Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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