Liang Pingan

Liang Pingan completed his M.A. on Jewish and Israeli Studies and is writing his Ph.D on Modern Foreign Relations Between Israel and the Global Powers at Shanghai International Studies University. He is a visiting researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He first came into contact with Jews when he served as a tour guide and then as Deputy General of Kaifeng International Travel Services over 15 years ago. He later became the Deputy Chief Secretary of the Institute of Kaifeng Jewish History and Culture. He served as a diplomatic attaché to the Chinese embassy in Slovenia and Kuwait. He spent a year learning Hebrew and Jewish culture at Hebrew University’s Rothberg International School and was an exchange scholar at Tel Aviv University’s Far-Eastern Department. He remains actively engaged in Jewish-Chinese relations and in the welfare of the descendants of the Jews of Kaifeng.

David Straub

David Straub is a visiting researcher at the centre for Judaic and Inter Religious Studies at Shandong University, received his B.A. at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is a graduate student in the Central Eurasian Studies department at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. He has lived and taught in China since 2001, previously contributed to and was assistant editor of the upcoming Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora, is a specialist on Central Asian and China and has traveled broadly across Asia.

Yoav Rapoport

Yoav Rapoport received an undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies from the Department of East Asian Studies at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and studied history at Tel-Aviv University. He went on to receive a M.A. in Chinese Studies from The Hebrew University and also served as Assistant to the Head of the Department of East Asian Studies. In 1990, Rapoport participated in the first Exchange Student Program between China and Israel, spending a year at Southwest China Normal University in Beibei in Chongqing prefecture and continued his studies at Oxford University in England. He has taught courses in Chinese Literature, History and Philosophy at Tel-Aviv University, Department of East Asian Studies and currently works as a freelance translator from Chinese to Hebrew, editor of books about China in Hebrew, and commentator and adviser on Chinese affairs for various Israeli media.

Jerry Gotel

Jerry Gotel is a Senior History Lecturer at London Jewish Cultural Centre and Director of Overseas Projects, mainly focusing on teacher training in Eastern Europe. He received traditional Yeshiva education in 1953-1964, studied at Yeshiva University for one year, graduated in 1968 from Brooklyn College of the City University of N.Y. and has studied at Sorbonne, Pembroke College, and Oxford. He represents Great Britain on the Education Committee of The International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research and has received support from the task force to hold three conferences in China on the Holocaust.

Current Senior Research Contributors

Yiyi Chen

Yiyi Chen is a faculty member at Peking University. His research includes the Hebrew Bible in its Ancient near East context, Ancient Judaism and early interactions between the near East and China, as well as the role of the Bible in Chinese society. His book The Hebrew Bible, from Textual and Archaeological Perspectives is the only systematic overview on the subject written in Chinese. He is now working on an introductory textbook for Chinese university students studying the Hebrew Bible. Before joining Peking University, he worked as an IT manager in the Silicon Valley. Chen holds a B.A. from Peking University and an M.A. and Ph.D from Cornell University.

Fu Xiaowei

Fu Xiaowei, is a professor of Comparative Literature and Culture, and director of the Center of Judaic and Chinese Studies at Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, China. She is the author of 4 books, including What is God: Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Creation and his Reception and Influence in China (2006). Her recent essays include: “Confusing Judaism and Christianity in Contemporary Chinese Letters,” (2006); “Misreading, Intentional Fallacy and the Blind Worship of Western Literary Theories” (2004); and “The Principle of Harmony without Uniformity and Religious Compromises in European Integration,” (forthcoming).

Jonathan Goldstein

Jonathan Goldstein is a Research Associate of Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for East Asian Research and a Professor of East Asian history at the University of West Georgia. His books include Philadelphia and the China Trade, 1682-1846 (1978), Georgia’s East Asian Connection: into the Twenty-First Century (1990); America Views China (1991), China and Israel (1999), and The Jews of China (2000).

