By Danny Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — This is a Jewish story with a Taiwanese twist. It’s really an American story, but this American reporter is reporting it from across the seas in Taiwan. You see, a certain woman named Mrs. Wandy Wang Druss was born in Chiayi in southern Taiwan and moved to the Dominican Republic when she was 12 when her Taiwanese father and mother went there for work. Two years later, when she was 14, she and her parents landed in America. Today, Mrs. Wang Druss is 51 and Jewish and president of the Orloff Central Agency for Jewish Education in Florida. The agency develops and provides educational programs for the Broward Jewish community in Florida.
How do I know all this? A ”letter to the editor” published in the English-language ”Taipei Times” in Taiwan recently, penned by Lewis Druss, Mrs. Wang Druss’s Jewish-American husband, explained the backstory for readers in Taiwan.
I read it at the kitchen table in the morning while drinking Taiwan-grown coffee and eating a breakfast of soy milk and fried bread sticks, and since I live in the same town where Wandy was born, I just had to find out more about this wonderful story.
Lewis Druss, a young at heart 60-something attorney in Florida, told readers in Taiwan in his letter: “As an 11-year-old girl living in Taipei, Wandy attended Penglai Elementary School, where she won a citywide essay and calligraphy contest. Her father, Chan-hsiung Wang , moved the family to the Dominican Republic when he took a position there as an irrigation engineer when she was 12 years old. Two years later, the Wangs moved to the U.S.”
According to Lewis and a subseqent email from Wandy herself, Wandy still speaks to her parents in Hoklo Taiwanese, a dialect language from Fujian Province in mainland China, somewhat similiar to Yiddish in the way it is used in Taiwan in the 21st century, and she also uses Mandarin when necessary ”and is cherished by the local Jewish community in Florida.” Wandy is a convert to Judaism.
The couple have two grown daughters in their 20s, Meredith and Samantha, both recent college graduates: one from Dartmouth College and the other from Brandeis University. Mrs Wang Druss herself has two master’s degrees and works as the director of continuing education for health sciences at Broward College in Florida.
There’s a cute story here, too.
“A few years ago, a female family friend, who is Jewish and is a judge in the Broward County court, was talking to Wandy about kosher dietary laws — the old Jewish religious practice still followed by Orthodox Jews of only eating foods that are permissible and avoiding those that are not according to an ancient set of Jewish laws,” Lewis Druss told readers of the Taipei Times in his letter published on March 13, 2012. “This friend knows Wandy’s background and knows that her Taiwanese-born parents were not Jewish. Nevertheless, she asked if her parents kept a kosher home when she was growing up. After saying this, they both paused and burst out laughing.”
Added Wandy’s husband: “Wandy, although looking as Taiwanese as any other Taiwanese woman, so easily fits in that people no longer see her physical appearance, but instead see her inner character.”
There’s more: “She also feels as comfortable eating Shabbat dinner at a Hasidic rabbi’s house as she does buying something from a pushcart street vendor in Taipei. She has an enthusiasm and passion for kindness that draws people to her and energizes them, regardless of their ethnicity. She understands and relates to the essence of the Jewish soul and Jews embrace her as one of their own. The Jewish population of Broward County and the people of Taiwan have someone they can both be proud of.”
When asked by this reporter why he wrote the public “letter to the editor” that was published in the Taipei Times in mid-March, Lewis explained by email: “I wrote the letter to illustrate that physical appearance and background need not limit a person. For example, in the case of Wandy, a Taiwanese woman can achieve recognition and prominence in a very non-typical Taiwanese endeavor.”
“I also wrote and sent the letter to a newspaper in Taiwan because I am proud of Judaism,” Lewis added. “I think my letter speaks to and resonates from the heart. Physical appearance and background do not dictate acceptance or define a Jewish person. I wrote the letter because I am proud of Wandy, especially in her case for not even being aware of realizing how her kindness and competence have penetrated stereotypes and barriers.”
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Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com