Taiwan’s $16 Million Jewish Community Center a Work of Art and Dedication
by Bruria Efune – chabad.org
The new Jeffrey D. Schwartz Community Center in Taiwan has been called a work of art. The $16 million complex spans 22,500 square feet and is home to an upscale kosher restaurant, a 300-capacity ballroom, a Judaica museum, a synagogue, classrooms and a luxurious mikvah with a gold-leaf ceiling.
Although the center quietly opened its doors in 2021, Covid regulations delayed the dedication ceremony until this year. On the ceremony’s impressive guest list were Israeli and Taiwanese officials, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries to East Asian countries and a first for Taiwan—Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau.
After the event, the chief rabbi expressed his admiration for the Taiwan Jewish community’s dedication to Judaism and his confidence that the Jewish community on the vast island off the southeastern coast of China will continue to thrive in the years ahead.
The history of the Jewish community in Taiwan is relatively brief compared to the centuries-old Jewish presence in Hong Kong and mainland China, Taiwan’s agrarian economy began to develop an industrial and technological base in the 1970s. The Jewish population remained small until the late 20th century when the island’s rapidly growing hi-tech industry began to attract investors and businesspeople from abroad.
When Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries Rabbi Shlomi and Racheli Tabib arrived to establish Chabad-Lubavitch of Taipei in 2011 they had a list of only 70 Jewish people in a nation with a population of 23 million.
The Tabibs soon discovered that many more Jews lived on the island than they were told about, and soon hosted nearly 200 guests for a Shabbat meal. The rabbi estimates that today between 1,500 to 2,000 Jews reside in Taiwan. Most of the local Jews are there for business and stay for several years, or have chosen to settle there. Some are Jewish diplomats from Israel and the United States.
New Center ‘Changes Everything’
To David Mann, who arrived in Taiwan 35 years ago when the local Jewish community was just beginning to coalesce, the new Jewish community center changes everything.
“It’s a whole different experience now,” explains Mann. “Visitors walk in and marvel at the ornate beauty of the center—they get completely blown away. Not long ago we were praying in a basement in the Rabbi’s house, or moving between offices, and now—we have this!”
Mann had originally come to Taiwan as a student, studying Chinese. Like others, he grew fond of the country, got involved in business, and ended up staying. While he didn’t consider himself religious, Mann always strongly identified as Jewish and would occasionally get together with Jewish friends.
He first attended Chabad ten years ago when he hired attorney Ross Feingold to help him with legal work. Feingold had been instrumental in helping Rabbi Tabib set up Chabad in Taiwan.
“I had never heard of Chabad,” said Mann. “But Ross told me it was a place for Jews just like me, who wanted to get back in and understand Judaism.”
Mann’s Jewish connection grew along with Chabad of Taiwan, and today he can read and understand most of the prayers and is a core member of a flourishing community that he expects to grow dramatically with the opening of the new community center
The Importance of Jewish Community
No one shares Mann’s confidence in the growth of Judaism in Taiwan more than the new center’s benefactor, Jeffrey D. Schwartz, who proudly proclaims he is “72 years young.” Schwartz grew up in the heart of the Jewish community in Cleveland, Ohio, where most of his fellow public school students were Jewish. Although he dutifully went to Hebrew school on Sundays, his connection to Judaism waned after his bar mitzvah.
To his parents’ dismay, Schwartz headed to Taiwan immediately after graduating from university. He hadn’t planned on staying indefinitely, but his arrival coincided with a period of economic growth, and he came with a good “Jewish kop [‘head’].” He quickly achieved fluency in Chinese, grew a successful business and was absorbed into the Taiwanese world.
When asked why Jewish continuity was so important to him, Schwartz explained that it was only natural.
