SMITH, George.

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The Jews at K'ae-Fung-Foo: First edition of this report of a breakthrough mission to Kaifeng in 1850, sent by the Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong to establish contact with the city's Jewish community, about which Western evangelicals knew almost nothing. This scarce work is among the most important sources on 19th-century Chinese Judaism, and only a few copies (not all complete) are recorded in private hands.George Smith (1815-1871) was appointed to the bishopric of Hong Kong in 1849. For the mission, he chose two Chinese Christians, K'hew T'hëen-Sang and Tsëang Yung-Che, whose written accounts form the core of this work. K'hew and Tsëang were sent with a letter of introduction in Hebrew, provided by three Jewish merchants (originally from Baghdad) who were resident in Shanghai and connected with Sassoon & Co. in Canton. The two left Shanghai on 15 November 1850 and reached Kaifeng on 9 December, having journeyed almost 700 miles. "Although the messengers were... suddenly interrupted in their researches within the synagogue, and their departure from the city itself was subsequently hastened by fear, they remained for a period sufficient to enable them to accomplish the main object of their visit. They copied many interesting inscriptions in Chinese, and a few in Hebrew" (pp. ix-x).The work ends with a letterpress notice announcing the successful completion of a second mission to Kaifeng in 1851. During this second visit, K'hew and Tsëang purchased six precious scrolls of the Tor

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