Jews in China
The studies on Jews in China probably began as early as the arrival of Jewish settlers in China. Nevertheless, written records of studies on this subject before modern times are almost completely lacking.
With the sharp increase in the number of Western missionaries and scholars coming to China and the commencement of new Jewish immigration to Harbin, Shanghai, Tianjin, and other cities after 1840.
Studies on ''Chinese Jews'', especially the investigation of the Jewish community in Kaifeng, a city which served as the capital of six different dynasties in ancient China, became a topic of great interest in Europe and North America.
After the late 1890s, Chinese scholars also joined the research and advanced their own academic views on the issue of the Jews residing in China. In the first half of this century, Chinese scholars like Ye Han, Chen Yuan, Wu Han, and Pan Guangdan published a large number of books and articles and reached an advanced level in this research area. The main issues scholars discussed were (1) the earliest time at which and route by which the Jewish people had come to China; (2) the formative period and activities of the Jewish community in Kaifeng and causes of its assimilation; and (3) the situation of the Jews elsewhere in ancient China.
After the Second World War contemporary scholars were not content merely to conduct research on the Jews in ancient China, but also set out to work on the Jewish communities in modern China, especially on the Jews in Harbin and Shanghai. The focuses of research interests were: (1) why Shanghai became an ideal home for Jewish immigrants and a haven for holocaust victims from Nazi Europe? (2) the economic activities of Sephardic Jews in Shanghai; (3) Central-European Jewish refugee community in Shanghai 1938-45; (4) Japanese policy toward the Jews in China; (5) acculturation between the Chinese and the Jews; (6) the Jewish community of Harbin.
Meanwhile, more and more former Jewish residents in China began to tell and write their own stories and experiences in China, giving impetus to investigations by scholars of Jews in modern China. That is particularly true to the Jews who left Harbin and settled in Israel and in other communities around the world. Over the past several years, books about Harbin and Shanghai Jews have appeared, including Rena Krasno''s ''Strangers Always, A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai'', James Ross''s ''Escape to Shanghai'', Evelyn Rubin''s ''Ghetto Shanghai'', Ernest Heppner''s ''Shanghai Refuge'' and two books edited by myself: ''The Jews in Shanghai'' and ''Shanghai Jews Memoirs''. Among the books on Jews in Shanghai, there also are some books in German such as ''General Luo genannt Langnase: das abenteuerliche Leben des Dr. med. Jacob Rosenfeld'' by Gerd Kaminski. Compared with so many books about Shanghai, few articles talk about Jews in Harbin, Tianjin and some other Chinese cities.
Academic activities on this subject have also been flourishing since the beginning of 1990s. In August 1992, an international symposium on ''The Jewish Diasporas in China'' was held at Harvard University. The international seminar ''Jews in Shanghai'', sponsored by the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai, was held in Shanghai in April 1994 and was attended by more than 60 scholars. In May 1995, another conference with the title ''Flight to Shanghai (Flucht nach Shanghai): 50th Anniversary of the Survival of Austrian Jews in Shanghai'' was held in Salzburg, just during the commemoration of the end of the war in Europe. In 1997, two new academic events in Europe added some new materials and achievements to the rich accumulation of documents and publications on the Jews in China. In the conference ''Das Ende des Exils in Shanghai'', held in Berlin on August 20-22, some addresses mentioned the activities of an underground anti-Nazi group among the Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the war which had remained untold before and have yet to be written. In another colloquium, ''From Kaifeng to Shanghai - Jews in China'', held in Sankt Augustin, Germany, on September 22-26, a few papers launched inquiries into some new areas of this subject such as ''History of Jews in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao (1911-31)'', ''China und Jiddish. Jiddische Kultur in China-Chinesische Literatur auf Jiddisch'' and so on.
The former Jewish residents in China are growing old; the documents they keep are also suffering from the march of time. For us, the most important thing is that we should scramble to preserve stories of eye-witnesses before time overtakes them. As a visiting exchange fellow at the IIAS, I have taken the opportunity to attend the two above-mentioned conferences and interview more than 20 Shanghai ghetto survivors now living in Europe, North America, Australia, and Israel, and will finish my report ''The Central-European Jewish Community in Shanghai 1938-1945'' soon. I am happy to see more and more people have been joining in our work, which I see as racing against the clock. Undoubtedly, the research on Jews in China, especially in modern China, will continue to be a hot point of academic and even public interests between Chinese Studies and Jewish Studies.
* Professor Pan Guang is dean of the Shanghai Center of Jewish Studies. Dr. Pan Guang is the Director and Professor of Shanghai Center for International Studies and Institute of European & Asian Studies at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Director of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Studies Center in Shanghai, Dean of Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai (CJSS) and Vice Chairman of Chinese Society of Middle East Studies. He is Professor of History & Political Science, and Walter & Seena Fair Professor for Jewish & Israeli Studies. He is International Council Member of Asia Society in USA and Advisory Board Member of Asia Europe Journal in Singapore. He obtained 1993 James Friend Annual Memorial Award for Sino-Jewish Studies, 1996 Special Award for Canadian Studies, Sankt Peterburg-300 Medal for Contribution to China-Russia Relations awarded by President Putin. He has traveled and lectured widely in North America, East Asia, Russia, Europe, Middle East and Australia. He holds a number of prestigious posts in Chinese institutions on International Studies, Asian Studies, Middle East Studies and Jewish Studies, and published books and articles on a variety of topics such as “The Jews in China”, “The Jews in Shanghai”, “China--Central Asia--Russia Relations”, “China’s Role in the War on Terrorism”, "Contemporary International Crises”, and “China’s Success in the Middle East”.
Book Review:
The Jews In China (Chinese-English Edition)
Pan Guang (compiler & editor).
China Intercontinental Press Beijing 2001 1st Edition
Hardback 200pp ISBN 7801138813 AU$166.50 [t] 300 x 235mm.
An extensive, mainly photographic record, of the various Jewish communities in China from the mid-19th century through to the 1950s.
The Jews in China
By Sidney Shapiro, December 7, 2001
China Intercontinental Press has just published a striking pictorial about Jews in China, with both text and captions in Chinese and English. Entitled The Jews in China, it ranges over their entire history, from the first documentary evidence of a Jewish presence in the Tang Dynasty to the last departure from Shanghai of World War II Jewish refugees.
Particularly well done are the sections on the 19th century Sephardic Jews from Baghdad—the Hardoons, Sassoons, Kardoories…who settled in Shanghai and Hong Kong and amassed fortunes; on the Russian Jews who escaped from Czarist oppression and Whiteguard pogroms and made their homes in Harbin and Tianjin; and especially on the Jews who fled the Nazi slaughter in Europe only to meet Japanese harassment in occupied Shanghai.
The section on ancient history is less satisfactory, since it fails to deal with the question the editors themselves pose, namely: When did the Jews come to China, and Where did they come from? This is surprising. An impressive amount of excellent treatises by Chinese scholars has been published in Chinese, and in English and Hebrew translation, on these questions, as well as on why the Jews came, the routes they followed, how they lived, their relations with their Chinese hosts…etc., etc.. Nor are most major Chinese specialists on the Jews even mentioned the Bibliography.
