- Source: History of the Jews in Japan
The history of the Jews in Japan reaches back to the early 1700s.
Early settlements
Jewish travelers entered Japan as early as the 1700s, however no permanent settlements were established until after Commodore Matthew C. Perry's arrival in 1853. Early Jewish settlers were located in Yokohama. By 1895, this community had about fifty families, and dedicated the first synagogue in the country. Jews also settled in Nagasaki during the 1880s, which, as a significant port town, was more accessible to Jews fleeing Russian pogroms.
Although the Jewish community in Nagasaki was much larger than the one in Yokohama, the effects of the Russo-Japanese War resulted in them largely disintegrating and passing on their Torah scroll to the Jewish community in Kobe. Until 1923, the Jewish community in Yokohama became the largest, however after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, many relocated to Kobe, resulting in the Kobe Jewish community growing significantly.
The Jewish community in Kobe in the early to mid 1900s consisted mainly of Russian, German, and Baghdadi Jews from what is currently Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and other places in Central Asia and the Middle East. Jewish people from Central and Eastern Europe came to Japan for economic reasons, and in the 1930s, the developments in the continent.
The Jewish community in Tokyo was small until after World War II, during the American occupation of Japan and afterwards.
World War II
Antisemitism in Japan rose after World War I, in part due to the reaction to the October Revolution in Russia. Despite this, the Japanese government cooperated with Jewish communities in aiding Jewish refugees of Russia after this revolution. In the 1930s, antisemtism became more prevalent, due to pacts signed with Germany in 1936 and 1940, as well as propaganda campaigns to turn the Japanese public against the "Jewish peril."
Attitudes towards Jewish people were not uniform among individual diplomats and politicians, with many attempting to combat antisemitism, and stating that Japan owed Jewish people due to their participation in the Russo-Japanese War.
Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas to Polish and Jewish refugees. While the exact number of visas issued is unknown, it is estimated that he helped five thousand to six thousand Jews escape via Japan.
During World War II, Japanese policy towards Jewish people was that those holding citizenship of a country would be afforded the same treatment as those from that country, and Jewish people designated as stateless — typically German and Polish Jews who had their citizenship revoked — were placed under surveillance due to their racial characteristics, similarly to their treatment of Russians.
While there were individual incidents of harassment and some Jews were held in detention camps in Japan occupied Malaya, now Malaysia, throughout the duration of the war, Jewish people as a whole were treated no worse than citizens of neutral countries. One exception was the request for French Indochina to institute similar restrictions of Jews to citizens of neutral countries with anti-Axis views.
The main problem facing Jewish people in Japan and Japan occupied territories, such as Shanghai, was the shortage of supplies and money for refugees.
Post-war
After the war, there was an attempt at propaganda by the Japanese government contrasting the treatment of Jews in Asia to the treatment of Jews in Nazi occupied Europe. The purpose of this was to gain influence with Jewish people around the world.
Rabbis
= Tokyo Jewish Community
=Rabbi Herman Dicker, 1955–1959, Orthodox
Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, 1968–1976, Orthodox
Rabbi Jonathan Z. Maltzman, 1980–1983, Conservative
Rabbi Michael Schudrich, 1983–1989 Conservative
Rabbi Moshe Silberschein, 1989–1992, Conservative
Rabbi Jim Lebeau, 1993–1997, Conservative
Jim Lebeau is the brother of Rabbi William Lebeau, former Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose, 1998–1999, Conservative
Rabbi Elliot Marmon, 1999–2002, Conservative
Rabbi Henri Noach, 2002–2008, Conservative
Rabbi Rachel Smookler, Reform, interim-rabbi
Rabbi Antonio Di Gesù, 2009–2013, Conservative
Rabbi David Kunin, 2013–2022, Conservative
Rabbi Andrew Scheer, 2022–Present, Orthodox
= Chabad
=Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich
Rabbi Yehezkel Binyomin Edery
= Jewish Community of Kobe
=Rabbi Gaoni Maatuf, 1998–2002
Rabbi Asaf Tobi, 2002–2006
Rabbi Yerachmiel Strausberg, 2006–2008
Hagay Blumenthal, 2008–2009, lay leader
Daniel Moskovich, 2009–2010, lay leader
Rabbi David Gingold, 2010–2013
Rabbi Shmuel Vishedsky, 2014–present
= Jewish Community of Okinawa
=Rabbi Yonatan Warren, 2011–2014
Rabbi Yonina Creditor, 2013–2016
Rabbi David Bauman, 2016–2017
Rabbi Yonatan Greenberg, 2018–present
Rabbi Levy Pekar, 2019–present
List of notable Jews in Japan
Abraham Kaufman
Alan Terence Kawarai Lefor, MD MPH PhD DrEng FACS, Professor of Surgery, professor emeritus of Jichi Medical University
Alan Merrill
Albert Mosse
Alfred Birnbaum
Arie Selinger
Ayako Fujitani, writer and actress
Avi Schafer
Barak Kushner
Beate Sirota Gordon, former Performing Arts Director of Japan Society and Asia Society
Ben-Ami Shillony, Israeli Japanologist
Chaim Janowski
Charles Louis Kades
Dan Calichman
David G. Goodman, Japanologist
Emil Orlík
Emmanuel Metter
Fumiko Kometani, author and artist
Heinrich Bürger
Henryk Lipszyc
Hoshitango Imachi, né Imachi Marcelo Salomon
Jack Halpern, Israeli linguist, Kanji-scholar
Jay Rubin
John Nathan
Joseph Rosenstock, conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra
Julie Dreyfus
Karl Taro Greenfeld, journalist and author
Klaus Pringsheim Sr.
Kurt Singer
Leonid Kreutzer, pianist
Leo Sirota
Ludwig Riess
Manfred Gurlitt
Martin "Marty" Adam Friedman, rock guitarist
Max Janowski
Michael Kogan, founder of Taito
Ofer Feldman, University professor
Peter Berton, Japanologist
Péter Frankl, Hungarian mathematician
Rachel Elior
Raphael Schoyer
Rena "Rusty" Kanokogi, née Glickman
Roger Pulvers
Setsuzo (Avraham) Kotsuji, Hebrew professor
Shaul Eisenberg, businessman
Shifra Horn
Suiren Higashino, female photographer, model
Sulamith Messerer
Szymon Goldberg
Yaacov Liberman
Yakov Zinberg, Prof., Kokushikan University
Zerach Warhaftig
Kanji (Yitzhak) Ishizumi (Japanese: 石角完爾)
Sally Weil
Tsvi Sadan, Israeli Esperantist
Hideo Levy
Peter Barakan
Steven Seagal
= People of Jewish descent
=Bernard Jean Bettelheim (Christian)
Luís de Almeida (New Christian)
Martin Kafka
= Refugees, short expatriates
=Adolf (Aron) Moses Pollak (Ritter) von Rudin
Albert Kahn (banker)
Emil Lederer
Franz Oppenheimer
George W. F. Hallgarten
Hayyim Selig Slonimski
Karl Kindermann, interpreter and informant for the Gestapo
Karl Löwith
Leo Melamed
Mirra Alfassa
Moshe Atzmon
Norman Mailer
Robert Alan Feldman
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky (Christian)
= Other related people to Judaism and Jews in Japan
=Hana Brady, and George Brady
Jeremy Glick
Lili Kraus
Samuel Ullman
= Ambassadors
=Eli Cohen
Ruth Kahanoff (Kahanov)
Films
Jewish Soul Music: The Art of Giora Feidman (1980). Directed by Uri Barbash.
See also
Antisemitism in Japan
Chiune Sugihara – Japanese diplomat responsible for saving around five thousand Jewish refugees in World War 2.
Israel–Japan relations
Japanese–Jewish common ancestry theory
Jewish settlement in the Japanese Empire
Racism in Japan
Racial Equality Proposal – Japanese proposed amendment to the treaty of Versailles.
Religion in Japan
Timeline of Jewish history
References
External links
The Jews of Kobe
Jews in the Japanese Mind by David G. Goodman and Miyazawa Masanori.
Our history Archived 2022-03-15 at the Wayback Machine - The Jewish Community of Japan
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- History of the Jews in Japan
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