Judaism, China, and The Silk Road

Katie Guzowski
Dec 2, 2015
2 min read

I was actually surprised to learn that Judaism really does encounter problems everywhere, it is a religion of many struggles. I obviously knew of the disregard for Jews in Europe, initially from learning about the Holocaust but I also noticed it in more historical sources such as Shakespeare's plays. I grew up in a primarily Christian, white town and honestly can name everyone who was not white or Christian in about a minute. So coming into this course I knew very little about any other religion, besides what I've picked up in passing just from having a much more varied friend group and surroundings. Therefore the historical struggles of the Jewish people in what seems to be most of the world is actually quite surprising to me.

The history of Jewish merchants who travelled the Silk Road is actually quite tenuous due to a lack of records and artifacts (Cansdale, 1998). Scholars believe that the Jews did have a presence as traders along the Silk Road however they have little evidence, much of it could be attributed to people who were settled in different places along the road but did not actually trade (Cansdale, 1998). The Jews seem to have been largely a minority, to have left this little evidence of their existence and work along the major trade routes. However they were present, as even recently descendants of Jewish people in China continue to exist, mainly in the city of Kaifeng or rurally (Ehrlich & Liang, 2008). Of course as it would follow the modern day Chinese Jews have also struggled to be recognized as legitimate, both by 'real' Jews from Israel and especially by the Chinese government who declared there were no Jews in China due to the major disconnect the Chinese Jews had from the current accepted definitions of a religion and a Jew (Ehrlich & Liang, 2008).

This also raises the issue of what makes a religion or a Jew. We covered in class and previous readings the issue of what makes a 'good' Buddhist and came to the conclusion it varied by people, region, and culture. Even though the basic belief is the same, different people participate in their religion and practice it differently, although they may all be referred to by the same name i.e. Buddhists. The Chinese government actually did define their criteria of a religion, in that it must have its separate language, own customs, and living area (Ehrlich & Liang, 2008). The Chinese Jews did not then qualify. They had lost the Hebrew language, rabbis, and living area, although they retained customs such as Passover (Ehrlich & Liang, 2008). The Israeli's could not define them as Jewish due to a lack of completion of the official requirements of being a recognized Jew which some who immigrated to Israel completed by officially converting to Orthodox Judaism (Ehrlich & Liang, 2008).