To strike a personal note, it seems to me one individual is very much over-mentioned. Namely, Sha Boli (Sidney Shapiro). I have no doubt the editors meant it kindly, but THREE pictures of me is entirely out of proportion to my small efforts in the study of Chinese Jews.
Despite these shortcomings, The Jews in China is a commendable production, with a plethora of intriguing pictures and photographs, and informative texts. I am sure the book will be appreciated and enjoyed by readers, both Chinese and foreign. It is in hardcover, has a large, handsome format. Layout, paper, print and photo reproduction are all first-rate.
The editors and publishers are to be congratulated.
Preface to The Jews in Shanghai
by Pan Guang
The publication of this album on Jewish life in Shanghai on the fiftieth anniversary of the victory of World War II is of great significance.
While the Nazis were frenziedly persecuting and slaughtering Jews in Europe over of Nazi terror. Raoul Wallenberg, a prominent Swedish diplomat, saved thousands of Hungarian Jews by distributing Swedish passports. Chinue Sugihara, Japan''s consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, granted transit visas for more than 2,000 Polish Jews, enabling them to escape from the Holocaust. The true story told by the film Shindler''s List is now known to all. However at the same time, the government of many countries imposed strict restrictions on the entrance of Jewish refugees. Especially after 1938, almost all countries closed their doors to the desperate Jews. Their refusal to accept those people struggling for survival on the verge of death was tantamount to choking living beings.
Viewing what the non-Jewish world had been doing to Jews in retrospect, we, the people of Shanghai, are proud of the fact that when all the civilized world closed its doors to Jewish refugees, Shanghai provided a vital haven and every possible relief for them. The authentic and vivid pictures of this album will tell readers the unforgettable story about the Holocaust survivors in Shanghai and also remind them of the unique history of the Jewish community of Shanghai.
From the middle of the 19th Century, Shanghai served as a focus of Jewish immigration to China. By the end of the 1930''s, Sephardic Jews, Russian Jews and Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe in Shanghai amounted to over thirty thousand, forming the largest Jewish community in the Far East. The community had its own communal association, synagogues, schools, hospitals, clubs, cemeteries, chamber of commerce, publications, active political groups (especially Zionist parties).
Sephardic Jews immigrated to the city from British-ruled areas like Baghdad, Bombay and Hong Kong as early as the second half of the last century. After entering Shanghai they soon demonstrated their trading capability and did very successful business. Among them, several notable families like the Sassoons, the Hardoons, and the Kadoories became economically strong in Shanghai and even across China. Close ties with international corporations and the financial centers of New York and London enabled the Shanghai Jewish community to support a wide range of political and cultural activities. In the period when the European Jewish refugees swarmed into Shanghai, financial support to them from both Shanghai Jewish business circles and American Jewish organizations like JDC was abundant and vital.
Russian Jews came to make a living in Shanghai via Siberia and Harbin after the pogroms and revolutions in Russia at the beginning of this century. Most of them arrived in Shanghai with hardly any money and struggled to open some small business. As time went by, through their own endeavor. A number of Russian Jews became middle class, and with their every increasing number, far more than the Sephardic Jews, very soon they were beginning to play an active role in the social life of Shanghai.
There were many outstanding intellectuals and professionals among the Jews coming to Shanghai. Their influx infused the Shanghai Jewish community with a singular level of creativity and variety. Enriched by their contributions, the community organized active and vigorous educational, recreational and sports activities. All the teachers and students of Mir Yeshiva, a famous Yeshiva in Europe, some 400 in number, miraculously survived the Holocaust and continued their studies in Shanghai through the war. Particularly, Shanghai Jews had extraordinary success in the print media. From 1903 to 1949, more than fifty Jewish newspapers and magazine came out in Shanghai in English, Russian, German French, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. From 1939 to 1946, more than thirty German,Yiddish and Polish newspapers and magazines were published by Jewish refugees in Shanghai. This intellectual experience would not have even been contemplated by them their authoritarian countries of origin.
What is especially worth mentioning is the mutual respect, sympathy and support between Shanghai Jews and Chinese people. In history, both the Chinese and Jewish nations contributed so much to the civilization of the world And Chinese people experienced untold sufferings as Jewish people did. Over 35 million Chinese were killed and wounded by Japanese fascists during wartime. This same experience gave Chinese people deep respect and sympathy for Jewish people. As early as April 24, 1920, in his letter to Mr. N.E.B. Ezra, one of the leaders of Shanghai''s Jewish community, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China, wrote, "All lovers of Democracy cannot help but support the movement to restore your wonderful and historic nation, which has contributed so much to the civilization of the world and which rightfully deserves an honorable place in the family of nations." Soon after Hitler''s anti-Semitic campaign started, Madame Sun Yat-sen (Ms. Song Qingling) headed a delegation to meet with the German Consul in Shanghai, and lodged a strong protest against Nazi atrocities. Her delegation included all the important leaders of the China League for Civil Rights: Dr. Cai Yuan-pei, Mr. Lo Shun, Dr. Lin Yu-tang and so on. After the middle of the 1930''s, Shanghai witnessed more and more denunciations and protests against anti-Jewish outrages in Europe. The indignation they expressed at German fascists was undoubtedly meant as an inspiration to Chinese people who were strenuously resisting Japanese fascists.
Likewise, Shanghai Jews also gave firm support to the Chinese national- democratic movement and resistance against Japanese aggression. Besides the well- known Morris "Two Gun'' Cohen, who was a faithful friend of the Chinese national democratic cause, there are some more examples. Mr. Hans Shippe, a writer and reporter from Germany, was the first Jewish volunteer to fall in battle on China''s soil during her war against Japanese aggression. He left Shanghai and joined the New Fourth Army in 1939. On November 30, 1941, several days before Pearl Harbor, he died with a gun in his hand in an engagement with Japanese troops in Yinan county, Shandong province. Chinese people erected a monument for him near the battlefield. I should also mention Dr. Jacob Rosenfeld with deep respect. He came to Shanghai from Austria as a Jewish refugee in 1939 and left Shanghai to join the anti-Japanese war in 1941. He served in the ranks of the Communist-led army for ten years, obtaining the highest rank as a foreigner of Commander of the Medical Corps. Chinese people will never forget his great contribution in helping resist Japanese aggression and establishing the People''s Republic.
Half a century has passed. "Shanghai Jews," and their descendants are now living in all parts of the world. But they still regard Shanghai as their "homecity." Their energy, creativity and influence have gone far beyond their numbers. Especially, they have become an important force in promoting the development of the traditional friendship between Chinese and Jewish people, between China and Israel, and between two of the oldest civilizations in the world.