“When you’re with everybody you grow up with, you just follow the crowd everywhere,” he reminisced. “That’s what I did in Cleveland. But when I came here, I was by myself. There were very few Jewish people. It was a completely different planet. My mother, like any good Jewish mother, was always telling me, ‘Don’t forget the holidays, don’t forget the temple, don’t forget your Jewishness.’ Well, it’s very hard to forget Jewishness. Even if you want to, it’s really hard. It never goes away. You know, I had a little bit of a flame that was at a very low level for many, many years. And it wasn’t until I got older that it started to grow.”
Fateful Meeting with a Chabad Emissary
Schwartz met Rabbi Shlomi Tabib in 2012, started attending Jewish events and became inspired by his connection to the Tabibs. “It’s not that I could pray better than anybody else or that I can read the Torah that great, or even that I speak Hebrew because I still can’t speak Hebrew,” he concluded. “But it’s just what you learn from grandfather to father to son. It’s in a flame. It might be a small flame, but it’s in every Jewish person. And it woke up within me. I said to myself, the only reason I got to where I am is because of my Jewishness.”
Schwartz wanted to ensure the continuation of that Jewish flame and began talking with Tabib about building a Jewish center. At first, discussions went great, and plans were underway, but soon they began to hit an impasse, and in September 2018, they chose to part ways.
Several months later, the Israeli embassy in Taiwan held a ceremony in honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day, and among many local dignitaries, the embassy invited Rabbi Tabib to recite a prayer in memory of those who perished. Tabib stood on stage and thought of his grandmother, who is 101 years old and the sole member of her family to have survived Auschwitz.
In the audience, Schwartz watched his old friend and was struck with a realization. A few days later, he called the rabbi to his office.
“I would like to tell you something,” he opened up. “When you got up on the stage at the Holocaust memorial event, in front of Her Excellency Tsai Ing-Wen, the president of Taiwan, and all the other guests, I felt something different. There you were standing with your black suit and hat and beard, swaying back and forth, saying a prayer in Hebrew; I looked at you and realized—the audience here, they see that that’s a Jewish person!”
Schwartz explained that to build something for the long term, it must have consistency. The consistency makes it recognizable and ensures its continuation through the test of time. When he saw Tabib on stage, he realized that this is the consistency he needs.
“If I want to build a Jewish center for the Jewish community, this has to be the model,” he told Tabib. “I want to keep the flame going and make sure the Jewish center will remain Jewish in the coming generations.”
The Material and the Spiritual
The rabbi and entrepreneur got back to the drawing table with a new deal. Schwartz would take care of building a beautiful space, and Tabib would take care of building spirituality.
The end result was a masterpiece beyond what either had ever imagined.
“People come into our place and they cry,” says Schwartz. “They come from Israel, America or from different parts of the world, and they actually cry. They can’t believe they’re in Taiwan—in the middle of nowhere in the Jewish world—and they walk into this beautiful Jewish community center with a big Jewish star on the building and a menorah. Then they walk through the door, and all they see are symbols of our people, and it brings out many emotions and makes them feel very proud.”
Schwartz built a collection of historical religious artifacts from around the world, including a collection of antique Torahs and crowns, and breathtaking biblical artwork—all on display in the center’s Jewish museum. During the week, the center bustles with students, tourists and government committees who come to see and learn. Schwartz hopes that the museum will familiarize the Taiwanese public with Judaism in a way that could prevent antisemitism from arising in the future.
“I made a promise to my mother, who is worried about the growing antisemitism in the United States. I told her, ‘Mom, on my watch, I will protect at least this part of the world.’ In Taiwan, there is no antisemitism now, and I hope that by presenting the positive side of Judaism, we will be able to prevent it from developing.”
Schwartz spoke of that promise at the dedication ceremony when the center hosted a large entourage of Chabad rabbis at the culmination of the conference of Chabad emissaries to East Asian countries. Joining them were Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—and Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos 302, who were both instrumental in the establishment and growth of Chabad on Taiwan.
Reminiscing about what led to the big moment, Schwartz says: “There’s a beauty in something that can go for thousands of years without change. I’m happy that I have Chabad as a partner because I know in 100 years, they’re going to be still doing the same thing.”
