Yaacov Liberman
Yaacov Liberman was a founding member of the Taiwan Jewish Community and a leader of Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s revisionist Zionist movement, called Betar, in China. He was so dedicated to the movement that he wore his Betar uniform on his wedding day. Liberman was born in Harbin and raised in the city’s Russian Jewish community. The child of wealthy parents, Liberman also spent time in Korea and Shanghai growing up.1Liberman is remembered by Taiwan Jewish Community members as an “energetic and charismatic” leader dedicated to the preservation of Jewish life.2 He stayed on the island for a short time in 1947 while working a gig for Warner Brothers, before the Kuomintang’s central government relocated there. At the time, Taiwan’s economy was in shambles, its roads unpaved; Liberman recounts unsettling details of the rats he had to fight off in his hotel room. He noted his return 30 years later (and Taiwan in much better shape) as an “interesting postscript.”3
Members recall Liberman searching for Taiwan’s Jewish community from the moment he got off his plane in 1975; he had worked in Japan for 10 years, and was there to work for Shaul Eisenberg’s company in Taiwan, which was pursuing weapons sales at the time. “When he landed, the first thing he said was, how come we don’t have a Jewish community? We must make a Jewish community,” remembers Jacques Bijo, former secretary and longtime member.4 He was a passionate president, and led the community in hosting cultural nights and encouraged the whole community to participate in a stage play. His whole family participated, his wife Lea taking charge of food, his daughter Rina leading the Sunday school, and his son-in-law helping with the religious services.5
Liberman, in his position as president, wrote a monthly news bulletin about happenings within the community which Bijo’s company would print and mail to members. The bulletin consisted of “editorials, commentaries, and poems...written in part by Liberman and other members of the community.”6 They sometimes reached a thick 20 to 30 pages and were distributed to up to 50 families per month. Unfortunately, these pamphlets have not been recovered as of this writing, but a copy of the cover of a 10-year anniversary, titled “One Jew to Another,” has been shared here thanks to Don Shapiro.
Liberman was granted ‘honorary lifetime chairman’ of the Taiwan Jewish community upon his departure in 1985, of which he later warmly wrote: “we all collect a variety of accolades throughout our lifetime...yet, from all of these tokens of peer recognition, I value none more than this heartwarming expression by a tiny Jewish community on the faraway island of Taiwan.”7
“He would always say, ‘that was the best part of my life.’ Because he made a community. He was in charge of a thriving community that didn't have a home before,” remembers Rina Segal, Liberman’s daughter. “I think also, age-wise, he felt like he was doing something that was meaningful. He was always doing things that were meaningful.”8
Sources
- Liberman, Yaacov. My China: Jewish Life in the Orient 1900 - 1950. Jerusalem, Israel: Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 1998.
- Shapiro, Don. Ms. Taipei: Survival of a Jewish Community without Deep Roots. Haifa University, n.d. 8.
- Liberman, Yaacov. My China: Jewish Life in the Orient 1900 - 1950. Jerusalem, Israel: Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 1998. 207.
- Bijo, Jacques (former TJC secretary and founding member). Interview with the author. May 10, 2021.
- Segal, Rina (former TJC member and son of Yaacov Liberman). Interview with the author. July 28, 2021.
- Shapiro, Don. Ms. Taipei: Survival of a Jewish Community without Deep Roots. Haifa University, n.d. 8.
- Liberman, Yaacov. My China: Jewish Life in the Orient 1900 - 1950. Jerusalem, Israel: Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 1998. 207.
- Segal, Rina (former TJC member and son of Yaacov Liberman). Interview with the author. July 28, 2021.