THE CHINESE JEWS
By, Oliver Bainbridge
The National Geographic, VOL. XVIII, No. 10, OCTOBER, I907
THE Chinese history affirms the city of Kaifengfu to have been the metropolis of the province and the seat of the empire during a long succession of monarchs, till it was at length overflowed and covered with sand by a great inundation. It is situated in a large fertile plain, about 5 or 6 miles from the Yellow River, and its low situation occasioned its ruin in 1642, when it was closely besieged by the rebel Li Chung, at the head of 100,000 men. The general who was sent to relieve it conceived the fatal design of drowning the besieging army by breaking the great bank which had been reared at a vast cost to preserve the country from being overflowed by the Great Yellow River. His project succeeded, indeed, but proved the ruin and destruction, not only of the noble capital but of three hundred thousand inhabitants, by the violence and rapidity of the inundation.
Some fifty years after this dreadful catastrophe a Jesuit missionary, going upon some occasion into the province of Honan, found a considerable Synagogue in the city of Kaifengfu. He soon became acquainted with some of its learned chiefs, who introduced him into their Synagogue and showed him one of the Parchments or rolls of the Pentateuch written in Hebrew, together with the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, some of the prophets, and others containing their liturgy and commentaries they owned. They had lost some of the sacred books and some of their targums or paraphrases. This loss was caused by a violent overflowing of the great river, which had laid the capital wholly under the water and had damaged their Torah, or roll of the Pentateuch, and upon which they ordered twelve new copies to be taken from it. Today I find no synagogue, owing to another overflowing of the Yellow River -- "China''s Sorrow" -- but in its place a dirty pond and a stone erected on the site bearing the following strange inscription: "A monument in memory of the Great Ching Ching Cenoby. Oh Wu Lo Hau, the creator of this religion and grandson of the nineteenth generation of Punku, the principal ruler of the Mythical Era, was born in 146th year of the Chow dynasty (976 B.C.). He proved himself to be very wise, prudent, and merciful. He understood the mysteries of creation and the ideas of creation and could trace the troubled source of religion. The religious elements were not to believe in any idolatrous representation and not to flatter the ghost and fairy, and so many people were at liberty to serve his religion as Cenobites in a manner that was as free as running water. The successor of Oh Wu Lo Hau was called La, and was born in the 613th year of the Chow dynasty. His conscience and benevolence were noted by ever one as he traveled to the La-na Mountains for the purpose of informing them regarding the Scripture. He restricted himself to fruits and vegetables instead of meat and bathed and fasted for forty days and nights. He attended to his duty with the utmost simplicity and sometimes even forgot to eat or sleep, but never ceased to pray with a sincere heart to his God, for he had obtained a book containing many sections. In this book there were strange things that could not be easily explained -- in short, it indicate that the good was affected by those who became good, and the evil by those who did not bear in mind the warning. The successor of La was called Lo Tze Loh, and received from his predecessor the proper doctrine and explained the four words -- "ching" (clear), "chew" (pure), "li" (ceremonial), and "pai" to worship with a bow). The word "ching" means to "direct your heart singly to one religion". The word "chew" means "not to be confused by any other secular ideas." The word "Ii" means "to stand on ceremony." and the word "pai" "to worship with a bow." With these instructions, the Cenobites were to teach one another in the future.
During the beginning of the Sung Dynasty (96 A. D.) there was a missionary surnamed "Li," who was accompanied by a crowd of Cenobites, and arrived in China with a lot of western cloth, which they presented to the Emperor of the Sung Dynasty and became citizen of the country. Subsequently one of the grandsons of these people, called "Mu Sy Ta Pan," was appointed to do the preaching, and another, called "Jen Tu La," began to build a cenoby. It was destroyed after that and had to be rebuilt southeast of Tu Chai, in the 16th year of the Yuen dynasty (1280 A. D.)
The Emperor Tai-Tsu, of the Ming dynasty (1368 A. D.), gave the Cenobites descended from Li a piece of land for their building, because he could well understand their Scriptures, which persuaded the people to good instead of evil.
In the year of "Wung Lo" (1403 A.D.) the Cenoby was rebuilt, and was long afterwards destroyed by, water, and the ruined scene that exists now proves this little bit of narrative. .
The vast community referred to in the inscription has dwindled down to 8 families, numbering in all about fifty persons, who have in a great measure forgotten their characteristic observances through frequent vicissitudes and varied conditions of life.
I reached the main gate of the city of Kaifengfu (the ancient capital of the Middle Kingdom) one night about ten thirty, with not too favorable an impression of Chinese carts or the shaggy little Chinese pony, which had a great habit of tearing off at every opportunity. The soldiers belabored the massive gate most industriously for about twenty minutes, when a small trap-door opened and the gate-keeper hurled epithets at us that volcanic and picturesque. But his sattron-colored palm had been covered with a few coins, his ruffled nature became as smooth as a sheet of polished silver, and we entered the ancient capital of the Middle Kingdom. For two miles we had to pick our way through narrow, stinking, slushy streets, packed with men, boys, horses. goats, sheep, dogs, cats. and donkeys, sleeping in all over the place, while the changing of the night watchman''s irons and the piercing wail of ragged, starving. filthy beggars carried one for the moment to the land of "tell thousand curses." What an unspeakable joy to reach the residence of Mr. C. W. Shields, the district inspector of China posts, who received me with the courtesy of a prince. We had scarcely spoken a dozen words when the magistrate''s secretary, called for my card.
Main gate of the city of Kaifengfu
Next morning, before I was out of bed, another dignitary wanted to copy my passport, and informed me that it would be well to call at the at the Foreign Office. This I did, and found the officials polite and much interested in the object of my visit to their city, particularly his Excellency Chang Shu Shen, with whom I paid a visit to the imperial palace, one of the greatest curiosities in the whole empire and situated in the very heart of the city---a prodigious group of edifices, vast courts, gardens, kiosks, and palms, surrounded with a stately wall of considerable compass. It contains all the spacious and stately apartments of the Emperor and his family, and afforded a safe retreat for the Dowager Empress during the occupation of Peking by the foreign troops. The city gates, pagodas, arches, towers, castles. banks, and other public buildings display a magnificence that must have been truly grand prior to the sad havoc wrought by the flooding of the Yellow River. A number of new, ricketylooking pieces of printed yellow and vermilion rice paper, pasted on the doors of every house and shop. I discovered were Prayers against the evil influences of the foreign devil that had just arrived, and it was with considerable difficulty that I managed to get through the tremendous crowds, gathered in the streets to hear the foreign devil speak and curse him as he passed.
During the first three I located all temples and mosques likely to afford me any data, and on the fourth morning visited the ruinous site, which gave no, evidence of the magnificent synagogue that once stood there or the wealth of its community, save for a weather-beaten commemorative stone that told the strove of these people. While I was photographing and rubbing this stone, thousands of Chinese gathered around, and they came to the erroneous conclusion that I was a Jewish rabbi come to succor Chinese Jews, which the Mohammedan portion did not particularly relish, owing to the fact that a great many of the Jewish community had merged into Mohammedanism through persecution and distress. The Chinese always referred to the Jews as the "sect which pulls the sinews" and as the "Mohammedans with blue bonnets," because they wear blue bonnets as well as take off their shoes during all religious ceremonies.