Anson Laytner

Rabbi Anson Laytner is currently the executive director of the Seattle Chapter of the American Jewish Committee. As a volunteer, Laytner serves as President of the Sino-Judaic Institute and edits its journal Points East. He also is an adjunct professor with Seattle University's Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Previously, Laytner served as the executive director of Multifaith Works and also headed the Seattle Jewish Federation's Community Relations Council. Laytner is the author of Arguing with God, co-author of The Animals' Lawsuit Against Humanity, and has written over 70 articles on subjects ranging from Jewish theology to the Arab-Israel conflict to the Chinese Jews. Laytner has a B.A. from York University in Toronto, an M.A. in Hebrew Letters and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, an M.A. in Not-for-Profit Leadership from Seattle University, and an honorary D.D. from Hebrew Union College.

Matthias Messmer

Matthias Messmer studied Political Science, Law and Economics at the University of St. Gallen and received his Ph.D. in Social Sciences at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Later, he spent several years doing research in both China and the U.S. His extensive publications cover China, inter-culture and travel. He is a Senior Research Fellow affiliated with the Institute of Federalism at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He currently lives and works as a writer, independent researcher and consultant in Shanghai. Among his publications are,“Sowjetischer und postkommunistischer Antisemitismus“ ( 1997) and “China: Schaupl?tze west-?stlicher Begegnungen,“ (2007).

Galia Patt-Shamir

Galia Patt-Shamir is a senior lecturer of Chinese philosophy and Comparative Philosophy and Religion in the departments of East-Asian Studies and of Philosophy at Tel-Aviv University in Israel. She earned her Ph.D degree in the Study of Religion in 1997 from Harvard. Her main focus is in the dialogue and understanding among civilizations and individuals and she is involved in practical and theoretical projects to enhance this field of study. She wrote a book on human nature in Chinese philosophies and religions (Hebrew, 2004). Her book To Broaden the Way - A Confucian - Jewish Dialogue (2006) focuses on the themes of ultimate, social life, and individual pursuit, as dealt with in both traditions, through religious texts, philosophical methodologies, and literary sources. She also published articles on issues in inter-religious dialogue, Confucian and Neo-Confucian texts, practice and theory, in leading journals such as Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Philosophy and Literature, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy.

Wang Yi

Wang Yi is a professor of Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education, and director of the Institute of Tourism and Aesthetics at Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, China. He is the author of seven books and his recent publications include “From Franz Kafka to Isaac Bashevis Singer: Chinese Avant-garde Writers’ Turnaround—Focusing on Ma Yuan, Su Tong and Yu Hua,” (2005); “From Misreading to the Bottleneck of the Aesthetic Education Theory,” (2006); and “An Exegetic Study of the So-called Proposition of Confucian Aesthetics,” (2008).

Xu Xin

Xu Xin, professor of History of Jewish Culture and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Nanjing University, is also president of the China Judaic Studies Association and editor-in-chief and a major contributor of the Chinese edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica. He teaches courses such as Jewish history, Jewish culture and the world civilization, Holocaust studies, and history of the Jewish Diaspora. He has created graduate-level programs on Jewish history and culture at Nanjing University. He is the author of many books and articles about Judaism in China, and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in the U.S. Xu is a member of the Centre for Judaic and Inter Religious Studies at Shandong University and in 2003 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bar Ilan University in recognition of the work he has done on the research of the Jewish people in China.

Zhang Ping

Zhang Ping is a member of the academic staff of the Chinese program at Tel Aviv University. He holds a B.A. in Chinese literature from Beijing University and an M.A. in Oriental literature from the Department of Oriental Languages at Beijing University. He completed his Ph.D in Comparative philosophy at Tel Aviv University and taught at Beijing University, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. His publications include the Chinese translation of Pirki Avoth, S. Y. Agnon's stories, academic works on Chinese literature, and comparative studies between Confucianism, Judaism and Hebrew literature.

Zhong Zhiqing

Zhong Zhiqing is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Foreign Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, China. She holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University and is the author of A Comparative Study of Hebrew and Chinese Literature in Response to the Catastrophe of World War Two, A Study of Contemporary Israeli Authors, and a number of essays in Hebrew and Jewish literature. In addition, she has translated Amos Oz’s My Michael, Black Box, A Tale of Love and Darkness; Yehoshua Kanaz’s After the Holidays; and Gershon Shaked’s Modern Hebrew Fuction. Currently Zhong is working on a national project entitled 20^th Century Hebrew Literature in Transition.