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| The Chinese Jews of K’ai-feng For about a thousand years, about ten Jewish communities sprouted up in China. The most famous and longest-lived of which was at the capital of the Middle Kingdom, K’ai-feng. The Jews prospered there. They held high positions in the military, and some even became Mandarins in the service of the Emperor. Others were merchants, physicians, and agriculturalists. As China sealed itself off, Chinese Jews gradually came to see fewer and fewer distinctions between their Judaism and the Confucianism that surrounded, and eventually enveloped, them. In telling their story, we will come to understand the inherent affinities between Judaism and Confucianism, just as we will meet some of the “Jewish Mandarins” who have come to symbolize this ancient and glorious community. We will also confront the reality of assimilation that was their fate. | 
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