Canadian-born, Seattle-based Anson Laytner is no ordinary liberal rabbi. This exceptional man with many hats notably founded the Sino-Jewish Institute in California and has studied the Kaifeng Jewish community in China in depth. Author of numerous writings including more than seventy articles on Jewish theology, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Chinese Jews, Mr. Laytner has devoted his life to study and several causes. "I have five main interests: creative theology related to suffering, helping the Chinese Jewish community in Kaifeng, animal rights and the environment, promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace and promoting the type of Israel envisaged in its Declaration of Independence," he proudly states. Portrait of an extraordinary personality.
Now retired, Anson has devoted his career, among other things, to building interfaith and interethnic relationships in the Seattle area. An avid writer, he is the author of three books on the issue of suffering: Arguing with God: A Jewish Tradition; The Mystery of Suffering and the Meaning of God; and Choosing Life After Tragedy; he also co-wrote The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity with Dan Bridge and co-edited The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng with Jordan Paper. His first novel, The Forgotten Commandment, was published in 2023. Anson Laytner has also served as the program director of the Interfaith Initiative at the Seattle School of Theology and an adjunct professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. His interest in religion led him to work as a grant writer for Jewish Family Service of Seattle before becoming interim rabbi at Congregation Kol HaNeshamah. He also headed the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Seattle. But a long stay in China completely changed his career.
A Year in China, a Major and Significant Turning Point
Attracted by the Chinese Red Guard, Anson thought of only one thing: flying to China, but his plan almost didn’t come to fruition, due to the Yom Kippur War that occurred in October 1973. At first, he wanted to volunteer in Israel, but the rabbi of his synagogue told him: "Anyone can go to Israel to pick oranges, but how many Jews can go to China?"
"The rabbi put me in touch with the World Jewish Congress and I was given the mission to speak about Israel and Jews and report back on the responses I received. My school had about 300 students and has since closed (in 2015). So from 1973 to 1974, I participated in the first Canada-China student exchange program and lived in Beijing at the end of the Cultural Revolution. After a year there, I became disillusioned with the authoritarian nature of the communist government and the way the Chinese people were forced to toe the Party line in public", Anson says.
During that year in China, Anson “interacted as a Jew with many students,” he recalls fondly. "We had great discussions in Chinese about Israel, Zionism, and Judaism with Yemenites, Chinese, Vietnamese, Pakistanis, and students from various African countries. I also met Palestinians there for the first time. Most of the world knows almost nothing about Jews, Judaism, Israel, or Zionism. The Holocaust was also an enigma to them, it made no sense. What I saw as the problems Israel had to solve—the rights of Israeli Arabs, the settlements, the borders—many students called Zionism in action", Anson says.
Far from abandoning his Zionist dream, he went to Israel immediately afterwards for a year, from 1974 to 1975.
The Sino-Jewish Institute in California
In 1985, while Anson was serving as rabbi, he was asked to join a small group of Jewish activists and scholars studying China to found the Sino-Jewish Institute in Palo Alto, California; with a dual mission: to study the Jewish community of Kaifeng and the ancient Jewish communities of the Chinese coast—Shanghai, Harbin, Tianjin. "So as a volunteer, I have chaired the Institute for 7 years and have been editor of its journal, Points East, for 38 years", Anson says.
"One of the first tasks of the Institute was to determine whether there were still Jewish descendants in Kaifeng and whether they were interested in reconnecting with their heritage. The community had been virtually isolated from outside contact since the 1920s. We also provided grants to scholars, writers and filmmakers from many countries and helped fund the publication of a Chinese-language Jewish encyclopedia and the translation of various Jewish books into Chinese," Anson says.
What are the relations between Israel and China?
Currently, Israel and China have strong economic ties, but their political relations are strained due to the war in Gaza. China has always been in favor of a two-state solution, but historically, it has been more supportive of the Arab world.
“The Institute has not played a significant role in Israeli-Chinese relations since the two countries established diplomatic relations. Before that, we provided scholarships to Chinese scholars and officials to visit Israel, to Israeli scholars to visit China, and to Israeli and Chinese universities to help them establish Chinese and Israeli study programs, respectively,” Rabbi Anson Laytner reveals.
The Jews of Kaifeng
For many years, Anson Laytner has studied the Jewish community of Kaifeng, in China’s Henan Province, extensively. It has survived for over a thousand years, overcoming major floods of the Yellow River (Huang He), wars, rebellions, and revolutions, but it has never had to deal with anti-Semitism. At its peak, from the 13th to the 18th centuries, the Kaifeng community had a huge synagogue with a mikvah, a kosher butcher shop, a school, and several Torah scrolls.
"We know this from Jesuit missionaries who visited Kaifeng in the 17th and 18th centuries and left detailed notes. The men incorporated Chinese culture and thought into their own theology and practice of Judaism, just as Jews have done everywhere. Unfortunately, over the centuries, the Kaifeng community became isolated and impoverished. Their last rabbi died in the early 1800s, and Jewish knowledge declined with their isolation. In recent years, Kaifeng Jews practice Judaism privately in their homes, observing Shabbat and holidays. On major holidays, they may sometimes meet in semi-secret ways", Anson says.
After China opened to the West in the 1980s, Western Jewish scholars and activists, many of whom formed the Sino-Jewish Institute, began visiting Kaifeng and educating Jewish descendants in the area about their Jewish cultural heritage.
A revival began under the tutelage of the Sino-Jewish Institute and the Israeli organization, Shavei Israel.
The theater as the Next Step?
Recently, Anson adapted his book The Trial of Animals Against Humanity into a play script. The book is an abridged and adapted version of “Iggeret Baalei Hayyim” (The Epistle of Animals), written in 1316 by Rabbi Kalonymus.
"I was impressed by this intelligent narrative and saddened to realize that, a thousand years after this story was first published, we are still debating animal rights and humanity’s place in the natural world. Grant Wilson, Executive Director of the Earth Law Center, was delighted by my book and reached out to me about it. The Earth Law Center works to advance Earth-centered law and community movements that respect and protect all life on the planet,” Anson says. “We had the idea of transforming the story into a script that could be presented in schools and places of worship. The Earth Law Center presented a first version during Climate Week in New York in September 2024 and I am continuing to finalize it. I hope that it will be taken up, translated and shared around the world", concluded Rabbi Anson.
Caroline Haïat
Comments