One handsome, intelligent Chinese Jew came forward and introduced himself, inquiring very diligently the reason of my taking the photograph and rubbing of the stone that spoke of the grandeur of his ancestors and their synagogue. I told him that I wished to inform the Westerners, who feel the deepest interest in the Jews, because our Christian religion has come from a Semitic race. The long line of noble men to whom the Jewish nation has given birth, from the time of its founder, Abraham, and the fearless testimony which since the days of captivity it has borne to the lofty truth that there is one God, and none other, must ever give to the scattered people a Iarge place in our veneration and love. Only it must be not blind, but a pure and true, veneration. born of a careful study of all they have been and all they have done. I persuaded him to come to the house, and he unfolded the following remarkable story:
"My elder brother -- I am not yet forty years old, but I have thought and talked much with my friends about our ancestors, who were rich and numerous and who worshiped in a fine synagogue, built on the land presented to them bv the Emperor Tai-tsti. This synagogue, you know, has been swept away by ''China''s Sorrow'' [the Yellow River]. Our ancestors came to this land from the northwest nearly three thousand years ago, and had with them a roll of the law that was very ancient and in a language that we do not understand today, because we have no teachers. The beautiful synagogue had a number of courts, and in the center of the first there was a large, noble arch, dedicated to the Creator, Preserver, and Father of all men. The second comprised sacred trees, and the houses of the good men who cared for the buildings. The third had many trees, and on its walls tablets in memory of our great Chao [a Jewish mandarin judge, who rebuilt the synagogue on one occasion] and other holy men. It was very large and contained the Hall of Ancestors, the brazen vases of flowers and the censors, in honor of Abraham and others. The nerves and sinews were extracted from the animals slain for food in this court.
The synagogue itself was small, but exceedingly beautiful, and in the center was the throne of Moses, a wonderfully carved chair, covered with embroidered silk, upon which they placed the sacred book while it was read. Above the throne, in letters of gold, were wise and good words our ancestors brought from afar: ''Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one God, Blessed be the name of the Glory of his Kingdom forever and ever,'' and in another part of the synagogue, ''Blessed be the Lord forever; the Lord is God of gods and the Lord; a great God, strong and terrible.'' Near the arch on which these last words were written our ancestors always washed their hands except the chief rabbi who entered the ''House of Heaven'' [a little square room, which none but the rabbi can enter during the time of prayer]. In the ''House of Heaven'' the rolls of the law were kept in silken curtains, and on the western wall the Ten Commandments were written in large golden letters.
"Our ancestors suffered many hardships. for the Chinese officials objected, and with force, to their slaughtering animals for themselves. Even today they object to our circumcision, which they denounce as a barbarous and cruel practice. Our lot is truly sad, thrown as we are amidst enemies'', unsupported and slowly overwhelmed by our surroundings. We are a pitiful remnant of the past, and there seems to be no morrow for us -- the dawn is dark with tears." I asked him if they had any scrolls today., but learned that the majority had been destroyed at different times; but they did manage to preserve two, one of which they sold to a missionary because they were starving, and the other was blown to heaven in the following manner: One day a foreigner visited the city and asked to see the sacred scroll; but when they opened the ark they found it quite damp and laid it upon the grass to dry. A wind came, and it disappeared into the unknown. The probability is that the foreigner by some trickery secured the scroll, and led them to believe that the wind had carried it off. Early in the following morning eight of the Jews (the whole male community) called and gave me much valuable information regarding the Mohammedans and Confucians, who had stolen many things from the jewish ruins, including the ark of the Sepher Torah, and Jewish tiles bearing sacred inscriptions. This made me desirous of locating and, if possible, securing them. After much difficulty and tipping I persuaded my visitors to be photographed, and then accompanied by Mr. Shields, My Hu (my interpreter), and two soldiers, I visited mosque after mosque, which excited and annoyed the Mohammedans, who mistook me for a Jewish rabbi in disguise.
The fourth proved to be the one I wanted, for in a small room I saw the ark on a table, and made toward it, when the crowd objected and pushed me out, emphasizing their disapproval in no uncertain manner. The soldiers were helpless, but I had a strong suspicion that they were at heart with the mob. The climax came when I clambered on the roof of the mosque and began to examine the tiles, for thousands of Chinese surrounded the mosque, yelling out, "Kick the devil''s stomach!"'' "''Batter his devil''s brain on the stones!" "Kill the Jew!" "Choke the sinew-puller!" "Tear the foreign devil''s entrails out!" and other diabolical things too numerous and too disgusting to mention. The majority were armed with bricks, clubs, or knives and were mad with rage. Every second I thought would be my last, for the fury of the Chinese mob beggars all description.
A happy thought flashed through my mind and, quick as lightning, I pulled out my folding camera and turned it toward them, thinking to photograph the murderous beasts before they butchered me. The shock was tremendous; they dropped their bricks, knives, and clubs, and crushed and jammed one another in their rush from the "devil''s glass." My friend, interpreter, and soldiers very discreetly banged and fastened the doors after them, and the interpreter explained to the Mohammedan priests that I was not a Jew, but a British traveler, and only wanted to see these things. They said if I would promise that in the event of the Jewish synagogue being rebuilt their mosque would not be interfered with, the people would be pacified and permit me to see the ark and examine the tiles. They are much afraid their mosque will be destroyed if the synagogue is rebuilt, in order to get tiles which they have stolen. I promised everything they asked.
The ark (an old cylindrical case) is purely Jewish, but the missing scroll they informed me could not be seen, for it was in a secret place. That evening, about eight o''clock, four boxes of sweets, cakes, and two baskets of tea were sent to me by the priests, with the kind greetings of the people, who had decided to present their "elder brother" with the ark, which they did the next morning. When the Chinese make a present they expect something equally valuable in return, so I sent a few dollars to each priest which proved to be a lucky move, for I experienced no more trouble during my stay.
The Confucians are more kindly disposed toward the Jews than the Mohammadedans (who always pull their gowns to one side if they meet a Jew, which in China is a vile insult); and so on visiting their temples I had no difficulty -- in fact, one priest accompanied me to a small temple in the southeast corner of the city, where they have what is left of four large marble pillars, taken from the Jewish ruins in the early part of the sixth century. It is interesting to note in Chinese history that at this time the Empress Dowager Ling attended by the imperial consorts, ladies of the palace, princesses, and others of high degree, ascended a lofty hill and abolished the various corrupt systems of religious worship, except that of the foreigner who prayed toward the west.
The broken pillars found in the Confucian temple prove that the synagogue was a place of considerable size and beauty. It did not resemble the great structures of Europe, on which untold wealth -has been expended in obtaining tile highest architectural art; neither does it remind one of the modesty of the form of supplication. This unique feature, as well as the fact of the chief covering his face with a gauze when reading the laws, points to the antiquity of the hidden tribe, who are but one of the many tentacles torn from the main body of Jerusalem. A short distance from this temple I found an old, long, narrow stone in the side of an empty mud hut, which bore traces of an inscription dealing with a "Foreign heaven chapel," in which the foreigners that "pluck the sinews" fast and weep together. I sent for two of the most intelligent Jews, who were not aware of its existence or location, and I enjoyed their unmistakable surprise.
