While Jews from Persia settled in the Chinese city of Kaifeng in the early Middle Ages, and Jews from India and Russia came to Shanghai and Harbin the 19th century, Taiwan had no Jews at all until the U.S. established a military presence there in the 1950s. Emily Schrader reports on the recent history, and current state, of the island’s Jewish population:

In the heart of Taipei today sits the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center of Taiwan, fully funded by the Jeffrey D. Schwartz & NaTang Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association. The structure is home to the only mikveh in all of Taiwan, a kosher culinary lab and kitchen, a 300-person ballroom, classroom, library, and a museum of Judaica and Jewish art containing over 400 rare items from Jewish communities around the world.

Additionally, there is a stunning synagogue above the museum and restaurant, which holds regular Shabbat services led by the Chabad rabbi, and attendance peaks during high holidays.

Its founder, Jeffrey Schwartz, said the inspiration for the center was rooted in a desire to not only provide a home for the Jewish community in Taiwan, but also to educate the non-Jews about Judaism, and build bridges throughout the country. . . . Taiwan is what Schwartz calls “the least anti-Semitic country in the world.” Ask around Taiwan and you will see that many Taiwanese have profound respect for the Jewish people, as well as the state of Israel. Schwartz adds, “our goal here at the Jewish Community Center is to keep it that way.

The community center has also made tremendous efforts in recent years to promote Holocaust education, at both the individual and state level. In 2021, they held a Holocaust memorial event, which was attended by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.