Tune in to the December 1, 2018 broadcast as I feature an encore interview with Professor Xu Xin, China's most renowned Judaic scholar. We will hear about Ho Feng-Shan, a Chinese diplomat in Vienna who risked his own life and career during World War II to save thousands of European Jews fleeing the Holocaust.
Professor Xu is the founder and director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish and Israel Studies at Nanjing University. He has been a scholar of Judaism, Jewish culture and the history of Chinese Jews since 1986.
Among his many accomplishments, Xu led a team of scholars on an abridged Chinese translation of the Encyclopedia Judaica and served as its editor -a book that was used by Chinese diplomats when China and Israel opened diplomatic relations in 1992. The Chinese edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica won an award of Excellent Book by Bureau of Press and Publication of Shanghai and East China in 1994, and an award of Excellent Reference Book by General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China in 1995.
He has also edited Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (with Beverly Friend); Anti-Semitism: How and Why; A History of Jewish Culture, and more. Xu has also written numerous articles on Judaic topics.
Xu was also the first Chinese scholar to introduce modern Hebrew literature to Chinese readers. he has also created Masters and doctoral programs on Jewish history and culture.
Xu has served as a visiting professor and taught at Chicago State University; Florida Community College and Montclair State University. He was a guest speaker at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1988) and at Tel Aviv University (1993 and 1998). In 1995 he was a fellow at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies (1996 and 1998).
Professor Xu has delivered over 500 lectures in the USA, Israel, Canada and the United Kingdom at such institutions of higher learning as Harvard University, Yeshiva University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Boston University, Princeton University, UCLA, USC, Brown University, City University of New York, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, Ben-Gurion University, University of Toronto, McMaster University, University of Montreal, York University and various other universities, organizations and institutions.
His three-week summer seminars for Chinese scholars and graduate students from departments of history and western civilization at other universities enable them to incorporate material on Judaism into their classes.
His activities have been widely reported by such newspapers and magazines as Chicago Tribune, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, Harvard University Gazette, The Jerusalem Report, The Jewish Week, The Forward, China's Talents, Xinhua Daily, Modern Express, and China Daily.
In 1996, Professor Xu was awarded a Special Government Allowance by the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Xu's essay on Modern Hebrew Literature won a Second Place of Excellent essays on Social Sciences by the Bureau of Higher Education of Jiangsu province in 1994.
His book, A History of Western Culture, was named as National Planned Textbook in 2006 for Chinese colleges. Xu has won five titles of Excellent Teacher Award since 1994.
In 1995, he was honored with the James Friend Memorial Award. In 2002, Bar-Ilan University's Board of Trustees and the Senate of Israel awarded him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa in recognition of the important research he has done on Jewish people in China.
He is a member of a number of academic organizations in China, such as Jiangsu Writers' Association, the Association of All-China Comparative Literature, the Association of Translators of Jiangsu, and the Society of World History Studies of China. Currently he serves as President of the China Judaic Studies Association and vice-president of China Association for Middle East Studies.
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