All books are available at Amazon and Abe’s Books https://www.abebooks.com and are available at the Bethlehem Public Library.
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China, Jonathan Kaufman.
At The Bethlehem Public Library, Bethlehem, NH, and By Zoom. Register at Bethlehemshul@gmail.com
Gordon Bennet leads the discussion.
Chinese often claim a special relationship, sometimes verging on kinship, with Jews. The origins and reasons remain unclear but it may be at least in part due to two Jewish families—the Sassoons and their rivals, the Kadoories—both of whom played lasting roles in the development of two of China’s most modern cities: Shanghai and its rival, Hong Kong. Both families had their roots in Bagdad.
Throughout the book, the Kadoorie family will be portrayed as more forward-thinking than the Sassoons. Where the Sassoons never learned Chinese and hired Jews from Iraq or escaping Nazi Europe, the Kadoories learned Chinese and hired Chinese employees. Both families worked closely with the various political leaders in China. Jonathan Kaufman brings history alive through these two families.
This Year’s Theme:
Mizrahi Jews are also called Oriental Jews, members or descendants of the approximately 1.5 million Jews who lived in North Africa and the Middle East up until the mid-20th century and whose ancestors did not previously reside in Europe.
These immigrants were collectively labeled ʿEdot Ha-Mizraḥ (Hebrew: “Ethnic Groups of the East”) in Israel upon their mass migration into the country after 1948. They were distinguished from the two other major groups of Jews-the Ashkenazim (a tradition rooted in the Rhineland) and the Sephardim (a tradition rooted in Spain).
The latter two groups are most familiar to us in the US, but Mizrahi or Oriental Jews are more of a mystery. Three of our four books have as their main characters Mizrahi Jews; while the fourth is set Turkey and whose characters are a German born man and a Turkish woman. All four books open us to an unfamiliar culture and rich history, far different than the ones we know best.