wrote:
ltlee1@hotmail.com wrote:
Luigi Donatello Asero wrote:
"bakyimsing" <bakyimsing@nomail.com> skrev i meddelandet
news:45205127.3D19F90C@nomail.com...
Other than a general anti-Arab sentiment in Israel,
there is also an anti-black, anti-chinese substrata
in the Jewish society in Israel in general to keep
judaeism pure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_in_Israel#_note-Rotem
Israeli public officials sometimes make anti-foreigner remarks in
relation to the guest worker issue. Most notably, in 2001, then-
labor and social affairs minister Shlomo Benizri said: "I just don't
understand why a restaurant needs a slant-eye to serve me my
meal." Even Jews of Chinese descent suffer harassment and poor
treatment by immigration police.
Employers have also been known to impose humiliating restrictions
on Chinese workers in their employment contracts. In 2003, a
report by The Guardian stated that Chinese workers at an
unspecified company had been required to agree not to have
sex with or marry Israeli women, including prostitutes, as a
condition of getting a job
http://www.shavei.org/article.php?id=3D534
Between Yangtze and Yarkon
July 01, 2005
Tamar Rotem, Haaretz.com
By Tamar Rotem
For the past five years, Jin Wen-Jing and her parents, Jin Guang Yu=
an
and Zhang Jin Ling - "Shlomo" and "Dina," as they are called in Heb=
rew -
have lived in Jerusalem. The daughter, whose name means "tranquilli=
ty"
in Chinese, and is known by that name ("Shalva") at the boarding sc=
hool
in the north that she attended after arriving in Israel, is the pri=
sm
through which the parents see the country. She is their interpreter=
and
spokesperson, and she guides them through the subtleties of Israeli
culture and the labyrinths of the civil bureaucracy and the rabbini=
cal
establishment. She is 21, tall and thin, perhaps contrary to the
stereotype of the Chinese as being short of stature. "My grandfather
always wanted to come here, to Israel," she says, "and we also alwa=
ys
wanted to live among Jews. We were not afraid that we would have a =
hard
time."
Since the family - one of about 600 Chinese families from the city =
of
Kaifeng who claim to have been Jews for many generations - realized=
its
dream of immigrating to Israel, its members have faced numerous
obstacles on the road to being recognized as Jews. Like many others,
they found out the hard way that it's not easy being a foreigner in
Israel. Especially if you are a Chinese Jew. The family lives an
isolated existence, eking out a living by cleaning houses, and miss=
es
the relatives who were left behind. Nevertheless, a smile never lea=
ves
their faces. The grief and affront they experienced here are well h=
idden
beneath a restrained exterior.
Last week, Shlomo, who looks younger than his 50 years, underwent a
circumcision. But that has not saved him from being marked as a for=
eign
worker. Despite the knitted skullcap he wears, he is vulnerable to
various forms of harassment, especially by the Immigration Police, =
who
are convinced that he is an impostor. Once he even spent the night =
in
detention. He relates, without being aware of the racist treatment =
he
received, that at first he was not allowed even to sit on the bunk =
bed,
but after he insisted on joining the minyan (prayer quorum of 10 ad=
ult
males), he was permitted to sleep on a mattress.
A few weeks ago, at 3 A.M., the family awoke to pounding on the doo=
r=2E
"When we opened the door, the policeman with a rifle aimed at me
identified me immediately," Shlomo says, laughing. "What are you do=
ing
here, Shlomo?" he asked. Since then the family has refrained from
placing its Chinese name on the door.
Shlomo is the pious one in the family. When he is not cleaning
stairwells, he sits at home and reads an improvised Bible, on whose
pages he glued the Chinese translation he cut out of another book.
Another ray of light is the weekly soccer game with Chinese student=
s at
the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Friday night ritual
The Jewish identity of the Jin family, a kind of Chinese version of=
the
Ethiopian Falashmura (descendants of Jews who converted to
Christianity), has been passed on from one generation to the next. =
About
150 years ago there was still an ancient Jewish-Chinese community in
Kaifeng, descendants of Jews who apparently arrived from India via =
the
Silk Route. However, after 1860 - when the synagogue was destroyed
because the Yellow River overflowed - the community disintegrated a=
nd
assimilated into local society.
What does it mean to be Jewish in China? After a quick exchange wit=
h her
parents, Shalva Jin smiles with embarrassment: to light candles and
drink wine on Friday. As proof of their Jewishness they show a small
book written by a Chinese official, which describes the descendants=
of
the Jews in China. The Jin family was photographed there, looking
festive, when their daughter was three.