On the second visit of the Jews to my house I expressed a desire to see their wives and daughters, and learned very promptly), that it would be impossible, as the other Chinese women would say "bad things" (the Chinese are undoubtedly the most evil-minded people on earth) and make their lives even harder to bear, but if I wanted to take a photograph (this was suggested with pecuniary anticipation''s), I might come to an appointed place in a closed cart with a peep-hole, and instruct my interpreter as to how the photograph was to be taken. I embraced the opportunity and made an appointment for the following day, and secured fine pictures of the Jewish women and children, who had never looked into the devil''s glass before. That evening my "elder brother" called again, and one old man asked me to present a petition (which he handed to me) to the Jews of the West, so that they would fully understand their wretched condition and help them before they are lost in the "everlasting darkness." The moment has arrived for immediate action, not only by the Jews. But all the Christian bodies for when we take into consideration the very significant fact that the whole Christian world is indebted to the Jews for their religion, is the basis of Christianity, and for the careful preservation of the books of the Old Testament, it would only be a slight recognition of the world''s indebtedness to the Jews if this appeal from the center of China receives the consideration it so richly merits.
Are There Really Jews in China?
By Daniel J. Elazar
Since the opening of China to Western tourism, there has been a renewed interest in the Chinese Jews; a bit of Jewish exotica which resurfaces in the West from time to time. (Because of its unusual nature, more has been written about the historically insignificant Jewish community of Kaifeng than about the Jewish communities of Chicago or Moscow.) In 1985, Time Magazine even had a full page article on the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng which effectively anointed them full-fledged Jews seeking to preserve their Jewish heritage.
In May 1985, I was in China by invitation to lecture at the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences, the official government policy research institute, on "The Organizational Dynamics of American Jewry". One of my hosts was Professor Gao Wangezhi, whose own principal interest is Jewish studies, especially the study of the Jews in China. I also met with Professor Zhao, one of the vice-presidents of the Academy, himself a scholar of the philosophy of religion and interested in Jewish thought. I talked with Sidney Shapiro, a Brooklyn Jew who settled in China in 1947 to participate in the Chinese revolution and has since become a Chinese citizen and has raised a Chinese family. Since resurfacing in the West a decade ago, he has become a link between China and world Jewry, makes bagels and lox at home; has visited the United States several times since former President Richard Nixon opened Chinese-American relations in 1971; and pursues the study of the Jews of China as an avocation. Lastly I visited with various Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, stationed in China at the American Embassy.
Needless to say, one of the major questions which I raised was, to what extent are there Jews in China? And, if there are any, who are they? What follows is I believe, the best available answer to these questions; one which accurately reflects the current situation.
The State of the Kaifeng Community
There are four groups of Jews, or people of Jewish descent in China. The first are the so-called Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, now estimated at some 100 families totaling approximately 500 people. The city of Kaifeng, located about 300 miles from Beijing, contains the remnants of a Jewish community which flourished in the city from about the ninth to the seventeenth centuries, and which continued to be identifiably Jewish until the 1840s. The origins of the community are unclear, although they appear to be derived from an invitation extended by a Sung Dynasty emperor to a group of Jews to settle and manufacture cotton fabrics in Kaifeng, which at that time was the imperial capital. Approximately 1000 Jews responded as a group and formed a community, which reached its peak in the Middle Ages, when Jews from Western and Southern Asia (principally Iran, Afghanistan and India of today) were actively involved in the China trade. They settled in at least six other cities throughout China, including Beijing in the seventeenth century.
Of those communities, only Kaifeng Jewry flourished sufficiently to survive for a millennium, preserving some traces of their Jewishness until their synagogue was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1840s and the last of them assimilated. The only remnants of the community today are a knowledge of the site of the synagogue, upon which another building now stands; a stele from the Middle Ages with inscriptions of major events in the history of the community carved into it, but no longer legible; and a practice, still preserved by some, of avoiding the eating of pork. The surviving records and artifacts of the community have long since been transferred to Britain or the United States. I myself have seen one of the community''s two surviving Torah scrolls in the Hebrew Union College library in Cincinnati. There are substantial records of the community''s existence, compiled or written by Europeans, since the Kaifeng Jews were discovered by the Jesuits in the sixteenth century.
Beginning with the settlement of Jews in Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong in the nineteenth century, some efforts were made to bring the Jews of Kaifeng back into the Jewish fold, but all of these came to naught. In my opinion, based upon the experiences of similar Jewish populations in other parts of the world which had also acquired an indigenous cast over the centuries and appeared racially different, these local Jews, living in a xenophobic environment, were afraid to identify with any foreigners. As a result, the Jews themselves hastened the process of their assimilation into the general society. Still the facts of their assimilation are murky. Some became "simply Chinese," as Professor Gao described them, but most became "white Moslems," who did not eat pork but did not practice traditional Islam either. To avoid pork in China is to set oneself truly apart and, in a civilization where organized religion is virtually unknown, this leaves many questions unanswered.
In any case, it would be hard to claim the Chinese of Jewish descent in Kaifeng today as Jews. At the same time, as the result of their new contacts with Western Jewry, there has been a revival of local interest in their own heritage. Two of the senior members of the community are now seeking to establish a museum of Chinese Jewish history in Kaifeng. Since there are virtually no Jewish artifacts or documents remaining in the city, even if they are successful, they will have to rely upon facsimiles of the originals now spread around the world.
They do have the enthusiastic backing of the Kaifeng municipal government, whose leaders envision such a museum as a major tourist attraction. The Chinese have caught on to the high percentage of Jewish tourists in China and have noticed that the American Jewish Congress is a major sponsor of China tours. It is not unreasonable for the people of Kaifeng to expect that a substantial portion of the Jewish tourists would come to Kaifeng to see a Jewish museum. On the other hand, they still have not received the necessary clearance from the central government which is acting very cautiously, perhaps out of fear of offending the Arabs; nor do they have any funds. They are attempting to raise some money with the help of an American Jew temporarily residing in China as an English teacher, but have apparently made no real progress.
The museum is the only plan they have for reviving a formal Jewish presence in Kaifeng. There are no plans to rebuild the synagogue, since the site is otherwise occupied. At the same time, they are seeking recognition for the Jews as China''s ninety-seventh recognized nationality, which would bring them many benefits, not the least of which would be an exemption from the severe restrictions on childbearing, which allow Han Chinese (the group which comprises 93 percent of the Chinese population) couples only one child.
Despite all of these obstacles, this observer would hazard a guess that some of these 500 Kaifeng Jews will indeed become Jewish over the next several decades, because the Jews of the West will make them into Jews. Once discovered, they will be pursued in one way or another until they and their neighbors become so conscious of their "Jewishness" that the deed will be done even if it will not be halakhically recognized.
