The Jewish and Chinese peoples are the oldest continuous civilizations. Given the long records of these two civilizations the infrequency of their concurrence and the slightness of the record of their contacts makes the discussion of their relations somewhat exotic. These discussions have take place in many languages. One of the items listed below catalogs many of the older contributions, that is The Sino-Judaic Bibliographies of Rudolf Loewenthal. These three separate works include a variety of extremely difficult to acquire volumes. While the list of items cataloged below includes only one item that appears in those bibliographies the items that we offer do present a variety of types of treatments and sources.
Bloch, Samson, ha-Levi.
Sh'vile 'olam. Sefer Kolel. Tekunot kol artsot tevel le-mahlekotehen ... Zolkiew, Bey Meyerhoffer, 1822. Duodecimo, black cloth covered boards, xxii, 252 pp., mild water-staining. Hardbound. Good. Text is in Hebrew. This is the volume that deals with Asia. With eulogies/ dedications by J. Landau, J. Eichenbaum, and Aharon Lerner. Lerner's contribution is in poetic form.
"In 1812 Bloch was called to Vienna to fill the place of corrector in the
Hebrew printing-establishment of Anton Schmid, made vacant by the death
of the grammarian Ben Ze'eb. There he translated into Hebrew Manasseh
b. Israel's "Vindiciæ Judæorum" from the German translation of it by Dr.
Marcus Herz, and published it with an introduction and a biographical
sketch of the author (Vienna, 1813). He was compelled by family affairs
to return to Kulikow, and, after several years of continual struggle
with poverty, he listened to the advice of his friends Krochmal and
Rapoport, and took up the writing of Hebrew books as a profession. In
1822 appeared the first volume of his important work, "Shebile 'Olam"
(Paths of the World), a description of the geography and the nations of
Asia (Zolkiev). It still has a literary if not a scientific value on
account of its incomparable style and of the attacks on the folly and
superstition of the Eastern nations contained therein, which were really
intended for fools and deluded people nearer home. The second volume
(Africa) is even better than the first, and is interspersed with
biographies of Alfasi, Maimonides, and other famous Jews who were born
or lived in Africa (Zolkiev, 1827)." Jewish Encyclopedia. (83580) $180.00
Dehergne, Joseph and Leslie, Donald Daniel.
Juifs de Chine: A Travers la Correspondance Inedite des Jesuites du Dix-Huitieme Siecle. Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.I., Volumen XLI. Rome and Paris, Institutum Historicum S.I. and Les Belles Lettres, 1980. First Edition. Octavo, blue cloth with gold lettering, xiv, 252 pp., tables, bibliography, Hebrew glossary, glossa of Chinese terms and names, indexes, xi b/w plates. Hardbound. Very Good. In French. Preface by Jacques Gernet. Michael Pollak's copy.
Dehergne was ordained as priest in Paris in 1934 and departed for China in 1936. His primary study was of the history of Christians and of Jesuit Missions and Missionaries in China. He was able to remain in China until 1951 when he was expelled by the Chinese communists. He was the co-founder of the
Colloque Internationale de Sinologie, at Chantilly. (67108) $45.00
Dehergne, Joseph and Leslie, Donald Daniel.
Juifs de Chine: A Travers la Correspondance Inedite des Jesuites du Dix-Huitieme Siecle. Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.I., Volumen XLI. Rome and Paris, Institutum Historicum S.I. and Les Belles Lettres, 1984. Second Edition. Octavo, paper covers with minor bumping to the bottom open corner, xiv, 252 pp., tables, bibliography, Hebrew glossary, glossary of Chinese terms and names, indexes, xi b/w plates. Softbound. Very Good-. In French. Preface by Jacques Gernet. Michael Pollak's copy. (67109) $40.00
Drage, Charles.
The Life and Times of General Two-Gun Cohen. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1954. Octavo in edgeworn dust jacket with a few short tears and with wear at the base of the spine, frontispiece photo, viii, 312 pp., b/w photos, with a few small ink stamps. Hardbound. Good.
