XU XIN, Diane and Guilford Glazer Chair Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies of Nanjing University, and Founding & Honorary Director of the Glazer Institute of Jewish and Israel Studies at Nanjing University, People’s Republic of China, is also President of the China Judaic Studies Association, and Director of China National Institute of Jewish Studies, Editor-in-Chief and a major contributor of the Chinese edition Encyclopedia Judaica.
He graduated as an English major from Nanjing University in 1976 and began to teach at the university since then. His academic career could be divided into two periods: studies on English and American Jewish literature before 1986 and Judaic studies since 1986. Now he teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.
He has taught courses such as Jewish religion, history, culture and the world civilization, the Holocaust studies, American Jewish literature, History of Jewish Diaspora, West civilization, and survey of Chinese culture after he moved to the field of Judaica since 1988 at Nanjing University.
He has organized exhibitions in China on Jewish subjects since 1990, such as “Judaic Studies in China” (1990), “Courage to Remember: Holocaust 1933-45” (1993), and “American Jewish Experience” (1996). He also organized “The First International Conference on Jewish Studies in China” in October 1996, co-sponsored by Tel Aviv University, “The International Symposium on the History of the Jewish Diaspora in China” in May 2002 and “International Symposium on Judaism” in October 2004.
He ran a workshop on Jewish History and Culture for Chinese College professors and young scholars three times in 1997, 1999 and 2002 respectively. Over 100 Chinese university faculty members have been trained on Jewish and Israel studies in his program.
His activities in promoting the study of Jewish subjects among Chinese college students have been supported by a number of grants from world-renowned foundations, such as The Rothschild Family Foundation, The Skirball Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Samuel Bronfman Foundation, The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Diane & Guilford Glazer Fund, and The Sino-Judiac Institute.
He served as a visiting/guest professor and taught various college courses at Chicago State University (1986-88), Florida Community College in Jacksonville (1999), Montclair State University (2001), and Macau University of Science and Technology (2012-2017). He was a special guest speaker at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1988 and at Tel Aviv University (1993 and 1998). In 1995, he served as a Fellow at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1996 and 1998, he served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Jewish Studies of Harvard University.
He has given more than 800 public lectures in the United States, Israel, Canada, the Great Britain, Germany, Hong Kong and China since 1995 on various Jewish topics.
Domestic newspapers and periodicals such as "China Education Daily", "Guangming Daily", "China Daily", "Xinhua Daily", "China Economist", "China Talent", CCTV, Jiangsu TV Station, Nanjing TV Station and so on have made special reports on his academic activities. Some major news media in the world, such as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Forward, The Jewish Weekly, The Jerusalem Post in Israel, the National Post in Canada, etc., have reported on his academic activities. The United States cable network and related television media made special programs reporting his activities.
He has won the Excellent Teacher Award of Nanjing University for five times.
In 1995, he was given “James Friend Memorial Award.”
In 1996, he received the Special Government allowance from The State Council of the People's Republic of China.
In 2002, the Bar-Ilan University’s Board of Trustees and Senate in Israel decided to award him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa in recognition of the extremely important work that he has done on research of the Jewish people in China.
In 2016 he was awarded The Humanities Research Contribution Award from Nanjing University.
In 2019, he was appointed as a member of the International Advisory Committee of Shanghai Jewish Refugee Memorial Museum.
For many years (2010-2019), he was appointed as the special Development member of the Development Committee of Nanjing University.
In 2020, he was appointed as the Global Exchange Ambassador of Nanjing University and
In 2021 he received the Outstanding Contribution Award of the Department of Philosophy of Nanjing University.
He is author of
Encyclopedia Judaica, the Chinese edition, Co-Editor-in-Chief and major contributor, (The Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1993).
Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng (Hoboken: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1995, with Beverly Friend),
Anti-Semitism: How and Why (Shanghai: Shanghai Shanlian Books, 1996),
Venturing Into Hebraic Civilization (Democratic and Reconstruct Press , Beijing, 2001).
A History of Western Culture (Peking University Press, 2002),
The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion (KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2003)
A History of Jewish Culture (Peking University Press, 2006).
Anti-semitism: Past and Present (400,000 words, People's Publishing House, 2015)
Strangers in a Strange Land: Jews and Modern China (200,000 words, National Taiwan University Press, 2017).
A Concise History of Israel, Nanjing University Press, 2022
He has also written numerous articles on Judaic topics, including studies of modern Hebrew literature, Jewish history, anti-Semitism, and surveys of Jewish communities in Shanghai, Tientsin, Harbin, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