While in China, I heard from Professor Gao that Rabbi Joshua Stampfer of Portland, Oregon, had brought one of the girls of Kaifeng to Portland to study and return to Judaism; a report subsequently confirmed in The New York Times in June 1985. In September 1986, I saw her at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles where she is presently studying. In the meantime, there are at least some people in China who want to study the historical records of Jews who settled in the country prior to modern times. There is likely to be more of that as well.
Remnants of the Jewish Refugees
Just as the Jews of Kaifeng were disappearing as Jews, China received a new wave of Jewish settlement - Sephardi merchants from the countries bordering on the Arabian Sea who accompanied the British to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tientsin and other cities opened to foreigners in those years. Jewish communities of several hundred people were formed in each of the first three cities. They were joined by a larger migration of Jewish refugees during the period from the turn of the century to World War II.
Thousands of Jews fleeing Russia, the upheavals of World War I and Nazism, found their way to China. They established communities in such places as Harbin, Tientsin, Mukden and Shanghai. For nearly half a century, Jewish life flourished in those communities, reaching a peak population of over 30,000. A kehillah (a formal Jewish community organization) was formed in Shanghai and for a few years, there were even yeshivot in the city, established by refugees from Nazism who left as soon as World War II ended.
After the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949, there was a mass exodus of these refugees, particularly to Israel, Australia, and North America. The communities were dissolved, leaving British-ruled Hong Kong as the only Chinese city with an organized Jewish life. By the early 1960s, only two Jews remained on the books in Shanghai out of a community of 20,000. The Joint Distribution Committee knew of a diminishing handful of others in other cities. It seemed that all the others emigrated.
With the reopening of China in the 1970s, occasional Jews from Shanghai were found, mainly women who had married Chinese or Russian non-Jews and had stayed behind with their husbands. Most of them are now widowed and living out their remaining years in obscurity. There are probably no more than a dozen such people, if that many. One example is Israel Epstein, who was one of the leading English propagandists for Communist China until his retirement. He was brought to China Harbin from Poland at the age of two by his refugee parents and "grew up with the country."
Foreign Friends
A third group of Jews in China consists of the "foreign friends," people like Sidney Shapiro who came from the West in the 1940s, particularly from North America, to join the Communist revolution. While these foreign friends were by no means all Jewish a large percentage were. Those who stayed acquired Chinese citizenship, married local women, and settled down to endure the trials and tribulations of the post-revolutionary generation. Today, a handful of them still remain.
Jews on Sojourn
The largest group of actual Jews in China are temporarily stationed in the country either in foreign embassies as members of the foreign diplomatic corps - particularly that of the United States - or in connection with business interests and technical assistance programs. There also are a few who come individually for brief periods of time under contracts to teach English or to provide some other such service. Again, we have no accurate count, but there are likely to be at least 200 such Jews in China at any given time. When I was there, they included such people as the Second Secretary of the U.S. Embassy for Cultural Affairs in Beijing, and the Consul for Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General in Shenyang (formerly Mukden). There also are an undetermined number of Israelis who are reported to be in China providing technical assistance in agriculture. In several cases, sojourners have married Chinese partners, some of whom have converted to Judaism.
It is these Jews who provide whatever organized Jewish life exists in China, notably an annual Passover Seder and some kind of Kol Nidre service on Yom Kippur eve. In every case, there are ad hoc affairs, organized by some member of the "Jewish Community" at his or her initiative and reaching out to those Jews who happen to be in the vicinity. Thus Ruth Ann Kurtzbauer, Second Secretary of the U.S. Embassy, organized the Seder in Beijing in 1985 in her apartment in which 50 people participated, 35 of them Jewish. Matzot were sent in from the United States, and there were enough people present with sufficiently traditional backgrounds to conduct an American-style Seder.
The Jewish Presence in East Asia and the Pacific
If none of this adds up to much, it is only another reflection of how thoroughly Jews are absent from East Asia. There are approximately two billion people in the area from the Sino-Russian border to Singapore and eastward to Hawaii. In all of that vast area, there are no more than five permanent Jewish communities: Tokyo and Kobe in Japan; Manila in the Philippines; Hong Kong; and Singapore, with a total of less than 2,000 Jews among them. Moreover, only Hong Kong and Singapore have had any significant Jewish presence in modern hisotry. That is because both are new cities, established in the nineteenth century by the British, and attracted Sephardi Jews from the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea regions. The only other Jewish concentrations in the Asian-Pacific region are the 90,000 Jews of Australia and the 5,000 Jews in Hawaii. Jews from both communities are in the process of forging contacts with the other countries of the Pacific rim. If those contacts develop, no doubt in time there will be permanent Jewish settlers in China who wish to retain their Jewish identity and connections. But, for the moment, the Jews of China remain something between an exotic memory and a transient whisper.
Chinese scholar sparks Jewish memories
By Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, Oct. 30, 1998
San Diego (special) -- While most San Diegans were watching Game 4 of baseball''s World Series last week, about 50 San Diegans who are world serious about international Jewry attended a lecture featuring the People''s Republic of China''s leading expert on Sino-Jewish relations, Prof. Pan Guang.
The Shanghai-based scholar was accorded an emotional introduction at United States International University by Ya''acov Liberman who recalled that China gave sanctuary to Jews who fled nazi persecution in Europe.
"Even in mandated Palestine, the promised land, and even in the United States, the land of promise, Jewish refugees were refused a welcome," recalled Liberman, a former general secretary of Israel''s Herut party who now resides in San Diego.
"But there was one country in the world, one people in the world, that accepted every Jew that came their way, and as a result some 20,000 Jews from Germany and Austria were saved...Today there are still thousands of us around the world who are carrying the memory, the beautiful memory, of our lives and the hospitality of our hosts deep in our hearts."
Liberman, whose own family had immigrated to China from Russia a generation earlier than the German and Austrian refugees, asked Pan to please convey on his return to China "the gratitude of all of us for the wonderful hospitality, for the generosity of the Chinese spirit, that we experienced throughout the generations that we lived in your country."
Most Chinese Jews departed China either in 1949, following the creation of the State of Israel, as Liberman did, or in the 1960s in response to the tumult accompanying China''s Cultural Revolution.
Pan''s appearance at USIU attracted not only students, but also a small number of "old China hands," who like Liberman had lived the early part of their lives in that country. Some of these former Jewish residents of China will attend a reunion this weekend at the Holiday Inn at the Embarcadero.
Additionally, Wang Gewu, the Tijuana-based consul general of the People''s Republic of China, crossed the Mexican-U.S. border to "hear my countryman." Pan lectured in English--which Wang understands only a little. Wang''s Spanish, on the other hand, is excellent and, of course, both men were able to converse in Chinese before and after the lecture.
Pan, dean of Shanghai''s Center for Jewish Studies and guest in San Diego of the American Jewish Committee, said the total number of Jewish refugees taken in by China was more than the combined total accepted by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India.
He said he believed there were three main reasons why relationships between the Chinese and Jewish peoples always have been good.
In his view, anti-Semitism arose from "religious differences in western Europe," which China never experienced owing to its background of Buddhism and Confucianism.
