Yang-Chou

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YANG-CHOU

YANG-CHOU (formerly Wei-yang ), city in Kiangsu province, China. It had connections with the Jewish community of *Kaifeng. A few scattered references to Jewish and Chinese individuals from Yang-chou are found in the Chinese stele inscriptions of the Kaifeng Jews, dating from 1489 and 1512, and several Chinese officials from Yang-chou helped in the preparation of these inscriptions. A member of the Kaifeng Chin family had his home in Yang-chou, but he donated "a copy of the Scriptures of the Way [Tao], and set up the second gateway" in the Kaifeng synagogue. The oral tradition of the existence of a sizeable community and even of a synagogue in Yang-chou cannot be corroborated.

bibliography:

W.C. White, Chinese Jews, pt. 2 (19662), 27, 42, 46, 47.

[Rudolf Loewenthal]

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