The Jewish population of China has by 1642 reached about five thousand, mostly in Kaifeng.

Located along the southern bank of the Yellow River, Kaifeng is flooded in 1642 by the Ming Dynasty army with water from the Yellow River to prevent the peasant rebel Li Zicheng from taking over.

Roughly half of the six hundred thousand residents of Kaifeng are killed by the flood and the ensuing peripheral disasters such as famine and plague, making it one of the deadliest single acts of war in history (excluding systematic genocide) and the second greatest single loss of human life of its time.

The flooding of the city destroys the synagogue as well as Jewish records, books, and burial grounds, bringing an end to the "golden age" of the Jewish settlement of China.

Sometimes referred to as a natural disaster due to the role of the Huang He river, the flood, with a death toll of some three hundred thousand, is currently listed as the seventh deadliest natural disaster in history.