Jewish and Chinese communities have been interacting for centuries and still do so in the Big Apple. Kelly Chung Dawson reports from New York.

At the Museum of Jewish Heritage, participants of Project Mah Jongg play a game. [Melanie Einzig/China Daily]

At the Museum of Jewish Heritage recently, red Chinese lanterns hung from the rafters, snacks were presented in Chinese takeout boxes and up to 50 participants lined up to play a marathon game of mahjong. The marathon, which ran for six hours on Feb 6 and coincided with the lunar new year, is part of Project Mah Jongg (the preferred Jewish spelling), an exhibition and examination of the game that begins on May 4 and continues through December.

And though mahjong in a Jewish museum may seem like an incongruous pairing, the game has deep roots in the American-Jewish lifestyle dating back to the 1920s. It also points to parallels between Jews and Chinese.

"The relationship between American Jews and Chinese-Americans is a very interesting one," says Andrew Coe, author of Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States.

"Most of the direction of the affection seems to go from American Jews being interested in Chinese culture, but there's a mutual feeling that Jewish and Chinese cultures are both very old world cultures with deep, long-held traditions."

Betsy Aldredge, an organizer and PR manager with the museum, speculated that in part, the relationship between the two communities sprung from simple proximity, as both Jewish and Chinese immigrants often lived in poor-income neighborhoods upon arriving in the US. In New York, that neighborhood was the Lower East Side, where Jewish and Chinese communities are still found.

"When you feel like an outsider, you're more likely to try new things and encounter other people who are new to the country," Aldredge says.

Much of the interest from American Jews in Chinese culture began in the 1920s, when mahjong swept the US because of widespread interest in the "mysticism" of the East, which also made Chinese food popular. At the time, Chinese food was considered hip for young urbanites seeking late-night fare, Coe says.

Mahjong ultimately faded from popular American culture, but both mahjong and Chinese food have remained popular mainstays of Jewish-American tradition.

"Mahjong has a long history of being used for philanthropy in the Jewish community," Aldredge says. "Local sisterhood groups have often used it as a way to raise money for their temples, and we're reclaiming that."