Also, Chinese and Jewish cultures have numerous commonalities including an emphasis on family, a belief in education, and the ability to survive in exotic cultures, Pan said. There is a document from the former Jewish community of Kaifeng dating to the 15th century which notes both Chinese and Jews "respect parents, venerate ancestors, and call for harmony with wives and children," he said.
Thirdly, he said, both communities have experienced great suffering. "Thirty million Chinese were killed and wounded by the Japanese, so this experience gives Chinese deep sympathy for the Jewish people," he said.
After China was occupied by the Japanese, who were allied to Germany during World War II, Germans asked the Japanese to set up concentration camps in Shanghai "and promised to give all equipment to help Japanese kill Jews," Pan said. "They even asked the Japanese to arrest all Jewish people during Rosh Hashanah, in September of 1942, because all Jewish family members get together during the New Year."
"Japanese didn''t agree with this due to the differences in dealing with the Jews between Japanese and German authorities," Pan said. "But the Japanese had to do something because Hitler was an ally, so finally the Japanese proclaimed that they would ''designate'' an area for ''stateless persons.'' The Japanese didn''t mention ''Jews''; they called this area a ''designated area for stateless persons.'' Everyone who had arrived from Europe since 1937 had to move into this area. "
Despite increasing German pressure on the Japanese to kill Jews, the Japanese resisted. In their ghetto known as Hongkew, the German and Austrian Jews were aided by Jews who had freedom of movement in Shanghai because they had arrived prior to 1937.
These included Russian families like Liberman''s, as well as Sephardic families who had migrated to China from Baghdad and Bombay in the 19th Century. Additionally, said Pan, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, through intermediaries, gave help to the refugees, and there was help "also from the Chinese people."
Pan, born in 1947, had some Russian Jewish neighbors as a boy, and "I really could not believe why the Holocaust had happened in Europe when I heard about it. The same thing that happened to me, now happens to my students.
"In my lectures, I talk about Jewish history and they frequently ask me why there was such repeated anti-Semitism in Europe. They really could not understand...and it is difficult for me to explain. Many times I have to trace back history from the Bible time to today to explain the answer to their questions."
Japanese acted cruelly toward Jews at the prompting of their nazi Allies. Even earlier, White Russians who migrated south to China after Russia''s Communist revolution brought their anti-Semitism to China with them.
However, said Pan, "no spontaneous or indigenous anti-Semitism has ever taken place on Chinese soil." What anti-Semitism there was, "I call ''imported'' or ''imposed'' anti-Semitism."
Some Jews are celebrated in China for the help that they gave in the struggle against the Japanese, Pan said. Among these was Dr. Jacob Rosenfeld, who came as a refugee and served in the Chinese Army 10 years, attaining the rank of a general.
Eventually, Rosenfeld went to Israel to try to find any relatives who had survived the Holocaust. China lost touch with him, and not until after it established relations with Israel, was it able to officially inquire as to what had happened to him.
"They found his grave in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv," Pan said. "Now every Chinese leader that goes to Israel gives a flower at this grave." And Rosenfeld''s memory is kept alive in China. "There is a Dr. Rosenfeld Hospital" named in his honor, he said.
In the question-and-answer session following Pan''s speech, Taiwan-born Tony Sun said he and his wife Sunny drove three hours to San Diego from their home in Commerce, because he wanted to learn more about the ancient Jewish colony of Kaifeng, China, his family''s ancestral home.
He said he believes Jews may have been his ancestors because members of his family have whiter skin and rounder eyes than most Chinese, and because family lore said that his great-grandmother spoke Chinese with a pronounced accent.
Pan replied that Jews were known to have lived in Kaifeng since the 9th century, and said most researchers believe that they migrated from ancient Persia. He said Chinese emperors gave Chinese names to Jewish families to honor them, thus the "Levy family became Li" and the "Ezra family became Ai."
Those who could pass an imperial examination were allowed to serve the government and at least one member of a Jewish family became a governor, the scholar said.
Later Chinese emperors closed the door to foreigners, Pan said, making it impossible for the Kaifeng community to obtain a rabbi who could teach the Torah. Eventually, he said, knowledge of the religion disappeared. The Jews intermarried with Chinese and became almost indistinguishable from the surrounding populace.
Today, said Pan, there are between 200 and 300 descendants of the Kaifeng Jews, none of whom today can be considered Jewish because they no longer follow Jewish ways. But "they still remember something," he said, telling about his trips there in 1992 and 1994. "I found a mezuzah, with nothing inside, and I asked what it was," he recalled.
The people told him the mezuzah was from their "grand, grand, grand grandfather, so we keep this." He said they also were aware that Friday evenings had been special to their ancestors.
Sun, who owns a Los Angeles-area moving business, said he has not been able to establish whether his own ancestors similarly followed Jewish customs. "I have an uncle in Taiwan who I might be able to ask some questions about this," he said.
What will it mean to him if he finds out his ancestors were indeed Jewish? I asked.
"This means that I am proud of the Jewish (people) because I am part of them" he said. "That is why I look so smart." He laughed self consciously, then added because he always had to work, "I don''t have education."
A Home for Jews in China
Harbin welcomes back ''smart, rich'' former residents, hoping for prosperous ties. The visitors, now elderly, are drawn by nostalgia.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, September 21, 2004
HARBIN, China — Esther and Paul Agran look over Harbin''s rather dowdy Xinyang Square, see the mud and the snarled traffic, then count the buildings from the corner. "One, two, three — that''s it!" says Esther, 80. "That''s the building where we had our wedding reception! It was a beautiful building. I think it rubbed off — we''ve been together 56 years."
A half-century after most of the Jewish community fled Harbin, pushed out by an increasingly unfriendly Communist government wary of "imperialist capitalists," former residents are venturing back for a nostalgic look. Many were born and lived their early lives in this once-booming city in China''s northeast.
Now, after years of not being welcomed, they are returning to a city that is eager to see them. Harbin recently announced a $3.2-million renovation of its main synagogue, and it is stepping up efforts to preserve other historically significant buildings and sprucing up the Jewish cemetery, Asia''s largest.
For the Chinese, it''s less a warm and fuzzy embrace of the old days than a fairly blatant bid to spur the struggling local economy. Last month, at an international conference on "Jewish History and Culture in Harbin" that was attended by nearly 100 former residents and their families, officials gushed about the "always smart" and "always good with money" Jews who might help return Harbin to its former glory.
"We haven''t heard such compliments since the days of Moses," says Yaacov Liberman, 81, a Harbin native now living in San Diego. Liberman was on his first trip back since his family left China in 1948.
Although most people don''t tend to associate Jews with China, Harbin was an enclave of relative tolerance in the first half of the 20th century, as chaos, war and revolution raged in a troubled world. Jews, mainly from Russia, came to see it as a sanctuary and a land of opportunity. The first Jew reportedly arrived in Harbin around 1899, leading what would eventually be three waves of immigration, says Li Shuxiao, vice director of Jewish research at the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences. The first group, in the early 20th century, came in search of opportunity after the opening of the Russia-China railroad. The second fled the 1917 Russian Revolution. A third sought to escape a Russia-China border conflict in 1929. The peak was around 1920, when the local Jewish population reached 20,000.
