Looking for Jewish Community

Carrie hi

Yes there is a Jewish community in Beijing. There is both an ultra-orthodox (Chabad) community and a Progressive Judaism community, both meet regularly.

I suspect that neither is the right place to learn Hebrew.

Some of the individual members are Israeli and might be interested but that would be a private arrangement.

I think at least two of the Universities in Beijing teach Ivrit (modern Hebrew) as a major and maybe some of the students or professors would be willing to teach you.

One need not be Israeli to teach Hebrew.  I would think any Jewish organisation could easily have somebody who could teach an eager student.

@ Mia I beg to differ.

Most people attending a service can, with difficulty, follow the service, many will use transliteration to follow (or read the local language version).

There may well be some who are able to teach how to read the Siddur but very doubtful if they can teach Ivrit.

The Progressive Community in Beijing is lay-led (i.e. no Rav and not all Rabbis speak Ivrit). The only ones who speak Ivrit are the half dozen Israelis who sometimes attend.

I think we are discussing different issues.  I thought he was asking about learning the language, not simply learning prayers.

Every Jewish organisation I have seen anywhere in the world has members who know Hebrew.  Including China, though admittedly I am not familiar with Beijing.

If the opening question is about rabbanim then indeed that is a different matter.