In the early morning of August in the golden autumn, in Xingkaihu Village No. 2, more than 100 kilometers away from Fuldan City, the big rooster of the village chief Zhu Dagui's family fluttered its feathers as beautiful as the clouds, held its head high and held its chest high, as noble as a phoenix. , stretched out his neck, and roared out "Oh oh oh".
After a while, the roosters in each yard began to crow, as if they had received instructions. So people with dreams climbed up from the kang one after another, and the whole village started to operate for a new day like a well-run machine.
The hens clucked and laid warm eggs in their nests; the fat pigs in the pig pens grunted and ate the fresh pig food; the cows' breasts were full, The calf's tendons are bulging; the sheep's bleating sounds come and go, urging the owner to quickly bring them grass.
In the wilderness outside the village, the pale yellow ocean stretches as far as the eye can see. The heavy wheat ears sway gently with the cool wind, shining with the light of maturity in the morning light. Another harvest season is coming.
Lines, a Jew in his fifties, got up from the kang when he heard the first rooster crow. He scooped two gourds of water from the water tank, rinsed his mouth, washed his face, and waited for his son and grandson to get up and finish washing. The family began morning prayers.
"Thank you, Lord of Eternal Life, for your kindness in returning my soul..."
Different from the daily prayers of those Jews in Europe, the Jews under the rule of Beihai Town added praise for Zhao Xin to their prayers three times a day. This was also determined by the rabbis in the Tulum area after discussions at a meeting. It can be seen that the Jewish community is extremely grateful to Beihai Town for its acceptance and non-discrimination.
It took more than 20 minutes to finish praying, and then the Li family had breakfast, and then they started busy in the same way every day. The men took care of the livestock, cut fodder, and arranged farm tools; the women fed the chickens, washed clothes, and tidied the house; a few children carried their schoolbags and went to school.
Like other homes in the village, the Li family has three main rooms and two side rooms, as well as a yard as big as a basketball court. There is a vegetable field and a livestock shed with a horse, seven or eight sheep, and a dozen chickens. Because Jews have a tradition of not eating pork, the place originally reserved for the pig pen was turned into a sheep pen.
As a Russian Jew, Lines' surname is actually "Volodarsky". It’s just that when I first arrived in Tulum, all Jews were required to have Chinese names. The civil affairs clerk in charge of population registration knew some Russian, so with a stroke of a pen, all the men, women, and children in the Volodarsky family had surnames. Li, and his eldest grandson Abraham was soon renamed Li Bohan by the school teacher.
Lines worked in the yard for a while, fed the horses himself, drank two more cups of tea, and then went out and began his daily routine of inspecting his fifty acres of land.
"Uncle Li, are you going to the fields again? Do you want to have breakfast?" The neighbor from the next door yard happened to come out and greeted him casually.
"Yeah, okay, let's take a look at the wheat." Because there are many people from Henan in the village of No. 2, the little Mandarin Lines mastered also included a lot of Henan dialect.
It has been almost two years since he came to Xingkai Lake No. 2 Village. From being cautious at the beginning, Li Nes finally dares to live a life with a straight chest, which is inseparable from the enthusiasm of the villagers.
When he first came here, he had to close the doors and windows tightly every morning, noon and evening to pray, for fear that the neighbors would hear him. Fortunately, the people in the civil affairs department told the village chief Zhu Dagui some Jewish customs in advance, and Zhu Dagui greeted the villagers. Otherwise, someone would have thought that the Li family had some ulterior secrets, and would have reported it to the public security police. .
Along with the Leenes family, there were about a dozen other Jewish families who moved from the Tulum area. At that time, they had only settled in Tulum for half a year, and only half of the 100 acres of land allocated to them had been cultivated. Because it is raw land, the grain harvested is not enough to last until spring.
Since Zhao Xin issued an order prohibiting the loan sharking industry, almost all the remaining Jews were impoverished farmers. With anxiety, they walked a long migration road to the designated place marked out by Zhao Xin; except for their family and partners, they had almost nothing. When they arrived at their destination, they cultivated and cultivated the unfamiliar land by singing, dancing and fooling around.
Although cold, illness, and natural disasters may occasionally plague us,
To the settlers, what they didn't expect was that the "noble king" actually gave them farm tools, livestock, and seeds for free.
However, just as winter was about to begin, the village officials sent by the Civil Affairs Bureau issued a notice, notifying that some families would be relocated again, and the Liness family was on the list.