In Israel, the rabbinate was not persuaded of their Jewish identity.
According to the daughter, what broke them was when the rabbi told =
them
straight out that they are not Jews and that they would have to und=
ergo
an Orthodox ritual conversion. "They thought [my parents] would ret=
urn
to Kaifeng," she says.
Noam Urbach, a student in the East Asian department at the Hebrew
University, is working on an M.A. dissertation about the Jews of
Kaifeng. He has also chronicled the Jin family in a documentary fil=
m now
in the editing stage. Urbach met the couple in Kaifeng in 1990, whe=
n he
went to China to learn the language and encountered the Jewish stor=
y=2E
Despite the communist government's suspicion of minorities, he says,
until 1979 there was local recognition in the province of Henan, wh=
ere
Kaifeng is located, of the few residents who maintained a Jewish
identity. Since the start of the 1990s, in the wake of developing
relations with Israel, the local authorities have permitted outside
Jewish groups and individuals to rehabilitate the synagogue and
establish a museum in it. Jews abroad have donated $4 million for t=
his
purpose. A framed plan of the synagogue hangs on the wall in the Jin
home.
Shalva Jin and her parents recall that during that period "foreigne=
rs
came to visit us all the time and to take an interest in our
Jewishness." According to Urbach, the Jewish awakening occurred aga=
inst
the background of the slow decline of communism, but was also relat=
ed to
the opening of the Israeli embassy in China, in 1992.
"The descendants viewed that as a symbolic event and hoped it would=
be
possible to start maintaining a community," he explains. "That was a
problem. The authorities began to be apprehensive about a new minor=
ity."
As a result, in 1996 the city authorities shut down the office that=
was
in charge of rebuilding the synagogue and a year later the category=
of
"Jew" was erased from residency cards. Israel ignored these
developments. The embassy, Urbach notes, canceled a planned visit b=
y a
Jewish Agency delegation to Kaifeng out of fear that it would be fr=
owned
upon by the authorities.
Of all the descendants of Jews, who are said to number about 2,000,=
how
is it that onl y the Jin family immigrated to Israel? "It was Shlom=
o's
life project, after he and others had been focused on their Jewishn=
ess
for years, without hope," says Urbach, who is critical of the fact =
that
Israel is ignoring the Jewish descendants in Kaifeng, and adds that=
the
state's attitude toward Jewish communities abroad is cynical. "The =
test
is the Law of Return. If they are not considered Jews according to
halakha [Jewish religious law], they are totally ignored. But there=
is a
fascinating Jewish story here," he says. In the final analysis, he =
adds,
the rabbinic court is less racist than the state, because it conver=
ted
the family. However, they have yet to receive an ID card and do not=
know
what their status is.
Shalva Jin is worried about the ID card issue. Without it she feels=
she
does not belong. But it is also a psychological matter. Although sh=
e no
longer thinks about her friends in China, she says, she is also not
especially attached to young people in Israel. "I don't feel that I
belong either here or there," she says. She loves Chinese culture, =
she
explains, and is connected to it via the Internet. However, she doe=
s not
want to go back to China. In the meantime, she has registered in the
East Asian Department at the Hebrew University and maybe, she says,=
she
will be able to bridge the two parts of her identity when she works=
as
an interpreter or in the diplomatic corps.
Sad to read. We are all human beings!
Faith in an intolerant God gives rise to intolerant people.
The question is why some peoples need such a god.
Short answer: Peoples create such a God to justifiy
"unatural" power relationships among people.
There is no God, LT Lee. God is a creation of superstitious human
beings hoping to get something they can not attain in real life.
Religion is a clutch for the weak mind. Religion sells miracles and
life after death. There is no miracles. God help those who help
themselves. There is no life after death, the only item remains after
death is a pile of bones. There is no heaven, no hell, no soul, and no
God.
In case you missed the question, "Why do people need intolerant God?"
Why not an tolerant God?
In this aspect, confucianism is millenia ahead.
Confuciancism is not ahead, but stand still. It is still back in 500
BC, 2,500 years old. Too old for today's world.
--
Luigi Donatello Asero
https://www.scaiecat-spa-gigi.com/
=E8=B0=A2=E8=B0=A2=E4=BD=A0 =D1=81=D0=BF=D0=B0=D1=81=D0=B8=D0=B1=D0=
=BE
.
