Marvin Tokayer (born 1936) is an American Rabbi and author who served as a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

chaplain in Japan. He was later advised by the

Lubavitcher Rebbe Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups ...

to return to Japan where he served for eight years as the only rabbi in the country. Tokayer currently serves as a rabbi in Great Neck, New York.

Career

In 1971, Tokayer published a book in Japanese entitled ''5,000 Years of Jewish Wisdom: Secrets of The talmud''. The book, written in only three days, was translated into Japanese and sold over a million copies. It was later translated into Korean and has sold over two million copies in South Korea. South Korean designer

Rejina Pyo Rejina Pyo is a South Korean fashion designer. She was born and grew up in Seoul, South Korea. Pyo launched her eponymous fashion brand in 2014. As of 2020, there are more than 100 stockists worldwide. People to have worn her clothes include ...

recalls reading Tokayer's Talmudic tales as a child, saying the stories about kindness, truth and determination have always stayed with her. Tokayer has written 20 books in Japanese. He has researched the history of the Jews in China and Japan, including the role that the Japanese played in helping victims of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

. In the book ''The Fugu Plan'' published in 1979, Tokayer with co-writer Mary Swartz, wrote the story that how two Japanese officials helped the Jew in Lithuania escape to Japan before World War II. In the 2010s, he collaborated with Kenneth X. Robbins in editing studies of expatriate communities in Asia. He praises General

Hideki Tojo Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...

and General Kiichiro Higuchi, who saved 20,000 Jews that the USSR intended to send back to Germany, and is disappointed that this piece of history is not well known.

Selected publications in English

*''The Fugu Plan''. Paddington Press, 1979. (with Mary Swartz) *''Western Jews in India: From the Fifteenth Century to the Present''. Manohar Publishers, 2013. (editor with Kenneth X. Robbins) *''Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East''. Gefen, 2014. (with Ellen Rodman) *''Jews and the Indian National Art Project''. Niyogi Books, 2015. (editor with Kenneth X. Robbins)

Honours

* : The Consul General’s commendation (2014) * : The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokayer, Marvin 1936 births Living people American rabbis Jewish American writers United States Army chaplains American non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews