Larry Murdock teaches chemistry in China, where he has lived for 11 years. He writes:
There are only about 14 million Jews in the world, and only about 10 percent of them are Orthodox. Yet, in China there are no fewer than five Orthodox temples and Jewish community centers that serve kosher food. A lot of intelligence went into getting around the Chinese government’s ban on non-approved religions, and getting animals slaughtered in a kosher manner for the very few Jews who keep Kosher.
Jews have set up their community centers as business corporations in order to get the proper licenses. Their leaders have also schmoozed the right people. This takes finesse. Kosher slaughter also takes finesse. There is no law against it, but it takes resourcefulness to find a cooperative livestock dealer and fly in a shochet, or trained kosher butcher. The church I used to attend couldn’t even get a door installed.
…I married a Chinese woman and we have a son. I don’t want him to identify as black. We speak Chinese at home, and I have decided that he can learn English as a second language—maybe after age five. We’ve had his DNA tested, and he is actually more Han Chinese (48.6 percent) than any other race (9.3 percent white, 42.1 percent black).
We are converting to Judaism, and therefore adopting a cultural environment that is as far from black as I can find. My son has options. He can think of himself as strictly Jewish. His names are Hebrew, and can be used in either the Sephardic or Ashkenazi traditions.
