Almanac Asian Am. The Chinese government, which now recognizes Jews as an official Chinese ethnic group, is also paying more attention to the country's Jewish past. The Jewish presence in China is at least one thousand years old, and elements remain today, depite assimilation and Communist anti-religious persecution. An Ancient Letter Tell the Story A letter written around 718 by a businessman seeking to sell some sheep was found preserved 100 years ago in western China. The document, which was written on paper, then made only in China, is in Judeo-Persian, then a common business language in Central Asia, using Hebrew letters.
Scholars believe it indicates a Jewish presence.
Later, another paper containing a Selihot, a Hebrew prayer, was found in the Caves of One Thousand Buddhas in Dunhuang. Around 960, a group of Persian Jews, merchants or refugees, arrived in the city. The emperor allowed them to build a synagogue, commemorated by a 1489 stone tablet in the Kaifeng Museum. A Chinese-language Torah from the Kaifeng synagogue is in the British Museum in London. Working on the Railroad Russian Jews were numerous in Harbin around the turn of the century.