duct service, be the cantor, the
Torah reader, head the Sunday
School, teach Hebrew and do every
thing else.
Leslie Blau is president of the
Jewish community and he invited
us to lunch on Sunday at the Jew-
ish'community building, which also
serves as a community center. It
was a buffet and there were about
60 Jews there. Most of them were
waiting for their children in the
Sunday School, which numbers
about 50. While the food was
kosher, some members felt they
were not strict enough and that’s
another problem that I will talk
about in a moment. At any rate, we
had lox and bagel and tasted the
gefilte fish which was darker be
cause it was made by the Japanese
with soy sauce. It was very good.
Blau, who is from New Jersey,
and is now the manager of a large
plant in Tokyo, showed me the
library, which he boasted was the
largest Jewish library in the Far
East. I smiled pleasantly and said
“That’s nice.” But, in truth, it could
all fit in just one small section of
any American synagogue library.
The Makuya, a Japanese Chris
tian sect, whose fundamental belief
is Zionism is also a fascinating
phenomenon. Imagine being met
by 350 Japanese singing at the top
of their voices: Havenu shalom
aleichem. There are about 50,000
members of the Makuya in Japan
and they maintain a branch in
Jerusalem.
The Jewish community of Hong
Kong is a little different and more
fascinating. It is made up of about
200 families although about 1,000
Jews live there. The synagogue is
called Ohel Laeh, and was given in
memory of Leah Sassoon and was
presented by the Sassoon-Kadoorie
families in 1909 and is of Sephardic
design. These founding families
came to Hong Kong through the
Chinese-India silk route.
The titular head of the Jewish
community is Lord Lawrence Ka-
doorie, who just signed a contract
with the Peoples Republic of China
to build a nuclear plant for 3.1 bil
lion dollars.
The active head of the commun
ity is Mark Ejlenberg, who came
from Holland and is the manager
of a large bank. He came to visit
me on Friday afternoon at the
Peninsula Hotel, and since their
rabbi just left, he asked if I minded
preaching on Shabbat morning. I
agreed. Then he asked hesitantly if
I minded if he would suggest a
topic for me. I said, “Fine. What?”
“Well,” he continued, “you see the
left wing and the right wing are
Continued next page.
May the New Year be
ever joyous for
You and Your family
Happy
nous niD 1 ?
Jeffrey, Kerri
Eileen & Adam Snow