Avrum Ehrlich

Professor Avrum Ehrlich is the Executive Director of the Israel-China Institute. He was a founding director of the Israel Chamber of Commerce in China (Ischam); he is a senior partner at Confucian Group, Jinan; and a senior member of the Organizing Committee for the Annual Israel-China Agriculture and Technology Forum.

Avrum Ehrlich has lived and worked in Shandong Province, China since 2004, cultivating an intimate knowledge of rural areas and of second, third and fourth tier cities. He regularly tours provincial and district level regions as a guest of the Communist Party Secretary, Mayors and Bureau Chiefs to learn about commercial and other opportunities and needs of the region, and ways to develop Israel-Chinese relations. He collects and shares data of the development needs and opportunities of these regions via reports and initiatives.

He received the prestigious Shandong Friendship Award by the governor of Shandong in 2005, in recognition of his contribution to the Province. He has lectured at some of the most prestigious universities in China; Beida, Fudan, Renmin, and Nanjing Universities including the elite Communist Party School in Beijing, on issues relating to Jews, Israel and China. He has lectured at numerous universities and events throughout the US and Australia. In 2009 he taught a course at Herzeliya Inter Disciplinary Center entitled "China in the 21st Century”.

Avrum Ehrlich is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge; an honorary professor at Sydney University, Australia; Vice President for Special Projects at Shandong Yingcai University; member of the International Board of the Sino-Judaic. He retains a position as an affiliate professor at the Center for Judaic and Inter Religious Studies at Shandong University;
His books include: Jews and Judaism in Modern China (Routledge, 2009); The Jewish - Chinese Nexus (Ed.) (Routledge, 2008); Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora (Ed.) (ABC CLIO, 2008); Messiah of Brooklyn, (Ktav 2004). Forthcoming works include: Negotiating Minority Religious Identities in Asia, (Brill, 2010);  Never the Twain Shall Meet: the Antithetical and Complimentary Worlds of Chinese and Judaic Civilization (Rowman and Littlefield, 2010); On the Shoulder of Giants: Constructing Israeli - Chinese Relations in the 21st Century (in negotiation); "Constructing Israeli Foreign Policy for China" (Series of Articles, in negotiation).

Professor Ehrlich travels and lectures throughout the world, while living between Jerusalem and Shandong Province.