The Honorary Secretary of State of Montana

Yes, you read that right. The honorary Secretary of State of Montana resides in Taiwan.

His name is Ephraim Einhorn, and he's the rabbi of Taiwan's only synagogue--if you can even call it that. I had the pleasure of visiting the congregation last night, in an effort to find some Jewish connection during my sojourn here.
a
I have doubts about whether it really qualifies as a synagogue largely due to its size. At one point, the congregation was attracting 80 people every Shabbat, mostly itinerant businessmen. Last night, we had seven people, not counting the rabbi, and of those seven, two were Israeli businessmen passing through.

The congregation itself meets in a tiny room in what I can only guess are administrative offices of the Landis Hotel. To give you a sense of how small it is, there were two rows of seats, and I was told not to sit in the back row, as that was the synagogue's ezrat nashim (women's gallery). No mechitzah separated the ezrat nashim from the men's section, as there was literally no room for one. The men were crouched around a dining table that took up about half the room, and we were barely able to stand up for the Amidah or other parts of the service that required us to do so.

Among those in attendance, Rabbi Einhorn informed me, is the scion of one of Taiwan's leading families, who has apparently recently converted to Judaism. There was also present a lovely young Taiwanese woman in blue jeans, a rather incongruous sight in what claims to be an Orthodox congregation, as the general dress requirements in Orthodox congregations usually limit women to very long skirts (at least knee length, though ankle- and floor-length are far more common). But I suppose that in a community this size, some rules have to be bent. I was informed by Rabbi Einhorn that, though this woman has not formally converted, she reads Hebrew beautifully. I suspect she may be serving as ba'al kria (Torah reader) on Shabbat mornings, an office women generally do not expect to have in Orthodox circles. I may have misunderstood him, but I gathered that she was married to the scion mentioned above. I think this says something about the small size of Taiwan's Jewish community. Orthodox rabbis are usually loathe to convert a married person when his or her spouse is not also converting, as doing so would immediately create an intermarriage. But I suppose such considerations cannot be applied strictly in a community this size.

Rabbi Einhorn himself, in addition to being the honorary Secretary of State of Montana, is also the representative for Poland's Chamber of Congress to Taiwan, a founding member of Republicans Abroad, and has some connection to Taiwan's World Trade Center (yes, Taiwan has one of its own, apparently). He has been instrumental in helping to normalize realtions between Taiwan and such countries as Poland and Latvia.

Aside from this, I was not able to gather much more of an impression of him. He is on the north side of eighty and may be a little doddering. After the service, he attempted to conduct a Torah study session about Abram's journey out of Ur and into Palestine. But he kept wandering off into discussions of his various diplomatic exploits. As far as I can tell, there is no Rebbetzin Einhorn, but she may be deceased. The rabbi has, after all, been in Taiwan since 1975, and I cannot imagine that he has been alone in his service to Taiwan's Jewish community all that time.

I told the rabbi I may not be able to make it in to services with any great frequency. I live in Taoyuan, a good hour from Taipei, and my schedule will probably, at least at first, force me to work Saturdays as this is a big time for Taiwanese parents to send their children for extra English lessons. Nonetheless, he was encouraging of my presence at the minyan, though he did not ask much about my background except to find out that I was from what he describes as the "State of Brooklyn."