The Apostolic Vicar of the Henan Mission, Monsignor Simeone Volonteri, purchased a Pentateuch and some small manuscripts from an elderly Jewish widow in Kaifeng.

Shanghai’s Jewish community leader, S.J. Solomon, received an invitation from Reverend Timothy Richard (李提摩太, 1845–1919) to view the Kaifeng Torah acquired by Monsignor Simeone Volonteri (安西滿) at the Siccawei (徐家汇) Catholic Mission.

Reverend Richard was a Welsh missionary. In 1869, he was sent by the Baptist Missionary Society to China. He was influential in the modernisation of China under the Great Qing Dynasty, especially in the field of education. He was a great opponent against traditional Chinese foot-binding practices. He also partially translated one of China's four greatest literary masterpieces, Journey to the West (西游记), into English.

On 13th March 1900, a long and emotional letter written in Hebrew with Chinese translation was sent to the Kaifeng kehillah. The letter was signed by 46 Shanghai Jews, including S.J. Solomon and David Ezekiel Joshua Abraham (1863–1945), leaders in the community.

The letter assured the Kaifeng congregation of the Shanghai community’s willingness to help. Moreover, the letter clarified that, due to the Boxer Rebellion (义和团运动), it would not have been wise for the Jews in Shanghai to travel to Kaifeng as this would have raised suspicion amongst the local community. Therefore, a request was made for the Kaifeng community to send a few representatives to Shanghai to discuss what kind of assistance was most needed to help revitalise the community.

The Boxers intercepted this letter; a duplicate of the letter was sent again in August of the same year.

In the house of Edward Isaac Ezra (艾子喇, 1883–1921), a wealthy Jewish businessman who was born in China, thirty-one leading men and women of the Shanghai Jewish community met and founded the Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews (中国犹太人援助会).

The organisation's objective was "to study the origin, development, and history of the Jewish colonies in China; to preserve such sites and monuments as still exist, erect monuments where advantageous, and bring back to Judaism all Chinese Jews lineally descended from Jewish families." They had a genuine desire to help the community. The society had the support of Hermann Adler, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire.

However, the organisation's timing was not ideal because the Shanghai Jewish community's attention was on the mass migration of Jews from eastern Europe.

In any case, the Society soon realised that it had neither the money nor a rabbinic candidate to achieve its goals. After four years in operation, the Society took a long, twenty-year, pause before resuming.

Reverend Robert Powell, an anthropologist who was stationed intermittently in Kaifeng for several years, spoke to the Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews about the status of the Jewish community.

The community had fallen from their once prominent position in society. Reverend Powell remarked, they "bear anything but an honourable name, being for the most part fortune-teller and gamblers."

One member of the congregation became a Buddhist priest and rose to the position of an officer, where he managed the affairs of other priests.

Hermann Adler (1839–1911), Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911, received a letter from S.J. Solomon, a Jewish merchant living in Shanghai, regarding the information that Reverend Robert Powell (鲍威尔) had shared with the Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews.

Rabbi Adler was the son of Nathan Marcus HaKohen Adler (1803–1890), Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1845 to 1890.

Marcus Nathan Adler was a son of Nathan Marcus HaKohen Adler (1803–1890), the previous Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, and brother of Hermann Adler (1839–1911), the then Chief Rabbi of the British Empire.

The Jewish Chronicle (犹太纪事报) provided a full account of the lecture.

The Jewish Quarterly Review published the full text of the speech.

This lecture and its comprehensive coverage did much to bring the Kaifeng Jews onto the radar of Jews worldwide. In France, for example, the Grand Rabbi of that country, M. Zadoc Kahn, wrote to S.J. Solomon in praise of the Shanghai Jews' intentions to reconnect the Kaifeng Jews with their lineage and religion.

The original letter, dated March 13th, sent by Shanghai Jews to Kaifeng was intercepted by the Boxers; a replica of the letter was sent in August. This time, the letter was delivered by a messenger who was a native of Kaifeng and recommended by a Protestant missionary.

On 24th October 1900, the Kaifeng kehillah replied to the letter sent to them by the Shanghai Jewish community — the original was sent on 13th March 1900; it was intercepted by the Boxers, and a replica of the letter was sent again in August.

The reply was addressed “To the Elders of the Same Race.

Li Jing-cheng (李金诚, 1849–1903) was a member of the Kaifeng Jewish congregation and a wholesale flour merchant.

The Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews (中国犹太人援助会) asked the same messenger to go back to Kaifeng with a letter requesting the Jewish community there to send over a few of their members to Shanghai.

Li Jing-cheng sent a reply to Shanghai Rescue Society’s second letter. He wrote that, as per their request, he would visit Shanghai in the spring.

Li Jing-cheng (1849–1903) was 52 years old, and his son Li Zong-mai (1888–1948) was 12 years old.

Li shared that there were about 50 Jewish families in Kaifeng, about 140 adults and 250 in total. They were scattered all over the city; some worked in the civil service as junior assistants, and others kept small shops.

