Pepper, Silk & Ivory reveals a missing page in Jewish history, the amazing stories of Jews who both benefitted from and contributed to the Far East. Here you will read about the juvenile delinquent who later became known as the "uncrowned Jewish king of China;" the woman who refused to give up until the Japanese Constitution included rights for women and children; the secret behind one of the world's most famous logos; and the American baseball player who spied for the United States in Japan. You will also learn the stories of the Jew who served as Singapore’s first chief minister; the eccentric writer who introduced China to the West with her pet gibbon always at her side; the Marrano physician in India whose famous volume on botany and pharmacology in the sixteenth-century caused as much excitement as the discovery of penicillin did in the twentieth-century; the Jewish musicians who enhanced both Eastern music and the quality of life for everyone in Asia; the ashram in India created by the Jewish guru who became known as “The Mother;” and the sexual therapist, poker buddy, doctors and other Jewish members of Mao Zedong’s inner circle.
Consummate storyteller Rabbi Marvin Tokayer draws on a half century of personal experiences in Asia and a wealth of knowledge about Jews and the Far East, and prolific writer and television producer Ellen Rodman, Ph.D., weave together colorful characters and their captivating stories into this fascinating book.