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The first sizable Jewish presence in Korea was during the Korean War, in which hundreds of UN Jewish soldiers participated. After the war, Chaim Potok served in South Korea as a US Army chaplain from 1955-1957. His experiences in Korea led to the novels The Book of Lights and I am the Clay.
Most of the Jewish community in South Korea resides in Seoul. The community is mostly U.S. military personnel and their families, business people, English-language journalists and teachers, and tourists. [1] The Jewish population is constantly in flux, due to the rotation of U.S. military personnel in the country. While the soldiers have a Jewish chaplain at the Yongsan Army Base, their services are restricted and off-limits to most civilians. At this time, there are no Jewish schools.
Israel has full diplomatic relations with South Korea, and the sizable Christian population in the country also keeps ties strong between the countries. In August 2005, the Jerusalem Summit promoting Christian support for Israel was held in Seoul. [2] In contrast, neighboring North Korea has no known Jews within its borders.
In April 2008, the first Chabad House was established in Seoul under direction of Rabbi Osher Litzman, accompanied by his wife, Mussia Litzman. As there were no synagogues in the country, Jews in Korea would have to go to the U.S. Army base for Shabbat meals and holiday services. Chabad.org news service reported that the Israeli ambassador to South Korea asked three visiting Lubavitch yeshiva students to help arrange for permanent Chabad emissaries. Though very few South Koreans are interested in Judaism as a religion, philosemitism is prevalent among the South Korean population as they reportedly hope to emulate Jews' high academic standards by studying books derived from Jewish works such as the Torah and Talmud. [3] With South Korean society's passion for education, South Koreans hold a stereotypical view of Jews as the model of academic excellence as well as Jews being very intelligent. [4] However, journalist Dave Hazzan investigated this and found no antisemitism in South Korea. [5] Moreover, Abe Foxman, head of the ADL, admitted that cultural norms affected the respondents' answers which has to be considered for future surveys. [5]
In addition, South Koreans also laud Jews as a high achieving and accomplished group of people citing the disproportionate number of successful Jewish businesspeople and Nobel Prize winners as evidence and use this as inspiration for the South Korean populace to emulate Jewish success. [6] [7] [8] The South Korean media often discusses the merits of "Jewish education" to the South Korean populace. [9] [10] South Koreans also identify with Judaism's arduous history of being oppressed peoples, surviving adversity with nothing but intellect and ingenuity to socioeconomically succeed, as well as its strong emphasis on family. [11]
In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League reported that the average South Korean was more than twice as likely to be as anti-semitic than the global average. [12]
In 2019, the first mikveh in South Korea was opened. [13]
In November 2022, the first established Karaite community was founded in Pyeongtaek by a Jewish-American soldier. [14]
In Judaism, the Seven Laws of Noah, otherwise referred to as the Noahide Laws or the Noachian Laws, are a set of universal moral laws which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a covenant with Noah and with the "sons of Noah"—that is, all of humanity.
The Talmud is, after the Hebrew Bible, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life and was foundational to "all Jewish thought and aspirations", serving also as "the guide for the daily life" of Jews.
Neturei Karta is a fringe religious group of Haredi Jews that was founded in Jerusalem in 1938 after splitting off from Agudat Yisrael. It is an active opponent of Zionism and advocates a "peaceful dismantling" of the State of Israel under the belief that the Jewish people are strictly forbidden from re-establishing sovereignty in the Land of Israel until the arrival of the Messiah. To this end, the group's members believe that the existence of a Jewish state is a rebellion against God as it did not occur with divine intervention through the Messiah.
Israel Shahak was an Israeli professor of organic chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Holocaust survivor, an intellectual of liberal political bent, and a civil-rights advocate and activist on behalf of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). For twenty years, he headed the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights (1970–90) and was a public critic of the policies of the governments of Israel. As a public intellectual, Shahak's works about Judaism proved controversial, especially the book Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (1994).
Philosemitism, also called Judeophilia, is "defense, love, or admiration of Jews and Judaism". Such attitudes can be found in Western cultures across the centuries. The term originated in the nineteenth century by self-described German antisemites to describe their non-Jewish opponents. American-Jewish historian Daniel Cohen of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies has asserted that philosemitism "can indeed easily recycle antisemitic themes, recreate Jewish otherness, or strategically compensate for Holocaust guilt."
A mikveh or mikvah is a bath used for ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
Jewish leadership has evolved over time. Since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, there has been no single body that has a leadership position over the entire Jewish diaspora. Various branches of Judaism, as well as Jewish religious or secular communities and political movements around the world elect or appoint their governing bodies, often subdivided by country or region.
Isaac Leeser was an American Orthodox Jewish religious leader, teacher, scholar and publisher. He helped found the Jewish press of America, produced the first Jewish translation of the Bible into English, and helped organize various social and educational organizations. He is considered one of the most important nineteenth century American Jewish personalities. He was "fiercely opposed" to Reform Judaism and was regarded as one of the most important "orthodox" rabbis of his era. Leeser is regarded as a forerunner by both Modern Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism.
Noahidism or Noachidism is a monotheistic Jewish religious movement aimed at non-Jews, based upon the Seven Laws of Noah and their traditional interpretations within Orthodox Judaism.
This is a list of countries where antisemitic sentiment has been experienced.
Antisemitic tropes or antisemitic canards are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since as early as the 2nd century, libels or allegations of Jewish guilt and cruelty emerged as a recurring motif along with antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The history of the Jews in Belgium goes back to the 1st century CE until today. The Jewish community numbered 66,000 on the eve of the Second World War but after the war and The Holocaust, now is less than half that number.
Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin is the Chief Rabbi of Cyprus and the first rabbi on the island in many years.
The history of the Jews in the United Arab Emirates describes the historical and modern presence of Jews over the millennia in the Middle East and the recorded meetings with Jewish communities in areas that are today in the geographic territories of the United Arab Emirates.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents.
Defamation is a 2009 documentary film by Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. It examines antisemitism, the way perceptions of antisemitism affect Israeli and U.S. politics, and explores the suggestion that claims of antisemitism are exaggerated or weaponized to stifle dissent against Israel. A major focus of the film is the Anti-Defamation League. Defamation won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is a New York–based international non-governmental organization that was founded to combat antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination.
Racism in the Palestinian territories encompasses all forms and manifestations of racism experienced in the Palestinian Territories, of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, irrespective of the religion, colour, creed, or ethnic origin of the perpetrator and victim, or their citizenship, residency, or visitor status. It may refer to Jewish settler attitudes regarding Palestinians as well as Palestinian attitudes to Jews and the settlement enterprise undertaken in their name.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Judaism:
Venezuelan Jews in Israel are Jewish immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Venezuelan Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel.
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