photo by: James Estin/The New York TimesIt's interesting to me that on Wednesday I blogged about LO's adoption and then yesterday The New York Times ran an article about a Chinese adoptee who had just completed her bat mitzvah. (Thank you to everyone who sent and/or told me about the article!)
LO and I are the only Chinese members at our shul. And I know of only one other adult Chinese Jew (who found me through this blog!) But I have to wonder with the large number of Chinese children who have been adopted by Jewish families, will we start to see a change in the demographics soon? It will be interesting to see.
Shabbat Shalom.
13 comments:
Your blog is great!
I'm sure you've been asked this before, but have you read "The Bamboo Cradle"?(http://tinyurl.com/39baov)
It was an interesting article.
Friends of mine in Boston are going to be part of this trend. My friends' Chinese daughter goes to Hebrew School.
I was also going to ask if you'd read The Bamboo Cradle. I've been to two separate related lectures in Toronto over the years: one, with the adoptive father telling his story; the other, with the daughter telling her story -- it's a beautiful story and because she has come so far in Yiddishkeit, and raising an Orthodox family of her own.
add me as another weird Chinese Jew =). I think there is another one at my shul. And I have a Japanese Jewish friend. Increasing intermarriages outside Ashkenazi/Sephardi models...oy vey =)
You're now a trend, at least LO is.
Yes, Increasingly Jews are outside the mold of Askenazi and Sephard. I have met Jews of Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese descent. Not counting my own offspring who are mixed Eskimo (Inuit). My youngest has been misidentified as Chinese by Chinese and went under the Chupah last month in Florida (after a formal conversion). All good.
What an awesome blog! And your daughter is absolutely beautiful.
While I am aware that this is more common these days, I never perceived it as all that common a generation ago.
My best friend when I was young was Korean by birth, adopted into a Conservative Jewish family; never did she not seem naturally Jewish to me.
My (public) high-school classmate appeared Chinese but had a Jewish name, and it didn't occur to me until over a decade later to even give that any thought.
Both are now women in their mid-30s.
Oops, that first line should read:
While I am aware that this is more common these days, I never perceived it as all that uncommon a generation ago.
YH and Pearl - I didn't know about the book "The Bamboo Cradle" - I can't wait to read it - thanks!
Rhea - I expect we'll see a lot more of this as many of the girls are starting to reach that age!
RY - Yay! It's always nice to meet another Asian Jew!
Bice - yeah that's it - we are SO TRENDY. NOT.
Sona - You're right - all good. And mazel tov on your youngest's marriage and conversion.
DT - thanks.
Anon - I guess it depends on where you live. It seems pretty uncommon for us but there certainly are areas in the country that it is not as uncommon.
Hi Orienta,
I was thrilled to find your blog today (I think it was a link from Treppenwitz). I've been looking for other religous families who have adopted from China, as there are few. Nice to "meet" you!
Shana Tova to you, LO and PHD.
Oh, and Devora Schwartzbaum of The Bamboo Cradle lives in the U.S. now...I met up with her about a year ago and told her what I was doing. She seemed pretty supportive, and gave me her home number to talk any time. She's great!
(And I was in her grade in high school...too funny)
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