When Taiwan’s small delegation marched into Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium at the opening of this year’s Maccabiah Games, it made history. For the first time, athletes from Taiwan were participating in the Games as an official delegation.
The team was modest in size, but its meaning was not. It represented a friendship that has grown quietly for decades, not only through representative offices, governmental agencies, trade and cooperation, but also through classrooms, places of worship, remembrance ceremonies and personal relationships.
This strong belief is shared by Taiwan’s top envoy in Israel, representative Abby Lee, and the founder of the Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association (JTCA), Jeffrey D. Schwartz.
Taiwan and Israel are separated by thousands of kilometers, yet our societies recognize something in each other. Both are energetic democracies with innovative economies.
Both have learned that survival cannot be taken for granted, and that identity must be protected while remaining open to the world. Above all, both understand that friendship is most valuable when it is expressed in action.
Over the years, cooperation has widened across innovation, health, education, culture, tourism, and business. Delegations now travel in both directions, and partnerships link universities, companies, and local authorities.
But agreements tell only part of the story. The deepest ties are created on an individual level, when an Israeli student learns Mandarin in Taiwan or when a Taiwanese visitor enters a synagogue for the first time.
For founder Schwartz, this bridge is deeply personal. After he had lived in Taiwan for more than 50 years, his late wife, Na Tang, once told him that the only thing truly distinguishing him from the Taiwanese around him was his Jewish soul. She then encouraged him to embrace it more fully: to keep learning and to serve the Jewish people, Taiwan, and Israel.
Together, they founded the JTCA. In December 2021, the association opened the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center in the heart of Taipei, with wholehearted support and welcome of the Taiwan government. It was designed both as a home for Jewish life and as an invitation to Taiwanese society.
Today, the center offers Shabbat and holiday services, kosher food, a synagogue, a mikveh, children’s education, cultural programs and, most recently, a Jewish cemetery, supporting the full cycle of Jewish life in Taiwan. It welcomes a remarkably diverse community of students, diplomats, businesspeople, families and travelers, including several hundred long-term Jewish residents.
Yet its doors are equally open to non-Jewish Taiwanese visitors. Many arrive knowing Judaism and the Jewish people chiefly through books or news reports; they leave after seeing Jewish ritual objects, tasting kosher food, hearing Jewish music, or speaking directly with members of the community.
Friendship and commitment
Misconceptions rarely survive genuine encounters, and it paves the way to building trust one conversation, one meal, and one friendship at a time.
For Abby Lee, the same friendship is visible at the national level. Taiwan is one of the very few countries that holds International Holocaust Remembrance Day events each year with the Israeli and German missions.
These ceremonies are more than mere diplomatic observances; they affirm that memory is a civic responsibility and that antisemitism, dehumanization, and authoritarian violence must be confronted before they spread.
The participation of Taiwan’s presidents in these commemorations sends a clear message: Holocaust history matters in Taiwan, and “Never Again” and transitional justice are universal duties.
That commitment remains staunch after October 7, 2023. Taiwan immediately condemned Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack and stood with the people of Israel. Solidarity then became practical support through agricultural volunteering activities, humanitarian relief assistance, empowerment initiatives, and psychological support to the affected communities.
The same solidarity was renewed after the Iranian attacks, and Israelis noticed that Taiwan once again chose compassion.
The relationship also looks beyond crisis. Every year, Taiwan offers Israelis opportunities to study for degrees or learn Mandarin through the Taiwan Scholarship and Huayu Enrichment Scholarship.
Students return with far more than language skills. They bring home friendships, cultural understanding, and the confidence to imagine new cooperation. Similar connections are growing among universities, researchers, entrepreneurs, local authorities, and civil-society organizations.
The first Taiwanese Maccabiah delegation belongs to this same story. Sport creates bonds that official meetings alone cannot. Its participation showed that the Jewish Diaspora community in Taiwan may be small yet flourishing.
Taiwan is not just a distant island country, but a free and diverse society ready to meet Israelis on the field, in the laboratory, at the Shabbat table, and in the work of defending our shared democratic values.
Also, for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Israel, its mission is to turn our potential into opportunities, and turn opportunities into actual cooperation and fruitful outcomes.
From Taipei to Jerusalem, that friendship is already flourishing and will continue to grow in the years ahead with our joint efforts.
Abby Lee is the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv.
Jeffrey D. Schwartz is the founder of JTCA in Taiwan.
Source:
www.jpost.com
