For six months in 1642, the emperor's enemies tightened their siege around Kaifeng, China, and choked the life out of the historic provincial capital. As the situation deteriorated, a desperate plan to save the city emerged. In a last-ditch effort to repel the invaders, defense forces demolished the dikes that held back the deadly Yellow River. The tactic succeeded, but tragically, 100,000 inhabitants drowned in the flood waters, including an unknown number of Jews who lived in Kaifeng's 800-year-old Jewish community.

BRAVERY SAVES THE COMMUNITY

Two young Jews, Kao Hsien and Li Cheng-chun, risked their lives on that tragic day. As muddy water swept away the magnificent Kaifeng synagogue, the young men dove into the swirling torrent and saved ten sacred Torah scrolls. They carried the damaged scrolls to Li Chen, the community's Chang Chiao, the chief of religion. Miraculously, Rabbi Li salvaged one complete Sefer Torah from the damaged scriptures, and it became known as the "Scroll of Moses." During the next two decades, the Jewish community in Kaifeng not only rebuilt their synagogue, but also wrote 12 copies of the Torah. When they completed the work in 1663, they inscribed their heroic story on a stone marker-called a stele: "And thus, the 13 rolls were completed. They shine in their new splendor, and those who read them find them easy to understand…."

ASSIMILATION WEAKENS THE COMMUNITY

Sadly, the stele's flowery language overstated the true quality of Jewish life in Kaifeng. Centuries of total isolation from world Jewry had eroded the community's knowledge of Jewish law, language, and lore. In fact, when the last rabbi died in 1810, no one in the Kaifeng Jewish community could read or understand the "Scroll of Moses." Their ancient and continuous struggle for survival was ending meekly; the community placed a Torah scroll in the marketplace and, with it, a sign offering a reward to anyone who could read and translate it for them.

DASHED HOPES

But in August 1850, hopes for redemption soared. Zhao Nien-tsu-a leader of the community-received a letter from someone he mistakenly believed was a fellow Jew. Dreams of communal salvation echo throughout his written response. "Morning and night, with tears in our eyes and with offerings of incense, do we implore that our religion may again flourish." Zhao imagined the synagogue's elegant courtyards and majestic archways restored. With a new synagogue and "ministers [rabbis] to serve in it," he dreamed, "our religion would again have firm support for the future...."

 

Unfortunately, Zhao's hopes went unfulfilled. The letter that ignited his optimism was not from concerned Jews but from Christian missionaries, who were merely seeking information about an exotic, lost, Jewish community. Finally, in 1860, the dilapidated synagogue was torn down; the ancient Kaifeng Jewish community ceased to exist. And yet, some families clung tenaciously to Jewish traditions and passed them on to their descendants, even though the religious significance eluded them.

MEET SHI LEI

Shi Lei, China's only Jewish-Chinese tour guide, grew up in one of those steadfast Kaifeng families. He tells BABAGANEWZ that during the Chinese New Year, his great-grandfather would dab a red mineral ink over the doorpost of his house, and the family would eat mutton soup and pancakes made without yeast-an obvious hint of Pesach.

 

"I grew up like any other native Chinese," he says, "but one thing that is different is that I know I am of Jewish descent. My grandparents and parents never stopped telling us that we are Youtai, Jews." With obvious pride, Shi Lei links himself to those who came before him: those fearless Jewish merchants who crossed the dangerous Gobi desert along the Silk Road and settled in Kaifeng, circa 906; those determined Jewish families who built Kaifeng's first synagogue in 1163; and those committed Jews who painstakingly rebuilt it three times after that.

 

But most meaningfully, Shi Lei identifies with Kao Hsien and Li Cheng-chun, the young men who saved the Torah scrolls centuries ago. Like them, Shi Lei is bringing Torah back to the Kaifeng Jewish community. Seven years ago, he met Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, then the Chief Rabbi of Japan, who was visiting Kaifeng. From among all Youtai in Kaifeng, the rabbi selected Shi Lei as the best candidate to study at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. When he returned to Kaifeng, Shi Lei gathered a few Jewish descendants for weekly Shabbat services. Although a stone pillar will not be erected this time, Shi Lei and his friends have laid the foundation for Jewish renewal in Kaifeng. "We are Chinese Jews," he says, "and we are in Kaifeng again."