Come walk with me along ancient stone streets, peer out across miles of hills along which snake the glorious Great Wall, re-live centuries of history, experience colorful folk customs and crafts, exquisite art, and beautiful smiling faces? Won't you join me in less than one month as I depart on my March/April 2008 Discovery of Jewish China Tour sponsored by Temple Beth El of St. Petersburg, Florida? It is not too late! Thirteen from Florida, New York, Detroit, Boston, and Toronto are thrilled to be traveling together for two weeks, with an additional four of us remaining for an incredible all-new ten-day extension tour through towns & villages of the Yangtze River Basin from Shanghai to Nanjing.

This tour is open and we are still accepting travelers as space is available. Please contact me immediately for an intinerary and information, 727-785-4568, 800-354-1302, as we will expedite your booking and visa. Our 14-day main tour visits Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and Suzhou, with optional ten-day extension to Wuxi, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Maoshan, Suzhou and Yixing. The 2-week main tour is $3195 for land only or $3895 for land & international flight virtually complete, and our extension is from an amazing $1055 for the ten-day land tour complete. We will also personalize the itinerary for those who desire to travel with us for a portion of this time. Read More

Have you considered joining the Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong Jewish community for Passover? Join my China main tour and extension or part of each, then remain in China for Passover with the Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Hong Kong Jewish communities. Your desired travel dates and locations will be scheduled in conjunction with the upcoming spring tour. E-mail me for information and tour itineraries.

I will speak on Silk Road to Shanghai: A Millennium of Jewish Life in China, along with a class on Jewish Writers of America's Musical Stage & Film as well as a concert for the Baltimore Jewish Community Center (Owings Mills location), on Thursday, March 13, 2008. Call 310-356-5200 for details.

If you missed the beautiful St. Petersburg Times article by Waveney Ann Moore on the Jews of China, you may read it online here.

I am also indebted to the Jewish Press of Pinellas County for their beautiful feature of our tour. Click to view that story.

Last month, a momentous celebration took place Jerusalem's Great Synagogue on Thursday, January 24, 2008, as a descendant of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, Shoshana Rebecca Li, was married to Ami Emmanuel. Li made aliyah to Israel two years ago, and her wedding marks the first occasion in which an individual of ancient Chinese Jewish ancestry has been wed in Israel. Read more about it here.

Mushkie Freundlich, daughter of Rabbi Shimon and Dini Freundlich of Chabad Beijing, recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in January. She created a website as part of her Bat Mitzvah project ... Visit Mushkie's beautiful site, and participate & pass it along to friends and family.

My friend Ann Samson leads an exciting Jewish Cultural History Tour to India this November 1-20, 2008, with a discovery of India's rich culture as well as its notable Jewish history. Download a detailed itinerary of her  tour here.

Author Tiberiu (Tibi) Weisz has let me know about her newly-released book, The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven: An In-Depth Comparative Cultural Study of Judaism and China, now available at Amazon.com. Weisz suggests that, if China is yin, there must be an opposing culture that matches her in endurance, sustainability and depth. Is Judaism the yang of China's yin? Weisz explores cultural bonds between Judaism and China, the relationship of Israel and China past present and future, and other topics both Chinese and Jewish. She compares ancient and contemporary Chinese sources with corresponding Western literature to show that these two cultures balance one another in a cultural relationship of yin and yang ... one as a religion that deeply influenced Western cultures and the other in an opposing environment secluded, isolated, and little understood by outsiders. The book also presents China and Judaism through the eyes of the people who have faithfully followed their tenets since antiquity. Readers will experience these two cultures as two vibrant cultures tied by invisible bonds to survive and flourish to present day.

Other outstanding resources regarding the Jews of China and related studies that I highly recommend:

The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese & The Jews During WWII, by Marvin Tokayer

Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto, by Ernest Heppner

Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China, by James R. Ross

Shanghai Ghetto(DVD) or Shanghai Ghetto (Download or Rental) The Documentary Film

In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Dipolomat Who Risked his Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews From the Holocaust, by Hillel Levine

Mandarins, Jews, And Missionaries: Jewish Experience In The Chinese Empire, by Michael Pollak

There are many more excellent resources and I'll share them with you in future issues. In the meantime, visit my Jewish Asia Resources page for a look at much much more.