An 18th Century Jewish Scholar Official?

 

We examined a very late synagogue inscription previously of the Jewish-Confucian scholar official Chao Tso-mei:

 

It is clear that this man is a scholar official, as the inscription claims as much.  It is the date that is in question.  White has this to say about Chao Tso-mei:

Leslie in his Memorial Book looks at this example, and says that White may very well be correct:  "This identification is likely, through by no means established, I have not managed to find any mention of his holding a post in the Shantung provincial gazetteers, in particularlybetween 1729-1739."  He also notes:

I actually think it is interesting that this was not copied by Jesuits from 1704 - 1723.  Yes, the Chao Ying-tou inscription is from the 1600s, but surely this is important to the dating of this tablet (although still reasonable speculation only, and not certainty).  Leslie also says that Chao Tso-mei "does not appear in the Register" as he would not, as it was closed by 1670.  There is still a firm maybe that Chao Tso-mei was a Jewish Confucian scholar official (the only one?) in early 1700s.