She started life with the name “Jin Jin.” Today she goes by “Yecholiya” – Hebrew for “G-d is able.” And that has certainly been the case for this brave young woman, one of just a few Chinese Jews who, with Shavei Israel’s help, have been able to immigrate to Israel. Six years after making aliyah, Yecholiya is fully integrated into Israeli society: she speaks Hebrew, loves to eat shakshouka (a Middle Eastern dish), and works as the first Chinese Jewish tour guide in the Holy Land.
It’s quite an accomplishment for a Jew growing up in the hinterlands of China, far from the major population centers. Still, for a thousand years, the Jewish community of Kaifeng, once one of the capitals of imperial China, flourished. Jewish merchants from Persia or Iraq first settled the area. At its height in the Middle Ages, there were as many as 5,000 Jews in Kaifeng, with rabbis, synagogues and various communal institutions.
But, in the last 150 years, the community has been decimated by a series of floods (which destroyed the last remaining synagogue), poverty (by the middle of the 19th century, the community was forced to sell its Torah scrolls and remaining assets) and, ultimately, assimilation. While today there are only 500 to 1,000 identifiable descendents of the Jewish community in Kaifeng, an awakening has been taking place and many Chinese Jews are reclaiming their heritage.
Yecholiya, 25, was one of them. It was her father who initially set her on her path to Israel. “When I was very young, my father always told me that I was a Jew and that one day I will get back to Israel,” Yecholiya says. She fulfilled that vision and moved here in 2006 to study for a formal conversion. “The more I learned about Judaism, the prouder I became. This is the land that G-d promised us. I know now that it was the right decision to come back to Israel.”
Her father, sadly, is not in Israel with Yecholiya. Her parents want to come, she explains, “but they don’t know Hebrew, not English either. It’s very difficult at their age to study a new thing.” Her parents and even her six-year-old baby sister Hadassah have visited Israel, however, spending time with Yecholiya here in 2010.
In 1996, the Jews of Kaifeng were stunned when the Chinese government suddenly changed their identity cards, which had formerly read “Jew,” to “Chinese,” Yecholiya says. “At the time I didn’t understand what was going on, but deep in my heart, I was opposed to having my nationality changed.”
Despite this bureaucratic setback, life for the Jews of Kaifeng has improved remarkably in the last ten years. While before then about the only traditional practice kept was not eating pork, Yecholiya says, today the community gathers each week to celebrate Shabbat. “We do it in a simple way. We eat together; we sing together.”
The community also celebrates Passover (in this case, “we do everything,” she says) and Rosh Hashana (“I love to eat bread dipped in honey and to feel all the people together”).
Yecholiya’s family have become leaders among the Kaifeng Jews. Their home functions as a sort of Jewish “visitors center” and her mother knits and sells hand made scarves, shawls and even kippot (head coverings). Each has a combination of Jewish symbols – a menorah, Torah, Star of David – and writing in English and Hebrew.
She holds up one of the scarves and points to the Magen David. “This is a very strong symbol for me. It’s full of courage. It always brings me back to the history of the Jewish people and what we went through to be in our country.”
It took courage, too, for Yecholiya to arrive in a strange land and jump in feet first. Immediately from the airport, she was driven to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall. “I was crying and thinking, finally, I am home,” she says. She studied for her first year at a girl’s seminary south of Jerusalem, then learned Hebrew at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the north, before joining the tour guide course at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she now lives.
She is passionate about her role as a tour guide to serve as a “bridge” between two countries that are increasingly intertwined. She is well placed to serve as an informal Israeli diplomat.
“China is my home. Israel is also my home,” she says. “Last year, 10,000 Chinese came to Israel to tour. More and more are coming each year. But only certain things reach them through the media. Much is still secret. They want to come to know more, to understand the people and the environment here. And once they do, they will go home and tell other people what Israel looks like through their eyes.”
Yecholiya hasn’t been entirely alone as a Chinese Jew in Israel. She arrived with three other Chinese women and the four studied together. One has since gotten married and moved to the U.S. where she has a new baby; the rest, like Yecholiya are still single. Yecholiya was joined last year by seven young Jewish men from Kaifeng. We wrote about them here [link]. And, after six years in the country, she has no lack of native Israeli sabras as friends.
Yecholiya would never have made the journey to Israel without the help of Shavei Israel. “In the beginning they found us” in Kaifeng, she explains. “They helped us get from China to Israel and they gave us all the support we needed to study after we made aliyah.”
Does she miss anything from China? “The noodles!” she laughs. “Israeli noodle soup is too soggy.” But she makes up for it with Israeli staples – falafel and (even more) schwarma (meat off a skewer stuffed into a pita). “I like meat!” she jokes.
Israelis are not sure entirely what to make of Yecholiya. “They will stop me and ask if I’m from the Philippines or Thailand,” she says. “When I tell them I’m from China and that I’m also Jewish, they’re very surprised, but after that they will say kol hakavodand welcome!”
So, what does Yecholiya think of Israelis? “They are really funny and nice and warm. When they are inside a synagogue, they are pretty strict, but at a celebration or festival, they will sing and dance like a child. If you are crying on the street, they will stop to see what happened to you and ask if you need help. It’s something I really love.”
With a name meaning, “G-d is able,” we asked Yecholiya what she prays for. She cites the famous verse in the Bible where it is prophesized that the Jewish people will return from the four corners of the earth on eagle’s wings. “That’s it in one sentence. It’s what I really want, and I hope that it will come true.” And she adds: “that my family can come back soon.”
shaveiisrael
28/02/2012