Pepper Silk and Ivory

Just when I thought I had read most of the stories emanating from Asia out comes Pepper Silk & Ivory written by Rabbi Marvin Tokayer and Dr. Ellen Rodman about the amazing stories of Jews of the Far East.

Having lived in China during WWII under Japanese occupation, we often wondered why the Japanese authorities did not “solve the Jewish problem” as demanded of them by the Nazis during the War (WWII). The probable answer lies in the story of Jacob Schiff (chapter six), which demonstrates the Japanese authorities did not have a Jewish problem, but quite the contrary. The legendary Two-Gun-Cohen comes to life in chapter one. One of the Jews to rise to the rank of a General in the Chinese army, he played a crucial role in the founding of the state of Israel. Did you know that in 1900 the world renowned Shell Oil was founded in Japan by Marcus Samuel (a British Jew) as the Rising Sun Petroleum Company, and the rest is history?

This is a book that I could not put down; I was mesmerized by the amazing stories showing the role Jews played in all walks of life in the Far East, starting from the recently resurging colony of Kaifeng, China (established in the Song Dynasty) to present day China starting. It is meticulously researched and is a must read for any traveler in Asia who is interested in its Jewish history.

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer’ biography reads like one of the stories in the book and leads one to understand why the book was written. Rabbi Tokayer started out to be a stand-up comedian. When that did not work out he became a Rabbi and joined the United Stated Air force, where he was a Chaplain and where he won a USAF Journalism Award. In 1968 he became a Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Japan, where he lived until 1981 and where he became a Lifetime Honorary Rabbi. For most of the time he was in Japan, he was the only Rabbi in the Far East. He was also Professor of Classical Hebrew at Waseda University in Tokyo, and located a lost Jewish Cemetery in Nagasaki.

A great story teller Rabbi Tokayer draws on half a century of personal experiences in Asia and a wealth of knowledge about Jews as he and prolific writer and television producer Ellen Rodman PhD weave together colorful characters and their captivating stories (Gefen Publishing).