About Us
Projects and Activities
Publications
The Sino-Judaic Institute is actively engaged in publication and
distribution of a variety of materials.
- Points East, the newsletter
of the Institute, appears three times a year under the able editorship
of Rabbi Anson Laytner, with a world-wide distribution. It is
now in its 21st year.
- SJI also publishes Sino-Judaica: Occasional Papers of the
Sino-Judaic Institute which contains articles of scholarly
worth. Among subscribers are a number of libraries including the
Library of Congress, Princeton University, Harvard University,
British Library, Yeshiva University (New York), the Jewish National
University Library (Jerusalem), Ben Zvi Institute, Russian Academy
of Sciences Library (St. Petersburg) and the University of California
at Los Angeles.
- The Chinese abridged version of the Encyclopedia Judaica,
edited by Professor Xu Xin of Nanjing University, and funded in
part by the Institute, has recently appeared. It is a handsome
volume of over 800 pages, copiously illustrated. A private donation
through a philanthropic fund administered by The Sino-Judaic Institute
made possible donations of the encyclopedia to fifty libraries
in China and fifteen in this country.
- A new bibliography, The Jews of Dynastic China: A Critical
Bibliography, compiled by Michael Pollak, has been published
by The Sino-Judaic Institute in association with the Hebrew Union
College, Cincinnati. This fully annotated volume combines with
the previously published Sino-Judaic Bibliographies of Rudolf
Loewenthal to form a set. The second volume includes a composite
index to the contents of both volumes.
Exhibits
- The Jews of Kaifeng, a display of
photographs, documents, maps and drawings curated by The Sino-Judaic
Institute, travels to cities throughout the United States. The
exhibit provides educational and cultural information that bridges
local Chinese and Jewish communities. It fosters educational and
programming opportunities geared to all age groups when it is
presented at venues such as universities, community centers and
synagogues.
- The Sino-Judaic Institute has had discussions with the director
and his associates of the Kaifeng City Museum concerning the expansion
of the exhibit there on the history of the Jewish Community in
Kaifeng. We have also explored with the Judah L. Magnes Memorial
Museum, in Berkeley, regarding exhibitions of mutual interest
to be sent to China.
Archives
An arrangement has been made with the Hoover Institution Archives,
Stanford University, to house archival material donated to The Sino-Judaic
Institute concerning the Jewish communities in China. Among the
items already deposited is the register of the Polish Consulate
in Nanjing and later Shanghai which lists the name, religion, age,
etc., of each Polish citizen who arrived in either Shanghai or Nanjing
between January 9, 1934 and October 29, 1941.
Scholarly Support
- The Sino-Judaic Institute has initiated a project to enable
outstanding potential leaders of China to carry out research or
other scholarly activities at such places as the Truman Institute
or at the Jaffe Institute of Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv. The
Institute is seeking funding for this and other such projects.
- The Sino-Judaic Institute has a project to donate books to scholars
and institutions in China, supported by funding from the Pacific
Rim Institute of the American Jewish Committee. Among those who
have received such materials are the Shanghai Judaic Studies Association,
Yao Yi'en, a specialist on Sholem Aleichem, and the newly opened
museum in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue, Hongkou District, Shanghai.
The latest to be added to the list is the recently established
Center for Judaic Studies, Harbin.
- The Sino-Judaic Institute makes travel grants to Chinese scholars
to enable them to attend meetings or to undertake research outside
of China, often in either Israel or the U.S.A.
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