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From: trb@masscomp.UUCP (Andy Tannenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Chinese Jews
Message-ID: <138@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Oct-84 17:32:36 EST
Article-I.D.: masscomp.138
Posted: Tue Oct 30 17:32:36 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Oct-84 01:13:05 EST
References: <>
Reply-To: trb@masscomp.UUCP (Andy Tannenbaum)
Distribution: net
Organization: Masscomp, Westford, MA
Lines: 29
Summary: 

There is a fellow in Brookline, MA whose last name is Sargon, I
believe, who is a Jew from India, who is an expert on Jews in Asia,
especially India and China.  I saw him over the holidays in Brookline,
and also on TV on a show talking about the Asian Jews.  They really do
exist, and he claims that there was absolutely no anti-semitism (at
least until recently) in India, the Jews were treated with great
respect.  Of course there was segregation, as there always is in the
Indian caste system, but the Jews were allowed to worship freely.

He mentioned that there were actually about four different types of
Jews in India: Cochin (?), Iraqi, B'nai Yisrael, and Eastern
European.  The B'Nai Yisrael are an interesting crew of (I believe)
black Jews who somehow found their way to India not even knowing that
they were Jews, but practicing the Jewish traditions.  It was a long
time before other Jews accepted them in India, and it was a long time
before Israel gave them the immigration rights of other Jews, but I
believe that those difficulties have been settled.  (His talk was very
interesting, but it was in the middle of a Sunday night, when you'd
expect to find odd religious shows...)

This talk of Asian Jews reminds me of a joke...

Reb Yankl takes a trip to China and finds out that there is a
synagogue in Shanghai, where he's staying, so he goes down and checks
it out.  To his surprise, he finds a healthy congregation of Chinese,
reciting the afternoon prayers.  After the service, one of the
congregants comes up to him and says: "Funny, you don't rook Jewish."

	Andy Tannenbaum   Masscomp Inc  Westford MA   (617) 692-6200 x274