Moishe "Morris" Cohen, was born to a poor family in
Radzanów, Poland. While he was still young the family emigrated to the London's East End. He was educated, but was no Yeshiva Bokher. He got in enough trouble on the streets that he was shipped off to Western Canada with the support of Baron Rothschild's Jewish agricultural colonization effort. He lived in Saskatchewan and Alberta. His sense of decency impaired his racism. When he saw a Chinese restaurateur being robbed he stepped in and thrashed the robber. This ingratiated him the Chinese workers in Western Canada. He was invited into the Chinese Nationalist movement in exile in Canada and trained them to drill and in basic gunnery. He fought in the first World War leading Chinese immigrant troops. Back in Canada after World War One and aimless he took the opportunity to travel to China and began working as an aide-de-camp for Sun Yat-sen himself. It was in that capacity that he finally came by his nickname. He worked with Sun until his death in 1925 and remained in China organizing railway development and arming various factions. He rescued Sun's widow, Soong Ching-ling, just ahead of the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese. He was captured and treated very roughly. He was released in 1943 in a prisoner exchange. This was the end of the effective era of Cohen's live. He returned to Canada and settled in Montreal. Despite that, he remained a rover. Because of his association with Sun Yat-sen he was a rare figure, able to travel and be welcomed in the PRC and in Taiwan. It may be that his personal involvement caused the Chinese (Nationalist) government changed their opposition to partition of Palestine to an abstention.
Cohen's legend is full of fabrications of his own and of other's but the bare bones truth of his life is one of the great adventure stories of a rough and tumble Jewish life. This volume will stand proudly on the shelf with Abe "Newsboy" Hollandersky's memoir. Wikipedia has more or if you are really interested you could always buy the damn book. (54140) $18.00
Eber, Irene.
Sinim ve-Yehudim: Mifgashim beyn Tarbuyot/ Chinese and Jews: Encounters between Cultures. Jesusalem, Bialik Institute, 2002. Octavo in dust jacket, 205 pp., b/w illustrations, bibliography, indicis. Very Good. Translated into Hebrew by Yossi Malvo.
Eber is the leading Israeli Sinologist. (18592) $20.00
A collection of twenty-three accounts of life from Holocaust survivors who transited through Shanghai. (74519) $18.00
Gerstley, James M.
China Diary (China Visit, March 9th - 29th, 1976). Woodside, California, The Author, April, 9, 1976. Quarto, paper covers in a plastic fronted report binder, 44 single-sided pp. Softbound. Very Good. An early travel account from China as it began to re-open to the west at the end of the Mao era. Unpublished.
English-born Gerstley married into the Jewish establishment of San Francisco. His fortune was made in the Borax industry. His Twenty Mule Team Borax is well known from their advertisements on the program
Death Valley Days. After his retirement he devoted himself to philanthropic causes. One of the primary causes for him was the Asian Art collection at the De Young Museum. He made a donation that allowed the Museum to retain control of the Avery Brundage collection and he continued to support the development of that collection. It is probably in this role that the visit to China documented her was taken. (81172) $40.00
Goldstein, Jonathan, edited and with an Introduction by.
The Jews of China. Volume One: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Armonk, New York, M.E. Sharpe, 1999. ISBN: 0-7656-0104-4. Octavo, glossy paper covers, xxiv, 308 pp. Softbound. Very Good. Concluding Essay by Benjamin I. Schwartz. Articles are "The Synagogue at Kaifeng: Sino-Judaic Architecture of the Diaspora," Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, "Kaifeng Jews: The Sinification of Identity," Irene Eber, "The Confucianization of the Kaifeng Jews: Interpretations of the Kaifeng Stelae Inscriptions," Andrew H. Plaks, "The Revelation of a Jeish Presence in Seventeenth-Century China: Its Impact on Western Messinic Thought," Michael Pollak, "Memories of Kaifeng's Jewish Descendants today: Historical Significance in Light of Observations by Westerners Since 1605," Wendy R. Abraham, "The Kaifeng Jews and India's Bene Israel: Different Paths," Shirley Barry Isenberg, "Cochin Jews and Kaifeng Jews: reflections on Caste, Surname, 'Community,' and Conversion," Barbara C. Johnson,"The Judaism of Kaifeng and Cochin: Parallels and Divergences,"Nathan Katz, "Baghdadi Jews in India and China in the Nineteenth Century: A Comparison of Economic Roles," Joan G. Roland, "The Shanghai-Nagasaki Judaic Connection, 1859-1924," Lane Earns, "Environmental Interactions of the Jews of Hong Kong," Dennis A. Leventhal, "The Construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Origins of the Harbin Jewish Community, 1898-1931," Zvia Shickman-Bowman, "Harbin's Jewish Community, 1898-1958: Politics, Prosperity, and Adversity," Boris Bresler, "Silas Aaron Hardoon and Cross-Cultural Adaptation in Shanghai," Xu Buzeng, "Jewish Musicians in Shanghai: Bridging Two Cultures," Harriet P. Rosenson, "The Shanghai Zionist Association and the International Politics of East Asia Until 1936," Maruyama Naoki, "Zionism and Zionist-Revisionism in Shanghai, 1937-1949," Pan Guang, "Who Can See a Miracle? The Language of Jewish Memory in Shanghai," Vera Schwarcz. (63581) $40.00
Guang, Pan, editor in chief.
The Jews in Shanghai. Shanghai, Shanghai Pictorial Publishing House, 2005. New Updated Edition. ISBN: 7806855025. Quarto, glossy paper covers with flaps, xiv, 150 pp., b/w photos, bibliography. Softbound. Very Good. Text is in English and Chinese.
A Chinese view of the Jewish presence in Shanghai. (83642) $29.95
Heppner, Ernest G.
Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1993. First Edition. ISBN: 0-8032-2368-4. Octavo in dust jacket, xx, 191 pp., map, b/w photos, notes, bibliography, index. Hardbound. Very Good.
Survival in wartime Shanghai for the newly arriving Jewish refugees was a challenging but rich experience. This is a particularly well written memoir of that time. (20574) $25.00
Heppner, Ernest G.
Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1993. ISBN: 0-8032-7281-2. Octavo, paper covers, xx, 191 pp., map, b/w photos, notes, bibliography, index. Softbound. Very Good. (26102) $5.95
Kublin, Hyman, compiled with Preface and Introductions by.
Jews in Old China: Some Western Jews. New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1971. Octavo, blue cloth with gold lettering, xxii, 211 pp., b/w drawings, 212-295 pp., fold-out map, b/w photos, chronology, minor wear. Red Chinese chop mark on the free front endpaper (possibly Michael Pollak's) Hardbound. Very Good-. Articles are "The Jews in China: Their Synagogue, Their Scriptures, Their History," James Finn, Chinese Jews; a Lecture," Marcus N. Adler, "The History of the Jews in China," S.M. Perlmann, "Chinese Jews," Edward I. Ezra and Arthur Sopher. (67107) $95.00
Kublin, Hyman, compiled with Preface and Introductions by.
Studies of the Chinese Jews: Selections from Journals East and West. New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1971. Octavo, blue cloth with gold lettering, x, 218 pp., minor wear. Red Chinese chop mark on the free front endpaper (possibly Michael Pollak's) Hardbound. Very Good-. Articles are "The K'aifeng Jews: a Disappearing Community," Lawrence Kramer, "An Early Judaeo-Persian Document from Khotan in the Stein Collection, with Other Early Persian Documents," David S. Margoliouth, "The Nomenclature of Jews in China," Rudolph Loewenthal, "Notes on the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng," Chaoying Fang, "Le Juif Ngai, Informateur du P. Mathieu Ricci," Paul Pelliot, "The K'aifeng Jew Chao Ying-ch'eng and His Family," Donald Leslie, "Jews in China," Adolph Neubauer, "A Chinese-Hebrew Manuscript: a New Source for the History of the Chinese Jews," Berthold Laufer, "The Simson-Hirsch Letter to the Chinese Jews, 1795," Samuel Sokobin, "The Kaifeng Jewish Community: A Summary," Donald Leslie. Appendices are I. Some major reviews of White's 'The Chinese Jews.' II. Father Ricci's Meeting with a Chinese Jew. III. Chang Hsiang-wen's Visit to Kaifeng in 1910. (67106) $95.00
Moravia, Alberto.
Masa Ba-Sin Ha-Adomah/ La Revoluzione Cultarale in Cina. Tel Aviv, Hotsaat Am Oved, 1971. Duodecimo, paper covers, 159 pp. Softbound. Very Good. Translated into Hebrew by Ahuvia Malkhin from the original Italian
The Hebrew publishing industry has had to turn to foreign authors to sate local interest in international affairs. This and the Harrison Salisbury title below are characteristic of such imports. (25205) $15.00
Pollak, Michael, edited by.
The Sino-Judaic Bibliographies of Rudolf Loewenthal. Cincinnati & Menlo Park, Hebrew Union College Press in association with The Sino-Judaic Institute, 1988. ISBN: 0-87820-910-7. Octavo, mildly soiled paper covers, xiv, 208 pp., index. Softbound. Very Good. Bibliographica Judaica 12.
