The Haggadah of the Kaifeng Jews of China

The Haggadah retelling of the Exodus story is read in Jewish homes worldwide during Passover. A unique version is that of the now moribund Jewish community in Kaifeng, China. In this valuable contribution to Jewish studies, Wong (Old Testament, Hong Kong Baptist Seminary) and Yasharpour (Persian language and literature, Harvard U.) present the complete text of the Kaifeng Haggadah with an English translation, following an introduction to the history and study of the Kaifeng Jews. From a textual analysis focusing on the languages represented including Judeo-Persian, they conclude that the Haggadah reflects the Persian rite that has endured since the Babylonian exile. The volume features Judeo-Persian and Hebrew font charts, and facsimiles of 52 manuscript pages. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Fook-kong Wong, Th.D. (1998) in Hebrew Bible, Harvard Divinity School, is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary. He has contributed entries in NIDB, EBR andwritten numerous articles in Chinese journals and books. Dalia Yasharpour, Ph.D. (2005), University of California, Los Angeles, is Lecturer of Persian Language and Literature at Harvard University. She is co-author of the Persian textbook, Proficiency in Persian (Persian Language Resources, 2007) and has contributed articles to such publications as EJIW and EHLL.