这是一个犹太女人的动人故事。
　　她是唯一至今还留在上海的犹太后裔，又是一位坚强慈爱的中国母亲。她那充满传奇色彩的人生旅程，折射出中以两国人民绵延不断的人文情愫。
　　
　　一
　　
　　她叫沙拉·伊麦斯，当年她的父亲为逃避纳粹的迫害逃亡到了中国，“上海方舟”保护了这个善良正直的犹太商人。
　　1950年，新中国成立的第二年沙拉出生在上海虹口大名路的家中。
　　1956年，她的父亲参加犹太人联合会工作，她们举家搬到了上海复兴中路642号犹太人联合会会所居住。
　　童年的沙拉是幸福的。在联合会三层的大洋楼里她分享着父亲的慈爱，在秧歌和腰鼓声中，她和邻家的小朋友一样接受了许多共产主义教育，她看《儿童时代》，读毛主席著作，听解放军英雄故事，学愚公移山精神，在犹太后裔小沙拉的躯体里，安下的是新中国好少年的红色灵魂。
　　然而在她12岁那年，由于父亲的去世使她失去了家庭温暖，特别是后来的那场“文革”洗劫，又把这位异国少女带入了一个更可怕的深渊。
　　
　　1967年秋天“红卫兵”把沙拉赶出了洋楼，还剪去了她那美丽的鬈发，几经周折直到1971年，21岁的沙拉总算进了上海铜厂成了一名干体力活的女工。
　　她的生活也许从此会安静下来，谁料“文革”期间，以色列政府的一纸有关允许她“移民”的通知，让她突然背上了莫须有的所谓“外国特务”的罪名，经受了3年牢狱之灾。
　　出狱之后，她在路边小摊上看到一尊观音造像，不知为什么她没加思索竟花高价把“观音”请了回家，这也许是她内心此时感到困惑和孤单有关吧。她没有按传统的中国习惯把菩萨供奉起来，而是把它当作一个善良的朋友，摆放在床头柜子上，每晚，她都要和观音悄语轻声地“对话”，她坚信中国这场“浩劫”终会过去，善良总有一天会战胜邪恶，她忘不了“文革”期间那些默默帮助她的好心人，特别是在她被“扫地出门”后几次悄悄塞给她生活零花钱的普通老花匠以及那对常常请她吃饭并让她留宿的邻居们……
　　这些最平常、最朴素的关爱，让沙拉感受到了人间真情，催化了她那份终身无法割舍的中国情结。
　　
　　二
　　
　　洗劫过后沙拉重返工厂，她结了婚，并有了三个儿女。她给大儿子起名叫“以华”，她觉得她的生命离不开远隔千里的以色列和与她的一生紧紧相连的中国。
　　1992年1月24日，中国和以色列正式建交了!这一天恰巧是儿子“以华”的生日，“人逢喜事精神爽”，沙拉她用最隆重的方式庆祝了这个节日。接着，在她42岁那年，她踏上了“寻根”之旅。这是中国改革开放后第一个或许是最后一个返回以色列的犹太后裔。回到以色列，她受到了当时的以色列总理拉宾的接见。
　　然而，总理的接见并没改变她回到陌生国度的感觉，她在特拉维夫市举目无亲，又听不懂当地的希伯莱语。要命的是，她在中国人们把她看作外国人，而在以色列人们又把她看作中国人。
　　她像流动民工一样在以色列街头摆摊，她专门找老人在聊天中学希伯莱语。后来耶路撒冷移民局终于给沙拉一家发了安家费，沙拉用它开了一家餐馆。
　　
　　沙拉有着浓浓的中国“乡情”，当她看到在以色列的中国劳工受到不公正的待遇之时或者看到中国打工者遇到生活困难或遭遇不幸时，她都会给予热情和无私和帮助，因而受到中国驻以大使馆的感谢和以色列司法部门的嘉奖，于是她在犹太人和华人中就有了两个亲切的称呼：“闲事大妈”和“沙拉大姐”。她常常对孩子们说：“我们的生命中有着中国人的血脉，中国人要帮中国人呀!”
