History of the Jews in Japan

The location of Japan in Asia.

Ethnic group

Japanese Jews

日本のユダヤ人
יהודים יפנים‎

Jewish community center in Tokyo

Total population
2,000 – 4,000
Regions with significant populations
Kobe, Kansai region; Tokyo, Kantō region
Languages
English, Hebrew, Japanese, Yiddish
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Israelis
Part of a series on

Jews and Judaism

* Etymology
* Who is a Jew?
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Religion

* God in Judaism (names)
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History

|  General

* Timeline
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* Antisemitism
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Ancient Israel

* Twelve Tribes of Israel
* Kingdom of Judah
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* Jerusalem (in Judaism
* timeline)
* Temple in Jerusalem (First
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* Assyrian captivity
* Babylonian captivity

Second Temple period

* Yehud Medinata
* Maccabean Revolt
* Hasmonean dynasty
* Sanhedrin
* Schisms (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii)
* Second Temple Judaism (Hellenistic Judaism)
* Jewish–Roman wars (Great Revolt, Diaspora, Bar Kokhba)

Rabbinic period and Middle Ages

* Rabbinic Judaism
* History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire
* Christianity and Judaism (Jews and Christmas)
* Hinduism and Judaism
* Islamic–Jewish relations
* Middle Ages
* Golden Age
* Expulsion from Spain

Modern era

* Haskalah
* Sabbateans
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* Jewish atheism
* Emancipation
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* The Holocaust
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Communities

* Ashkenazim
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* Gruzinim
* Juhurim
* Bukharim
* Italkim
* Romanyotim
* Cochinim
* Bene Israel
* Berber
* Crimean Karaites
* Krymchaks
* Kaifeng Jews

Related groups

* Bnei Anusim
* Lemba
* Igbo Jews
* Samaritans
* Crypto-Jews
* Anusim
* Dönmeh
* Marranos
* Neofiti
* Xueta
* Mosaic Arabs
* Subbotniks
* Noahides

Population

* Judaism by country
* Lists of Jews
* Diaspora
* Historical population by country
* Population by city
* Genetic studies

Israel and Palestine

* Old Yishuv
* New Yishuv
* Israeli Jews
* Palestinian Jews

Africa

* Algeria
* Angola
* Bilad-el-Sudan
* Botswana
* Cameroon
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* Nigeria (Igbo)
* Republic of the Congo
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* Sudan
* Tanzania
* Tunisia
* Uganda (Abayudaya)
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

Asia

* Afghanistan
* Bahrain
* Cambodia
* China
* Hong Kong
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Israel
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Kurdistan
* Kuwait
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* Mongolia
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* Nepal
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* Syria
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* Vietnam
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Europe

* Albania
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Northern America

* Canada
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Latin America and Caribbean

* Argentina
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Oceania

* Australia
* Fiji
* Guam
* New Zealand
* Palau

Denominations

* Orthodox
* Modern
* Haredi
* Hasidic
* Reform
* Conservative
* Karaite
* Reconstructionist
* Renewal
* Science
* Haymanot
* Humanistic

Culture

|  Customs

* Minyan
* Wedding
* Clothing
* Niddah
* Pidyon haben
* Kashrut
* Shidduch
* Zeved habat
* Conversion to Judaism
* Aliyah
* Hiloni

Music

* Religious
* Secular

Art

* Ancient
* Yiddish theatre
* Dance
* Humour

Cuisine

* American
* Ashkenazi
* Bukharan
* Ethiopian
* Israeli
* Israelite
* Mizrahi
* Sephardic

Literature

* Israeli
* Yiddish
* Judeo-Tat
* American

Languages

* Hebrew
* Biblical
* Mishnaic
* Medieval
* Modern
* Bukharian
* Ghardaïa Sign
* Jewish Koine Greek
* Judeo-Arabic
* Judeo-Aramaic
* Judeo-Berber
* Judeo-Gascon
* Judaeo-Georgian
* Judaeo-Iranian
* Judeo-Italian
* Judeo-Malayalam
* Judaeo-Spanish
* Judeo-Tat
* Knaanic
* Shassi
* Yeshivish
* Yevanic
* Yiddish
* Zarphatic

Politics

|  Jewish political movements

* Autonomism
* Bundism
* Feminism
* Leftism
* Secularism
* Territorialism
* World Agudath Israel

Zionism

* General
* Green
* Labor
* Kahanism
* Maximalism
* Neo-Zionism
* Religious
* Revisionist
* Post-Zionism

* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

The history of the Jews in Japan reaches back at least to the 16th Century, although theories suspect much earlier possibly 8th Century.

## Early settlements

[edit]

It is theorised that the earliest Jews to arrive and settle in Japan, came from Tang Dynasty China in the 7th or 8th Century, where a community existed. This community is thought to have assimilated over time, although Jewish symbolism, depictions, biblical stories and practices (thought to have Jewish origin), survive and exist within a small area.

