Approaching Israel

Approaching Israel

A website introducing Israel and Jews to the Chinese People

（或在首页点击中文“欢迎光临”）

The domain name of this site is http://www.israelcn.com

About the Website

Many Chinese People seem to have great interest in Israel and the Jews. However, of all the limited information that we know, quite an amount is not objective at all, or even incorrect.

The purpose of this website is to offer the Chinese people more information about the State of Israel and the Jewish People. I am happy to share all that I have learned these years, from both books and my own experience in the holy land.

Since I built this website in August 2001 , I received Emails from visitors to this site from time to time. Most of them encourage and support me and I really appreciate their help. Meanwhile, this website, the Canaan Forum and me myself meet verbal attacks from people of different religious and political stand. I do not fear such unfriendly reactions, for I just want to show my people a comprehensive image of this mysterious country and its people.

I hope this website would build a bridge between the Jewish culture and the Eastern culture and contribute to the friendship between Jews and Chinese.

To enter the site in Chinese, press here

About the Content　

Entering Israel:

The main section of the website. It is divided into five parts. The first one is about the State of Israel, including introduction, politics, economy, culture and so on.

The second one is about the Jews, including articles regarding "who are Jews", "famous Jews in history" and also a review of the relationship between Jews and Chinese from ancient times to now.

The third part is some background knowledge about the conflict in the Middle East.

The fourth one is regarding Jewish history. It includes documents translated to Chinese, as well as some books and articles by Chinese scholars and writers.

The fifth part is an introduction to Judaism and Jewish philosophy.

Oh, Jerusalem

This section includes some articles and photos about this holy city.
Actually, there is a hard copy of almost every article. Some of the authors who study Israel or Jews specially permitted me to use their work in my website.

My work

It includes some of my essays and papers.

I also put here articles that I translated from Hebrew or from English, such as "Six Days and Seven Gates" and "Why Jews don't Believe in Jesus" and introduction to the books I translated: Earrings in the Cellar (Kunming: Yunnan People's Publishing House, 2005) and Lion's Honey (Taipei: Locus Publishing, 2007).

Download Area

A collection of the Bible in Chinese and English, some useful software and famous Israeli songs. Due to the limit of the server, this service is now suspended.

Canaan Forum

A forum discussing all kinds of issues on Israel and Jews. A group of friends interested in Israel as well as experts of Judaism display their opinions and come to hot discussions there.

About Myself

My name is Zhenhua Meng. (Hebrew name: Jeremiah) I was born in Shanghai in 1981. During World War II, this city offered refuge to thousands of Jews. My grandfather, who met many Jews in Shanghai, often said to me, “for us，it is good to die for our country, but for them, it is good to have a country to die for.” I could not help but wondering, what kind of people they were, where is their motherland.

After my elementary education, I was admitted to Nanjing Foreign Language School, and spent the next six years completing my middle school there. When I read the Bible for the first time, I was immediately attracted by the fantastic stories. I began to be interested in the Jewish People and everything about them. Moreover, I always paid special attention to the political situation in the Middle East, which, I believe, for many years, was the key point of world politics. Therefore, in 1999 I entered for the selection of Peking University, the best university in China which offers a Hebrew programme. I succeeded in the special written and oral examinations and became one of the 9 students who have the opportunity to study Hebrew among millions of Chinese youths. (The Hebrew Studies Program at Peking University, Beijing, China)

Thanks to my keen interest and the guidance of the admirable teachers, I made a rapid progress during the 3 years at Peking University. And in the last year of my undergraduate period, I was granted an opportunity to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for one year as exchange student. I was overjoyed to be the first and only Chinese undergraduate student who got the chance. The one year study in Jerusalem was happy and unforgettable. I made many friends and traveled to different places.

In the summer of 2003, I obtained my B.A. on Hebrew in Peking University and simultaneously accomplished my minor on philosophy. At that time, I had already been admitted to the Chinese University of Hong Kong for postgraduate studies majoring in the Hebrew Bible. 14 months later, I became the first M. Phil. student who directly transferred to the Ph. D. programme in the history of the department. Moreover, in July 2005, I passed all the Qualifying Examinations and the oral defense of my dissertation proposal and thus became a Ph. D. candidate. A year later, I went to visit Israel again to collect data and take part in archeological excavations. Though experiencing a war again, I benefited a lot from this short stay, which helps me finally finish my Ph.D. thesis "A Study on the Groups in Persian Yehud" and passed the oral defense in winter 2007. Then I joined the faculty of the Institute of Jewish studies of Nanjing University. I will therefore have more chances to introduce the Jewish People and their culture to Chinese students and public. Endless pursue and sharing of knowledge make me happy.

My Email: jeremiahmeng@hotmail.com mengzhenhua@gmail.com