Sushi, Gefilte fish and being Jewish in Japan

On October 16^th the LJCC will be holding a Family Sushi making workshop, giving the opportunity for families with young teenagers to learn a new skill together. “So what’s Jewish about that?” I hear you ask. “Since when did Sushi become a part of Jewish Culture?” And yet, if you type Kosher Sushi in to Google, your search returns 9,870,000 results.

One such result suggests that perhaps we should consider the possibility that Gefilte fish is a Jewish version of sushi, or maybe even the predecessor of it? After all, Gefilte fish, although cooked, does have the texture of raw fish, is boneless and shaped into a ball, and decorated with carrot.

Or maybe it’s just that in this shrinking world, cultures from across the globe are intermingling, as are its people and particularly as the Diaspora reaches the further flung corners, our culture embraces that of our adopted countries. After all gefilte fish, knishes and cholent all originated from Eastern Europe.

So what of the Jews in Japan? Jews have been living in Japan since at least the 1860s, perhaps much, much longer. The first settler we know of in modern times arrived in Yokohama in 1861, and synagogues were later established in Nagasaki (1889), Kobe (1937), and finally Tokyo (1953). Today there are approximately 2,000 Jews in living in Japan, excluding military personnel. Most reside in the Tokyo area with about 60 percent come from the U.S., 25 percent from Israel, and the rest from all over the world. There are also a handful of Japanese converts.

There are three active Jewish communities in Japan today, one in Kobe and the others in Tokyo including a reform synagogue and they are made up from local residents, business men, and travelers from around the world. One resident, when asked by the JC what it is like being Jewish in Japan replied "The answer depends on my mood. My negative response is that it is rather difficult (especially if you are kosher), since pork is the staple of the Japanese diet, and they also rather like their shellfish. But if I am feeling positive, the answer is that being Jewish in Japan is really not that different to being Jewish in any other place in the world. We have always been a nomadic people - where we go, our Jewish identity follows.”


And perhaps that is why, at the LJCC we see that making Sushi is not such an unusual thing for us to be doing, but we are just embracing the fact that there are Jews living all over the world, managing how they can and incorporating their host country’s culture in to their own.


If you are living in a small Jewish community around the world, or know of anyone we would love to hear your stories and to learn how you incorporate new cultures in to your Jewish customs.