Li Jing-cheng and his son stayed in Shanghai for three weeks and returned home, carrying with them a letter, in Chinese, from the Rescue Society, asking the community to send more people to Shanghai. The letter stated, "We therefore beg to request you to send a few of your members principally young, to stay with us for a few months and we will try to teach them … We shall try to make them comfortable, and, if they wish to remain with us, we will try to find for them employment according to their abilities."

A delegation of eight from Kaifeng arrived in Shanghai. The team was led by Li Jing-cheng (1849–1903) and his son, Li Zong-mai. Li Zong-mai, 13, was the youngest in the group; another young man was aged 16; the rest were aged between 34 and 61.

While in Shanghai, the Rescue Society arranged for them to witness Jewish ceremonies, attend regular synagogal services, and visit the home of several Jewish families.

The Rescue Society hoped that re-immersing the Kaifeng Jews in a Jewish community and giving them a chance to experience Judaism again would prompt them to want to revitalise their own community.

The eight Jewish visitors were invited to the house of Edward Isaac Ezra (1883–1921). Ezra was a wealthy Jewish businessman born and based in Shanghai. He made a fortune from the Opium trade and real estate.

The visitors claimed that the Yellow River floods and the various uprisings during the second half of the 19th century contributed to the rapid decline of their community and its ties to Judaism.

Ezra wrote that the delegation travelled the Shanghai to seek assistance in rebuilding their synagogue and reviving its Jewish practices. He later elaborated, "they affirmed with frankness that in coming to Shanghai they are not prompted by the hope of personal gain. They are quite satisfied with their lot from a material standpoint. Rather their chief desire is to be instructed in the religion of their forefathers. Their leader closed the interview by expressing a hope that the synagogue in Kaifeng-fu may soon be rebuilt and the remnants of the ancient settlement once more rejuvenated. 'And this,' he continued, 'can only be done with the assistance of our foreign brethren. We are desirous of being instructed—teach us and raise us from the dust!'"

Li Jing-cheng’s son was Li Zong-mai (1887–1948). During the interview session at Edward Isaac Ezra’s home on 26th March 1902, the elder Li offered to have his son circumcised. The circumcision was performed in the house of David Ezekiel Joshua Abraham (1863–1945), the profoundly pious leader of the Shanghai Jewish community.

Li Zong-mai was given the Hebrew name Israel.

Israel Li showed very little interest in his Jewish heritage and did not practise Judaism. It was noted that his family's "only recognition of Judaism was that they received gifts on Purim instead of on Chinese New Year."

One of Israel’s cousins worked as a watchman in Abraham’s home; another cousin, Jacob, was employed by E.D. Sassoon and Co.

After World War II, Israel Li returned to Kaifeng, where he died in 1948. His son, Li Rongxin, stayed in Shanghai until 1949.

S.M. Perlmann was a Jewish scholar and a merchant. He was visiting Shanghai when the Kaifeng delegation was in tow. He had detailed conversations with the community that became some of the most valuable sources of information from that period.

Perlmann reported that "The visitors were of low intellect and lacked education. It was too much to expect these people to understand how deep an interest is taken in the Chinese Jews by their co-religionists, as well as by sociologists in the West." They were, however, able to read the Bible "thanks to the instructions they had received at Shanghai."

He further recalled, “It is still fresh in my memory how amazed were the faces of the Chinese boys in the service of my friend, when they saw that all the ladies and gentlemen who had gathered there for this spectacle, treated these poor Chinese as guests, taking a keen interest in them and inviting them to take the seats around the same table and to have tea in company with us.” Even the domestic servants found the visiting Kaifeng Jews to be lower class and uneducated.

The Kaifeng visitors in Shanghai realised that enough funds could not be raised to rebuild their synagogue because the international Jewry was focused on helping the European Jews fleeing the Russian pogroms. Thus, six of the eight returned to Kaifeng. On their departure, the Shanghai-based Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews (中国犹太人援助会) gave them a Chinese translation of the Torah and asked them not to sell off any more of their remaining Hebrew manuscripts.

Li Jing-cheng and his son, Israel Li, stayed in Shanghai.

From his experience in hosting the delegation of eight from Kaifeng, Edward Isaac Ezra (1883–1921) wrote the article, Chinese Jews (中国的犹太人), which appeared in the premiere issue of The East of Asia Magazine (亚东杂志); this was a quarterly magazine that was in publication for a total of four years. Ezra wrote, "Jews are to be found everywhere. This fact is familiar to all but it is not so well known that Jews in considerable numbers have existed in China from a very remote period."

Li Jing-sheng (1851–1903) passed away. He was buried in the Mohawk Road Jewish cemetery in Shanghai. Burial preparation confirmed that he was circumcised.

In March 1904, the Society for the Rescue of the Chinese Jews had its last meeting before taking a long pause of 20 years. The next meeting would be in July 1924. The society formally abandoned the plans made four years ago, realising that they did not have the money to rebuild the Kaifeng synagogue, nor did they have a good rabbi candidate to lead the congregation in Kaifeng.