An essential bibliography for the study of Jewish history in China in the era before the Twentieth Century. A bibliography of materials that are all difficult to come by. (77092) $18.00
Salisbury, Harrison.
Ba-Ma'aglot Sin: Nokhe'ah Sin Ha-Adama. Israel, Tsavah Hagana Le-Yisrael, Hotsaat Ma'arakhot, 1968. Octavo in dust jacket, 202 pp., index. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated into Hebrew by Arnon Ben-Nahum (24901) $15.00
Shapiro, Sidney, translated, compiled and edited by.
Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars. New York, Hippocrene Books, 1984. ISBN: 0-88254-996-9. Octavo in edgeworn dust jacket with sunning to the spine, xx, 204 pp., b/w illustrations, Chronological Table of Chinese Dynasties, bibliography, index. Review copy slip pasted to the free front endpaper. Hardbound. Very Good -. Articles are "A Survey of the Various Religious Sects During the Yuan Dynasty," Hong Jun, "Contacts Between Ancient China and the Jews," Zhang Xinglang, "A Study of Wotuo," Weng Tu-Chien, "A Study of the Israelite Religion in Kaifeng, 1920, revised 1980," Chen Yuan, "Jews in Ancient China - A Historical Survey, 1953, revised 1983," Glimpses of the Urban Economy of Bianjing, Capital of the Northern Song Dynasty," Jaiang Qingxiang and Xiao Guoliang, "Concerning Chinese Jews," Gao Wangzhi, "An San and An Cheng," Li Jixian, "Buddhist Monk or Jewish Rabbi?" Chen Changqi, "Jewish Traces in Yangzhou," Zhu Jiang, "Some Observations on the Jews of Kaifeng," Xu Zongshe, "An Ethnic historian Looks at China's Jews," Wu Zelin, "The Descendants of the Kaifeng Jews," Wang Yisha.
Shapiro was a New York Jew who became a Chinese citizen. He was taught Chinese by the US military who planned to deploy him in China to fight against the Japanese, but the war went a different way. He didn't arrive until 1947 and in a development that the Army had not anticipated he essentially went native and joined the Communist side. He stayed in the PRC for most of the rest of his life and held a post within the state cultural apparatus. He was a literary translator for the most part, but did but together this collection of articles from scholars active during his time in China who he probably knew personally. It is another strong companion to Kubler's anthologies. (67113) $9.95
Schwarcz, Vera.
Bridge Across Broken Time: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0-300-06614-7. Octavo in dust jacket, xiv, 232 pp., a few b/w illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Hardbound. Very Good.
An excellent comparison of the memory and lingering suffering brought about by the Holocaust and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. (19378) $10.00
White, William Charles.
Chinese Jews: A Compilation of Matters Relating to the Jews of Kai-feng Fu. Toronto, Canada, University of Toronto Press, 1966. Second Edition. Royal octavo in dust jacket with a one short tear, xii, 228 pp., maps, b/w illustrations, documentary indexes and lists of names, index, addenda et corrigenda. Hardbound. Very Good.
Long the standard single work on Jews in Old China.
