The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-25
A COLONY OF CHINESE JEWS.
Discovered After Centuries of Isolation
 in the Heart of China.

Discovered After Centur1es or Isolation
 in the Heart of China.
 For a number of years it has been known that there was colony of Jews at Kaifengfu, in an interior province of China. An effort to establish commu- nication with them about fifty years ago was thwarted by the Tai-ping re- bellion. A similar attempt was made in 1900 by a regularly organized committee of Jews ct Shanghai. and messages were interchanged through Chinese messengers, but the boxer rising brought this communication to a pre- mature end. although not until some members of the colony had actually been induced to visit Shanghai. The visitors expressed themselves as anx- ious to establish close relations with their co-religionists and to take up the practices of their ancient religion.
 N. E. D. Ezra. in the June Menorah (New York), recounts what has been learned of the colony through messen- gers, and through the colonists who vis- tied Shanghai. AS to whether any of them knew anything of their religion, they said that for long period before the Tai-ping rebellion they were gradu- ally declining and their religion was getting forgotten, and at present they do not observe any of the ordinances of their religion. nor do they observe the idolatrous practice of the heathen. With regard to the number oS Jews still remaining, they said that quite a number had gone out of Kaifengfu on business and had thus been lost, but those that they know3who are members of the seven clans in the colony do not number more than one hundred and forty adults. They are at present in such a deplorable condition that they have no leader, no synagog, and no schools in which to educate their chil- dren. With regard tos their synagog they have been told by their fathers that once upon a time they had a place of worship, which was the heart of their community but for a considerable pe- riod the buildings have been completely destroyed. The ground on which the synogog was erected used to be in the name of one of their people, but at the time of the Tai-ping rebellion the title deeds were lost. It is+tlow a water hole with a stone standing alongside; on this stone the names of Abraham. Moses, Adam, etc., are mentioned with an &C., count of their religion.
 'They have few traditional com mands that they still remember and are even trying to observe. They are under no circumstances allowed to use heath- en musical instruments in marriage. fThey are to take out sinews before pre- | pairing the meat for their food and are prohibited to eat pork. One man stated | that he remembered his father telling him that in the olden days, when they entered their synagog, they always took off their shoes. They never knew of the existence in any parts of the world of any Jews besides themselves. Their first knowledge of their outside co-reli- gionists was when they received the let ter which the Shanghai Jews sent to them. They denied that any of their sect has embraced Buddhism of Mo- hammedanism, but it is true that the few who had left Kaifengfu have never been heard of and these they consider as lost ',-Public Opinion.