　　她从中国回到以色列，这些年来她又几度迁徙，但她始终将《毛主席语录》，和一套《毛泽东选集》带在身边。邓小平同志逝世那天，她带着3个孩子驱车300公里赶到中国驻以大使馆，在小平的灵堂前深情地献上一束鲜花。
　　
　　三
　　
　　沙拉的才干和特有的中国情结，受到了许多以色列人士的关注。2002年，著名的罗斯蒂克兄弟钻石有限公司，决定任命她为公司驻中国地区的首席代表。于是她离开上海十年之后，又重返故土。由于她胸中的中国情愫，她特意选择在她原来居住过的地区上海浦东居住。
　　在气势恢宏、富商云集的上海金茂大厦，我走进了沙拉的专用办公室。
　　她身居高楼大厦从事商务活动，但她心目中始终惦着中国的普通百姓。她居住在洋泾地区，被中国的百姓评选为10万洋泾人的形象大使，百姓们赞誉“沙拉大姐热情、正直、敢为民请命”。她在居住地为群众的生活琐事奔波操劳，有时甚至带着保姆拿起水桶给小区的绿化地带浇水护花。她还成了浦东公利医院的“荣誉职工”兼义务工，说来让人难于置信，医院碰到难题就会想到沙拉。因为再有情绪的病人，只要她出面劝说，总能破涕为笑，再激烈的矛盾，经她协调常常会握手言欢。特别是她一手带大、谆谆教育的三个儿女，他们也都像母亲一样懂得感恩，热爱中国，乐于助人，他们和母亲并肩努力，为中以两国人民的友谊架设桥梁。
　　
　　站在富丽堂皇的金茂大厦宽大的玻璃窗前，她会常常思念起复兴中路642号那幢曾经居住过的老洋楼，她深情地说：“我选择中国，选择做中国土地上努力成长的树；我选择中国，我想将整个身心和智慧为她付出!”这话，是沙拉一生割舍不断中国情结的概括。
　　
　　A Chinese Story of A Jewish Woman
　　By Chen Yibing
　　
　　The Second World War witnessed large groups of Jewish people flee to Shanghai, the Noah Ark in the world for these homeless refugees during the chaotic years. Most of them left after the war. Some stayed on. Sara Imas is the last one of them still in Shanghai Today.
　　Sara’s father was a businessman. He fled to Shanghai from Germany and stayed on after the war. Sara was born in Shanghai in 1950, the second year of New China. In 1956, Sara’s father began to work for the Jewish People’s Union located at 642 Fuxing Road Central and the family moved to the three-storied western-styled house.
　　Sara was happy during these years. The little girl basked in his father’s love. She also received some education of Communism. All she read in school and at home had something to do with New China. The Jewish girl had a “red soul” as a good Chinese teenager.
　　
　　However, his father died when Sara was 12. And the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) plunged her into the hell. She was driven out of the three-storied house and her curly hair was ruthlessly shorn by some Red Guards. She was unemployed. After much trouble, she finally landed a job as a worker in a textile factory in 1971.She was 21 that year.
　　Sara thought her life would settle down without much trouble thereafter. But it suddenly took a vicious turn and became even worse. One day she received a letter from the Israeli Government notifying her that she was approved to migrate to Israel. She was not allowed to leave. Instead, Sara was charged of being a foreign agent and thrown into jail. She was behind the bar for three years.
　　In these difficult years, her friends and neighbors reached out to help her. They rendered her pocket money, food and shelter now and then. Sara bought a Kwan-yin statue at a roadside shop after she was released from jail. She put the statue at the head of her bed. She talked to the statue as if the Buddha was her intimate friend and believed the turmoil would be over someday.
　　After the jail, Sara was back to the factory. She married and had three children. Her elder son was named Yihua, meaning Israel and China. Sara felt that her life was closely associated with both Israel and China.
　　China and Israel set up diplomatic relations on January 24, 1992. It happened to be Yihua’s birthday. Sara celebrated the red-letter day most ceremoniously. In the same year, she went to Israel to seek her roots. She was the first Jewish descendent leaving China after the reform and opening-up policies started in the country and probably the last descendent of the Jewish people who had fled to China decades before. Sara Imas was warmly welcomed home by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
　　However, life was not easy for her in her new homeland, where Sara found no kin to them. And she did not speak the Hebrew language. The Israeli people regarded her as Chinese. Sara became a street vendor to make a living. To learn the language, she sought out old people to chat with them. When the immigration administration finally granted her a large amount of settling-in allowance, she set up a Chinese restaurant.
　　Sara Imas was warm-hearted with Chinese people in Israel. When she learned something bad had happened to Chinese there, she would step forward and help. For her warm and selfless contributions, she was highly appreciated by the Chinese Embassy to Israel and commended by the Israeli legal authorities.
　　After she settled down in Israel, she moved several times. But she always carried Quotations of Chairman Mao and Selected Works of Mao Zedong with her. On the day Deng Xiaoping passed away, she and her three children drove 300 kilometers to the Chinese embassy and placed fresh flowers in front of Deng’s portrait.
　　Sara’s talent and her Chinese complex were noticed by many of her country people. In 2002, a diamond company hired her to be their chief representative in China. So ten years after her departure from China, Sara Imas came back to Shanghai. Her office is in the Jinmao Tower, the most magnificent office tower in New Pudong Area where transnational corporations gravitate.
　　In her spare time, the warm-hearted Sara is most active in community affairs. She is voted by all 100,000 residents of the community as their ambassador. She works as a volunteer at the Pudong Public Hospital and solves problems for the hospital. And now and then she talks with patients and listens to their woes.
　　Sara Imas misses the three-storied house in Fuxing Street Central where she grew up. “I choose China and I choose to be a tree growing up in China. I want to devote my heart and soul to China,” says Sara Imas, an Israeli woman with her deep roots in China.