The earliest Jewish visitors of European origin, arrived in Japan with the Portuguese around 1543. These included Jewish seamen displaced to Spanish controlled Naples and Jews converted to Catholicism during the 1492 Spanish expulsion. Later some remained in the trading post on Dejima. In 1587, some of these settlers were displaced further into Japan, at least one known Jewish merchant arrived into the Yodo river in Kinki Province, where a Christian presence already existed.

Recent 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.[1]

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.[1]

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.[1]

The Jewish community in Tokyo was small until after World War II, during the American occupation of Japan and afterwards.[1] The Jewish community in Nagasaki ended in 1945.

## World War II

[edit]

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.[1] In the 1930s, antisemitism 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."[2]

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[2]

While there were individual incidents of harassment and some Jews were held in detention camps in Japan occupied Malaya, 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.[2]

The main problem facing Jewish people in Japan and Japan occupied territories, such as Shanghai, was the shortage of supplies and money for refugees.[2]

View of Beth Israel Synagogue in NagasakiPo

## Post-war

[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2024)

|

After the war, the majority of Jews in Japan were American service men stationed in Japan as part of the occupation. In 1951 the Jewish Community Center was started as a social club by Russian Jewish emigres. [4]

## Rabbis

[edit]

### Tokyo Jewish Community

[edit]

* Rabbi Herman Dicker, 1955–1959, Orthodox
* Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, 1968–1976, Orthodox
* Rabbi Jonathan Z. Maltzman, 1980–1983, Conservative
* Rabbi Michael Schudrich, 1983–1989 Orthodox
* 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

[edit]

* Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich
* Rabbi Yehezkel Binyomin Edery

### Jewish Community of Kobe

[edit]

* 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

[edit]

* 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

[edit]

See also: Category:Japanese Jews and Category:Jews and Judaism 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[5]
* 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
* Janos Cegledy, pianist, composer and Holocaust lecturer
* 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 [6]
* Sulamith Messerer
* Szymon Goldberg
* Yaacov Liberman
* Yakov Zinberg, Prof., Kokushikan University
* Zerach Warhaftig
* Kanji (Yitzhak) Ishizumi [ja] (Japanese: 石角完爾)[7]
* Sally Weil [ja][8]
* Tsvi Sadan [eo], Israeli Esperantist
* Hideo Levy
* Peter Barakan
* Steven Seagal

### People of Jewish descent

[edit]

* Bernard Jean Bettelheim (Christian)
* Luís de Almeida (New Christian)[9]
* Martin Kafka

### Refugees, short expatriates

[edit]

* Adolf (Aron) Moses Pollak (Ritter) von Rudin[10][11][12]
* Albert Kahn (banker)
* Emil Lederer
* Franz Oppenheimer
* George W. F. Hallgarten
* Hayyim Selig Slonimski
* Karl Kindermann, interpreter and informant for the Gestapo[13]
* Karl Löwith
* Leo Melamed
* Mirra Alfassa
* Moshe Atzmon
* Norman Mailer
* Robert Alan Feldman[14]
* Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky (Christian)

### Other related people to Judaism and Jews in Japan

[edit]

* Hana Brady, and George Brady
* Jeremy Glick
* Lili Kraus
* Samuel Ullman

### Ambassadors

[edit]

* Eli Cohen
* Rahm Emanuel
* Ruth Kahanoff (Kahanov)

## Films

[edit]

* Jewish Soul Music: The Art of Giora Feidman (1980). Directed by Uri Barbash.

## See also

[edit]

* Judaism portal
* Japan portal

* 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

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Kapner, Daniel Ari; Levine, Stephen (1 March 2000). "The Jews of Japan". Jerusalem Letter. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024.
2. ^ a b c d e Hanyok, Robert J (2004). Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945 (PDF). pp. 99–104.
3. ^ Palasz-Rutkowska, Ewa (13 March 1995). "Polish-Japanese Secret Cooperation During World War II: Sugihara Chiune and Polish Intelligence". Asiatic Society of Japan. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
4. ^ "The Blogs: A brief history of the Jewish community in Tokyo".
5. ^ (ja)
6. ^ (ja)
7. ^ ja:石角完爾
8. ^ ja:サリー・ワイル
9. ^ (ja)
10. ^ "POLLAK, A. M., RITTER VON RUDIN". Archived from the original on 2018-01-29. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
11. ^ "Pollak von Rudin, Adolf". Archived from the original on 2018-01-29. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
12. ^ "Remembering Walter Rudin (1921–2010)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-03-01. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
13. ^ Robert Whymant, Stalin's Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring, I.B.Tauris, 1996 ISBN 1860640443
14. ^ (ja)

## External links

[edit]

* 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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See also|

* Ethnic groups of Japan
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