A New School for Judaica Opens in China

Shandong in Eastern China is the region that gave birth to some of China's most famous philosophers including Confucius and Mencius. It is also the place where Judaism has started to be studied by an ambitious group of Chinese academic scholars.

In the tradition of Chinese philosophic openness, the University of Shandong in Jinan has been developing its Jewish studies program. A Jewish studies institute was founded by Professor Youde Fu, the Dean of the School of Philosophy and Social Development, ten years ago. Fu, himself an eminent Chinese scholar of religion, translated Spinoza's Hebrew grammar and Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed into Chinese and is well known in China for his work comparing Judaism and Confucianism. The institute he
established, "the Centre for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies", is so named to denote the study of Judaism as well as other Western and Chinese religions. It has since received key government and university support to become the largest and most active centre of Jewish studies in China.

The Department of Religion, together with the Centre for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies, offers courses in Jewish philosophy, language and Religion, mainly aimed at Masters and Doctoral candidates and is developing an international program aimed at drawing candidates from China and internationally for interfaith studies, including comparisons and dialogue with Chinese religions and ideologies.

Amongst other goals, the Centre has embarked on an ambitious translation project, rendering some of the classic Hebrew and Jewish texts into the Chinese language and publishing them with the goal of broad exposure at university level around China. Examples of books already translated include Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, works by Ahad ha-Am and Martin Buber as well as Mordechai Kaplan. There are plans to translate the Mishna and various other legal, philosophic and religious texts.

The most recent senior appointment to the School of Philosophy and Social Development and to the Centre of Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies at Shandong University is Australian born and Israel educated, Professor M. Avrum Ehrlich. This will mark the first time that any university in China has offered a senior post and full professorship to a foreign expert for the teaching of Jewish religion and philosophy. Even more remarkable, as Professor Ehrlich has a strong background in religious Jewish philosophy and
is an ordained rabbi. He is author of a number of books on Hasidism and articles on Jewish mysticism and religious sects, as well as biblical commentaries and articles on Jewish ethics.

Professor Ehrlich teaches courses in Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew and Tanakh, Talmudic thought and Jewish mysticism. He was a graduate of the Cambridge based Centre of Jewish-Christian Relations and a researcher at the Department of Social
and Political Sciences at Cambridge University and Clare Hall, Cambridge. His contribution to the Centre of Judaic and Inter Religious Studies intends to supplement its all round Inter-Religious Studies program.

He aims to develop the internationalism of the Centre and hopes that Israelis and other Jews, as well as any person with interests in Judaism, inter-religious studies or in studying Chinese religions such as Confucianism, Buddhism or Taoism as well as Marxism will exchange their own accumulated knowledge with the Chinese students at the Centre.

According to Ehrlich, one of the first questions to address is how the growing field of Jewish studies can be useful and contribute to Chinese academe, its opening culture and its growing desire for internationalism. He will address this question at a lecture entitled "Exploring a Judeo - Sino Intellectual Exchange" at the upcoming Jewish Studies Conference to be held at the University of Nanjing in October.