Theos-Talk Archives (July 2002 Message tt00032)

July 4 2002


re: Ancient dispersal of the Jews to various parts of the East
(China, India, Indonesia, etc...)

Dear Ramadoss:


As far as my own experience in Hong Kong and the far East, I have met
"Chinese Jews" who looked as Chinese as any one else there, (in Hong
Kong, Manila, Djakarta, Taipei ) yet they traced their ancestry not
only to recent émigrés from the European holocaust, but some had a
family history that took them back centuries to a time when the Jews
(perhaps the Phoenicians) sailed, the oceans and traded with China,
possibly over 2,000 years ago.

When some of the resent escapees from the horrors of Europe arrived
by trans-Siberian railway in Harding, Peking and Shanghai, they
received help and succor from the old Chinese Jewish families long
established there. In other countries where they had long been in
residence, they appeared to be similar in features to the local
inhabitants, yet they maintained their synagogues, their schools and
their integrity.

In India, where I spent much of my early life, there were two groups
of Jews, and these were given curious appellations: the "Black Jews,"
and the "White Jews." The so-called Black Jews traced their ancestry
back to a time earlier than the diaspora, and the time when the Romans
destroyed the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem (73 AD), over 2000 years ago.
It was then a crisis of dispersal which scattered many of the Jews all
over the world. It is those that came to India for refuge at this time
that the appellation "White Jews" was used, as their skin did not have
time to darken as much as the earlier arrival had.

They emigrated in India to ports where traditionally they had traded
and even had resident agents such as Cochin, Coconada, Udippi,
Travancore and Madras. The "White Jews" as I recall were more the
recent arrivals yet, still very old in terms of time. Their time of
residence in India under the tropical sun had made the skin color
distinction. Among the Jewish communities there was no such
distinction and their solidarity was great. This was my personal
observation, and I had many friends and acquaintances in their
communities. I met Ceylonese Jews in Colombo, and other Jews in
Singapore, where they had similar traditions.

Another point of interest is that the Apostle Thomas ( Saint Thomas )
and a group of early Jewish Christians emigrated to India and settled
near Madras ( St. Thomas Mount ). These early Christians were also
received at several of the ports of ancient India and their
communities have remained close knit for centuries. They were
commonly called the Saint Thomas Christians to distinguish them from
the efforts of the Missionaries to christianize India when it was
under British rule.

When in business in India, I knew many of those old families (Jewish
and Christian) and know they had their Synagogues (and old Churches)
and were given shelter for centuries by the local Rajahs. Their trade
was mainly across the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea and the Middle East.
But they also traded East to Rangoon, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok,
Indonesia, the Philippines and with ancient China, where they said
they had relatives in residence.

Best wishes,

Dallas

-----Original Message-----
From: ramadoss@gbronline.com [mailto:ramadoss@gbronline.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, July 03, 2002 6:29 PM
To:	theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject:	Theos-World Jewish Emigration to China

Does anyone confirm the following quote I found on a website:

"About 50K Jews came to China from all over the world. Most of them
settled
down in Shanghai. China is the only country in the world at that time
that did
not require entry visa, Anybody could freely board at any port of
China. But
nowadays, this piece of history is almost forgot by the Jewish
communities (or
they pretend to forget) in the United States of which most of their
acendents (ancestors)
escaped NAZI's massacre because China accepted them during the darkest
time."

mkr