Chinese Jews

Sunday, Nov. 22

I've been sick for several days, and today has been the worst so far. My father used to joke that wherever we went travelling, I'd have to "leave my mark." He meant that sometime on the trip I would vomit. So far, that's been true of every long trip I've been on.

However, I'm not going to let a little stomach bug keep me from seeing China. I've walked and climbed and even Kung Fu'd a tree all with a queasy stomach, so I wasn't going to quit now.

The biggest surprise of the whole vacation came on this day. I'm suspicious of our "personal tour guides" and the relationships they have with the government. I've not expected to see any slums or poverty or anything that might reflect bad on China. So when we went to the "Old Jewish Quarter" of Kaifeng, I was taken aback.

The old synagogue was destroyed by flood and now a hospital stands on the spot. However, there is still "Teaching the Torah Lane" and it's in an impoverished part of town. The tour guide knew a Jewish ancestor named "Chao" who still lived at 21 Teaching the Torah Lane. The guide called her "Nah-Na" and she welcomed us into her home. It was just two rooms with a pot for cooking outside. One room was the bedroom and then there was a common room. The whole house was as big as an average master bedroom in the U.S. In the common room, she had a bit of a museum with menorahs, a painting of what the synagogue used to look like, a National Geographic article from 1910 about the Kaifeng Jews and about half a dozen brochures. Nah-Na seemed over eighty and smiled easily to foreign strangers.

Today's bit of humor: My wife can't allow herself to use a squatting toilet, so whenever my son goes to a bathroom, he checks the stalls. He dutifully reports to her if there are sit-down potties.