The Ancient Jewish Community of Kaifeng, China

Kaifeng Synagogue

For at least a thousand years, a small Jewish community thrived in Kaifeng, once a cosmopolitan trading center at the eastern terminus of the Silk Road route.

Embraced by their Chinese neighbors, they prospered in commerce and rose to the upper echelons of government service, the Mandirinate.

They were discovered by Catholic missionaries, who found them to be fully assimilated, unable to read their Torah scrolls.

Today, we see signs of a Jewish revival among the remnants of Kaifeng’s Jews, a remarkable and unexpected turn of events.