The move caused an uproar among the Jewish community. Although the notice said that the new resettlement place was better than Siberia, many people did not believe it. They thought that Beihai Town was as untrustworthy as Tsarist Russia. On the surface, it sounded nice, but in reality, it wanted to expel them to a more desolate and remote place. But in fact, the purpose of Beihai Town is to break the habit of Jewish groups living in groups. First, some people will be dispersed and resettled in Han villages to see the effect, so as to achieve the goal of "turning barbarians into summer".
Although the Jews elected representatives to negotiate, the attitude of the civil affairs officials was inconsistent and their words were useless. As Jews who were forced to migrate from Poland to Ukraine, and then from Ukraine to Siberia, they were used to being oppressed by Tsarist Russian officials in the past, so they chose to bow their heads again.
The Lines family said goodbye to their relatives and friends in tears, and took a pile of rags and belongings with them and embarked on an unknown migration journey again. However, when they arrived at Xingkai Lake No. 2 Village using an ox cart, boat and horse carriage, they were immediately shocked by the endless fields and the rows of large blue brick houses in the village.
Village Chief Zhu who greeted them was very enthusiastic, while the other villagers looked curiously at these new neighbors with deep features, high noses, and extremely white looks. Some women looked at Jewish children and girls with pity in their eyes, saying that they were really white and much more handsome than their black boys and girls.
After settling down, more than a dozen Jewish families learned that the land allocated to them had been reduced from 100 acres to 50 acres, but they felt that they still made a profit. It's much warmer here than in Siberia. Besides, the cultivated land is all ready, and even the aqueducts have been repaired in advance, not to mention that there are jaw-dropping tractors to help plow and harvest.
The sudden happiness made Lines feel that he had arrived in heaven, but the long years of wandering made him fear that everything was just a dream, and when he woke up, he would still be living a miserable life of being discriminated against and driven away.
Speaking of the history of Jews being despised and bullied by European countries, it actually dates back to the early days of the development of Christianity. In the late fourth century AD, with the establishment of the New Testament, the Jews became sinners.
Although the early founders of Christianity and even Jesus himself were Jews, based on the remarks in the four major gospels of the New Testament, Christian anti-Semitism also constructed Jewish collective characteristics, and the "god of death" became an identity characteristic of the Jews to some extent. , every Jew is burdened with "original sin" as soon as he is born.
During the First Crusade, the Crusaders composed of poor people did not attack the Holy Land occupied by pagans at first, but took the lead in waging war against the Jews in Europe. They have a ridiculous logic: Since the Pope calls on us to defeat the pagans and destroy the enemies of God, then the Bible has already said that the Jews are pagans, and eliminating them can have the same effect. No matter whether he is poor or rich, if you kill him, you can redeem your sins and enter the kingdom of heaven. Let’s copy the guy together!
It was from this day that the anti-Semitic movement in Europe that lasted for thousands of years began. Since then, large-scale persecution of Jews in Western Europe has intensified, and Jews have been portrayed as disciples of the devil, both in reality and in literature. An evil and lowly race that deserves all the oppression.
Many people in later generations have seen from film and television works that segregation zones were set up for Jews during World War II, and they had to wear a yellow six-pointed star on their chests. As everyone knows, Europe has been doing this since the 16th and 17th centuries. They wear specific clothes, wear special signs, are surrounded by high walls, and have Christians standing guard at the door; they cannot move around the city without a permit.
Some people may say that Jews can change their faith. Sorry, the Christian church does not accept the conversion of Jews, so they can only follow their original beliefs, hold together for warmth, and seek spiritual comfort.
In fact, in Chinese history, there has been such a group burdened with "original sin" in the Ningbo and Shaoxing areas of Zhejiang since the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was not until the late Qing Dynasty that they were liberated.
They have been working in lowly jobs for generations. They cannot study, farm, or do business. Even if they have money, they cannot live in good houses, move around at will, or even
Not even walking with your head held high or talking loudly. In addition, they also have requirements for dressing up so that they can be distinguished from the crowd at a glance. This group is the lazy people of eastern Zhejiang.
According to Gu Yanwu's records in "Rizhilu", the ancestors of the lazy people were the tribes of Jiao Guangzhan, a general of the Southern Song Dynasty. He was demoted for rebelling against the Song Dynasty and joined the Jin Dynasty. He could not raise his head for nearly a thousand years.
Going back to the Jews, because they were often expelled from various European countries, they became people without a country. The reason why they were expelled was because medieval Europe was a feudal hierarchical society based on the enfeoffment of nobles into fiefs, and outsiders were not eligible to own land. The Jews, who had no foundation for a stable life, had to live in the cities and engage in various handicrafts and moneylending businesses.
