Marvin Tokayer


Marvin Tokayer is an American rabbi and author who served as a United States Air Force chaplain in Japan. He was later advised by the Lubavitcher Rebbe 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 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. In the book The Fugu Plan published in 1979, Tokayer with co-writer Mary Swartz, wrote about how two Japanese officials helped the Jews 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 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.
Tokayer currently serves as a rabbi in Great Neck, New York.

Selected publications in English