A multipurpose Jewish community center opened in Taipei on Wednesday is to be a “new hub” for Jewish culture in Taiwan while fostering exchanges with Taiwanese, the Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association said.
“We wanted to share Jewish culture, traditions, education and religion” in Taiwan and “offer a space to call home for Jewish people in Taiwan,” Taipei-based businessman Jeffrey Schwartz said of the founding of the association.
“This goes beyond cultivating Jewish culture in Taiwan,” said Schwartz, who began working on the initiative to build the center in 2018 with his Taiwanese wife, Na Tang (?娜).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“Our goal was to integrate the strengths of Taiwanese people and the fortes of Jewish people,” he told an inauguration ceremony. “We also want all Jewish people around the world to see the value and beauty of our Isla Formosa and to facilitate opportunities for global exchanges for Taiwan.”
The 2,090m2 Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center, named after the founder and chief executive officer of Four Star Group Inc, houses a synagogue, a mikveh (ritual bath), a kosher restaurant, banquet rooms, a kindergarten, and a museum of Jewish art and antiquities, the association’s Web site shows.
“The community center is at the center of Taipei, providing people with an opportunity to access and understand the Jewish culture with ease,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) told the ceremony.
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) said that the center would help “build a bridge for communication and interaction between Taiwanese and Jewish cultures.”
It would also promote friendship between the people of Taiwan and the Jewish community, Lai said, adding that both groups cherish the values of human rights and freedom.
Israeli Representative to Taiwan Omer Caspi said that the community center is “a significant and exciting milestone in the development of Jewish life in Taiwan.”
It symbolizes the prosperity and growth of the Jewish community, which has existed in Taiwan for decades, said Caspi, who heads the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to