The Liness family's ancestors opened a glass workshop when they were in Poland. Later, when the business grew, they turned to the lending industry.
After walking around his fifty acres of land, chasing away more than a dozen birds, and rubbing another ear of wheat and tasting it, Lines felt that it was almost done. I am afraid that the harvest will be in the next few days, and he will have to go home soon. The two sons checked the sickles again, and in the afternoon they brought the stone shafts and horses to thresh the wheat field.
Since arriving in Xingkaihu No. 2 Village, more than a dozen Jewish families have adhered to their traditions, but their living habits have unconsciously changed. The most obvious examples are the fire Kang and the New Year Festival.
The Li family used to sleep on beds, even in cold Siberia. Last winter, after settling down, Li Neisi took the bread baked by his wife and his eldest grandson Li Bohan, who stammered in Mandarin but could communicate simply, to the village chief Zhu Dagui's house to express his gratitude. As a result, he found Zhu's "bed" It's not made of wood. When I got on the kang, I found that it was quite warm. This immediately piqued his interest and he started asking for details.
Lines went home and calculated the labor and material costs for half a night. During breakfast the next day, he announced to his family that when the weather gets warmer next spring, he would follow the example of the Chinese and replace the wooden bed with a heated kang.
His wife Li Feiji, his eldest son Likov (Yakov) and his youngest son Li Grigory (Gregory) all looked at a loss after hearing this. They thought that lighting a fire under the bed was simply a fantasy. Is it burning the bed or not? Burn people! After listening to the old man's explanation, I suddenly realized.
Compared with the Chinese, the Jews also have many festivals. There are no less than ten kinds of festivals such as Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Jewry, Festival of Lights, Purpur, etc., but none of them is as lively as the three festivals of the Chinese people.
Especially during the Spring Festival, in addition to the lively fireworks and firecrackers, there are also various performances, yangko and opera singers, which are simply dizzying and dazzling. In addition, the Chinese people's solemn belief and respect for their ancestors also deeply surprised the Jews who were seeing the atmosphere of the Spring Festival for the first time. Of course, they don't understand what it means to "pursue the long-term with caution, and the moral integrity of the people will be strong", but they also feel the Chinese people's emotions about blood ties and family inheritance.
At noon on New Year's Eve, the Lines family received an invitation and, together with a dozen other Jewish families, came to the village committee compound of the second village to participate in the village's "reunion banquet."
Although the residents of Xingkaihu Village No. 2 come from different places, and not all of them have the same surname, it is not easy for everyone to come together to survive outside the Great Wall, so Zhu Dagui invented such an activity five years ago. In addition, in order to thank "Prince Zhao" for bringing everyone out of the sea of misery and living a prosperous life, before the reunion banquet started, all the villagers had to salute Zhao Xin's portrait and show their loyalty.
Unexpectedly, after this incident spread, other villages followed suit, and now more than 20 administrative villages in Xingkai Lake Reclamation Area do this during the New Year.
Zhao Xin couldn't laugh or cry after hearing about it. Although he asked the civil affairs officials not to do any salutes to show loyalty, the people below would never listen. They always had an account of whoever treated them well, so this "custom" was stubbornly continued.
When more than a hundred Jews followed the villagers in confusion and bowed, and after Zhu Dagui said a few auspicious words, the banquet began. The dazzling array of dishes made the eyes of the newly arrived Jews widen, and the tangy aroma made everyone drool like crazy.
The food was so good too! It's simply better than the aristocratic masters of Tsarist Russia.
The reunion banquet in the second village was organized jointly by every household with money and effort. Nowadays, every family is not short of food and money, so it is not a big deal to have something good to eat during the New Year. consider the jews
I was new here, so I didn’t let them pay.
"Next year, when the Xie family harvests crops and sells them to the grain station, their food will be no worse than my family's. Every family in our village is about the same. Don't worry, the good times are yet to come!" Zhu Dagui said to Li with a smile as he held a wine glass and toasted across the table. Ness describes the future.
Li Bohan, who was competing with chicken legs at the time, vaguely translated for his family. Li Neisi and his family, who were sipping wine, couldn't help but nod their thanks after hearing this.
In March of the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish Passover arrives, and it is customary to eat a whole roasted lamb. Thinking of the sumptuous banquet during the Spring Festival, the Jews invited the villagers to participate. The women made unleavened bread with eggs, sugar and pine nuts, plus the fragrant roast lamb, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
It was only then that Lines and the others felt that they had finally become a part of the Second Village.