(11170) $49.95
Edidin, Ben M., edited by. Shovuoth. Jewish Child Home Library. Chicago, IL, Board of Jewish Education, 1930s. Octavo, stapled paper covers, 48 pp., b/w drawings by Todros Geller and other artists throughout. Softbound. Very Good. An Uncommon Title. With texts from various authors. A well integrated selection of writings and illustrations. Edidin must have spent some time in Chicago, but he subsequently worked for a many years preparing educational materials for Jewish Educational Committee. Gellers work in this volume features the full page illustration reproduced here as well as head and tail pieces and small vignettes. Some of the art is from other sources. One E.M. Lilien illustrations is used and there are several silhouettes drawn from the Yiddish children's periodical, Kinder-Zshurnal. (86604) $75.00
Ibn Habib,Jacob ben Solomon. Kotnot Or. Or Kolel-Mosif al Sefer En Ya'akov: im hidushe Kohelet Shelomoh , Helek Rishon, Helek Sheni, Helek Shelishi. Mezritsh, Mezritsh, Slavita, Aleksander Pavelvitsh, 1808, 1808, 1818. Octavos, the first two volumes re-backed in black cloth with remnants of the original leather labels pasted down to the spine, third volume original brown leather roughly worn with some loss, soiled brown cloth covered boards, ii, vi, 202, 61 leaves all on blue paper, small owners ink-stamps and Russian language handwriting on the title page, staining to some pages + i, 62-130, 182, 155 leaves on blue paper, some soiled pages + soiled title-page with repairs at the corners, ii, 330 leaves on blue paper, repairs at the edges of a few pages not impinging on the text. Hardbound. Good. Text is in Hebrew. A made-up set (at some distant time) including the first two volumes being first printings of the Mezritch edition and a second printing of the Slavita edition rounding out the set. Slavita printings are highly fetishized in the Hasidic community but Mezritsh printing are fewer in number. (86644) $495.00
Mahazor Rosh ha-shanah ve-Yom ha-kipurim: ke-minhag Sefarad ... gam nimtsa kol ha-Likute Tsevi he-hadash ha-shayakh le-Yamim nora'im, Mishnayot im pe. katsar u-maspik mi-ba'al Tif'eret Yisrael; ve-atah hosafnu me-hadash pe.Yashan. Munich, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1949. Small octavo, dog-eared paper covers, 250 pp. Softbound. Good. Text is in Hebrew. A reprint of an earlier edition. (86591) $50.00
Obadiah Bertinoro; Yom Tov Lipmann ben Nathan ha-Levi ben Wallerstein Heller; Moses Maimonides, with commentaries by. Mishnayot. Seder Kodashim. Seder Tohorot. Dihrenfurt, Yosef Miya ben Mikhal, 1806/7. Royal octavo, half leather with wear to the leather of the spine and serious wear to the leather at the corners, black paper covered boards with the paper worn down and worn through altogether in large patches, 163, 223 leaves (772 pp.), dog-earing and lightly soiled throughout. Hardbound. Good. Text is in Hebrew. Commentaries in Rashi Script. The final two of the six Sidrei Mishnah all published together as a complete set and probably originally bound as three volumes. (86593) $180.00
Polak, G.L. and Ameringen, M.L. Van, edited by. Mahazor minhag Ashkenaz Le-Shabat Hol Ha-Mo'ed shel Sukot ule-Shmini Atseret ve-Simhat Torah. Amsterdam, J.L. Joachimsthal, 1875. Nieuwe, verbeterde en vermeerderde uitgave. Octavo, worn dark green cloth spine with remnants of the gold lettering, edgeworn black paper covered boards, lacking the endpapers, vi, iii, 162, 9 leaves, mildly yellowed paper. Hardbound. Good-. Text is in Hebrew with Dutch translation on facing pages. Preface is in Dutch. This new edition was first published in 1865. (86594) $40.00
Rosen, Ben & Chomsky, William , edited by. Sifriyah la-na'ar: Seryah A.
Philadelphia, PA, Associated Talmud Torahs of Philadelphia, Approved by
the Junior Hebrew Library Committee of the National Council of Jewish
Education, 1941. Octavo, stapled paper covers, 80 pp., b/w drawings by
Frances Bender. Softbound. Very Good. Text is in Hebrew. Bender is an almost unknown female artist. (86603)
$25.00
Seder Nashim ve-tikun ha-limud: she-yilmad adam mide shavua be-shavua Torah, Nevi'im, u-masekhet le-hashlimam le-shanah, ve-hem mesudarim al seder ha-parashiyo[t] ve-hu mekubal meha-ge'onim ha-kadmonim ... Venice, Appresso N.H. s. Alvise Bragadin, 1704/5. 32mo, full leather with wear at the edges, gold decorations to the spine, 154-232 leaves. Hardbound. Very Good-. Text is in Hebrew. A rare book. Talmud with no commentary. Bragadin was a competitor to Giustiani in mid-sixteenth century Venice. Several titles were published in the year 1704-1705 under that name which I can't explain. (86592) $295.00
Vaydenboim, Mosheh ben Shelomoh. Sefer Or Torat Mosheh: hidushim u-remazim al Hamishah humshe Torah. Oakland, California, The Author children, 1924/5. Small octavo, black cloth, 110 pp. Hardbound. Very Good. Text is in Hebrew. Rare. There are very few Hebrew language imprints from Oakland. The only regular Jewish publisher is EKS a producer of Hebrew language acquisition texts books beginning in the 1980s. I have not been able to find out anything about this obscure Rabbinic figure.(39900) $95.00
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