By SEAN BARRON

March 14, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

BOARDMAN

When many people think of Jewish history, it’s probably safe to say that tragic images of men, women and children being tortured and killed in concentration camps during World War II spring to mind.

But Jews also have a much-brighter history that goes back more than 1,000 years, a cantor, musician and expert on Jewish-Chinese history contends.

“Jews came to China in the eighth or ninth century,” settling in Kaifeng mainly as traders and merchants, Robyn Helzner pointed out during a speech and musical presentation she gave Sunday at Temple Ohev Tzedek, 5245 Glenwood Ave.

During the three-hour dinner and program, “Kreplach & Dim Sum – Yes, There are Jews in China!” Helzner discussed many similarities between Jewish and Chinese people, who she noted share a long history, a rich culture, a high value on education and a strong reverence for their ancestors.

Kreplach and Dim Sum are Jewish and Chinese pastries with filling, said Helzner, who was cantor for the United Jewish Congregation of Hong Kong and officiated during the first bar mitzvah celebrated in Beijing.

Helzner, of Washington, D.C., explained to an audience of about 80 that China was not anti-Semitic and welcomed Jews more than 1,200 years ago. By the 1920s, however, many Jewish people had assimilated and were cut off from fellow Jews around the world, she continued.

During WWII, China was one of the only countries to allow in Jews who were escaping from Europe. Consequently, an estimated 20,000 found their way to Shanghai before leaving en masse for Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere during the Chinese Revolution of 1949, in which Communist leader Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China, Helzner said.

“We weren’t accepting Jews in the U.S; we weren’t accepting them anywhere else,” she added. “How could they kill 6 million Jews? Because no [other] country would take them.”

By about the late 1970s, more than a decade after Zedong had launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to assert his authority over the country, the number of Jewish people settling in Beijing and other cities increased, she continued.

Today, many in China have professions as journalists, business people, professors and diplomats, Helzner said, adding that few are indigenous.

Helzner also played the acoustic guitar, sang and shared several stories related to having been part of Beijing’s first bar mitzvah.

“She’s spreading Jewish music throughout the world, even in far-flung areas, so that’s nice,” said Rabbi Saul Oresky of Temple Ohev Tzedek.