"Most Russian Jews came to China without money and worked hard," says Pan Guang, a history professor at the Institute of European and Asian Studies in Shanghai. "It paid off, and they became solidly middle-class."
Many of those now returning for a visit to Harbin, once known as the "little Paris of the East," recall a privileged life with Chinese and Russian maids, a whirl of social events and winters crossing the Songhua River on Russian telhai, sleds pushed by an attendant. "It was 30 below zero," recalls Hannah Muller, who left China for Israel in 1949 and hadn''t been back since. "It was wonderful. We were all wrapped up in bearskins."
Harbin wasn''t always enthusiastic about having them come back. For much of the last decade, officials feared that the returnees would demand reparations for the factories, houses and personal effects that were expropriated after Mao Tse-tung came to power in 1949. But relations picked up after that didn''t happen. Fifty-seven people reportedly still have property claims not covered by bilateral treaties, which, theoretically, they could pursue. But most of those in their 70s and 80s who have recently returned say they can''t be bothered.
"What''s past is past," says Harbin-born Bernard Darel, 75, an import-export businessman now living in Tel Aviv whose family''s button factory and apartment were taken over by the Communists in 1949. "It''s a long time ago, a long way to Tipperary."
For most of the prosperous returnees, who were bantering in Russian, English and Hebrew, the real draw was the chance to catch up with long-lost friends and relive memories of what many see as a golden era. For Esther and Paul Agran, Harbin is more than a hometown — it''s the birthplace of their lifelong romance. Esther was popular and good-looking, from a wealthy family that owned a cosmetics factory just behind the synagogue. "In school she was unreachable," Paul recalls. "I didn''t think I had a chance." One cold November day, however, she came to his uncle''s fur shop, and their eyes met. In a few months, they were married in a gala wedding with 400 guests. "She had great legs in those days," says Paul, 82, looking at a black-and-white photo. "Hey, she still has great legs today."
On one rainy evening during the group''s weeklong stay, Jack Lieberman weaves across Harbin''s torn-up Tongjiang Street past head-high piles of sand and dirt and into a hulking, 70-year-old building housing a rail car manufacturer. "What are you doing? This is a business!" a rattled security guard barks as Lieberman leads a stream of visitors past him.
It is anything but that to the group of foreigners from Israel, the U.S., Canada, Australia and other faraway places. They try to ignore the chipped green paint and harsh lights as they remake the interior in their minds. "This was our synagogue," Lieberman says. "The men sat there. The women were up in the balcony there. The ark would have been up there, at the end and to the right," he says, referring to the place where the temple''s Torah was kept. "It was a really beautiful place."
As he reminisces, Teddy Kaufman, an 80-year-old Harbin-born Israeli and an impetus to bringing the group together, walks by. "Were these pictures originally here?" someone asks Kaufman, pointing at a dusty mural of bears cavorting in the wild. "There are no pictures in a synagogue," Kaufman responds emphatically, "especially none of bears."
Amid the grime and exposed wiring are hints of the building''s former splendor. A once-grand chandelier still hangs in the entryway, its graceful, cut-crystal arcs now brown with smoke and stains. Worked into the window grilles and chipped floor are images of the Star of David. "This was the second synagogue in town," says Paul Conway, 58, now a resident of Australia. "That''s because Jews always have to say, ''Oh, that other synagogue, I wouldn''t be caught dead there.'' "
Across the street is a former mosque, a testament to a time when, at least in Harbin, the two communities coexisted peacefully. "My father was Russian and Tatar, a Muslim, and my mother was Jewish," says Mara Moustafine, 50, who was 4 when the family immigrated to Australia in 1959, one of the last to leave. "That''s the kind of city it was."
Harbin managed to prosper through much of the early 20th century under ever-changing authority. Czarist Russia, Nationalist China, imperial Japan, Soviet Russia and Communist China exerted control over this strategic, resource-rich area in the midst of the three countries. In general, most of the governments were relatively tolerant, even encouraging, of the Jewish enclave into the 1940s.
That changed after the Communists came to power. "Rapid changes in China made it difficult to continue living here," says Xu Xin, a professor of Jewish studies at Nanjing University. "There was a huge exodus through the early 1950s."
For David Udovitch, 84, it came down to soup and labor unions. The former owner of a paint factory in Harbin recalls returning home from work in 1953 and learning that a union representative had stopped by, looked in the family''s soup pot and asked why they were eating meat when workers hadn''t had any in months. "That''s when I knew it was time to leave," he says, standing near his mother''s grave in the Jewish cemetery.
A few hundred Jews, mostly those too old to leave or lacking overseas sponsors, lingered for a decade, with the last one, an elderly woman, reportedly dying in the mid-1960s. Many are in the graveyard, moved to the outskirts of town in 1958. For the local government, the cemetery and the memories it holds are a potential gold mine, starting with tourism, it hopes, then spreading to trade and investment.
Many who left formed social groups in their new homes to help one another. Over the years, most retained strong emotional ties to China even though their lives in Harbin were often quite insulated from Chinese society. "We were kosher, so I never even tried Chinese food until I was 17," says Leana Leibovitch, 81, who looked for her old house but learned that it had been demolished sometime after her 1948 departure for Australia. "Now, of course, I love it."
Kaufman, since the early 1970s the leader of the Tel Aviv-based Assn. of Former Residents of China, took the lead in arranging the rapprochement. When he approached Harbin''s leaders in 1992 about building links, he recalls, they didn''t even know what a synagogue was, let alone that there once were two of them in the city. "For them, history started with the Communist revolution in 1949," he says. "They''d thrown away the pages" of history. He got their attention on a return trip two years later by pointing out that Harbin lagged far behind Shanghai and Beijing, where foreigners were welcomed with more open arms and minds.
A trip to Israel by local officials a few years later — and the promise of Israeli aid for reconstruction to keep Jewish history alive — made them even more receptive. "They''re quite open about it — getting the rich Jews to invest," says Moustafine, author of "Secrets and Spies: The Harbin File," a book about her family''s experiences. "My view is, if we can preserve the buildings and get China to open up the archives while former residents are still alive, it''s all for the good."
Now the government is on board from the top of Heilongjiang province on down, with Gov. Zhang Zuoyi welcoming returnees with a call to invest and set up joint ventures. "Sure, it''s public relations. Everyone understands that," Kaufman says. "The mention of rich Jews isn''t meant as an insult. Many people in Asia think all Jews are smart and rich — and if you''re rich, you must be a Jew."
There are limited signs that the Harbin strategy is paying dividends. "I need to buy four or five containers of blankets, a few containers of diapers and I''m interested in buying some coal," Tel Aviv resident Darel, sporting a lapel pin with entwined Chinese and Israeli flags, tells his Chinese hosts. "I don''t need to do business here," he adds later. "In a lot of ways, it''s easier in Guangzhou. But my memories are very good, and I feel like doing it because it''s the old hometown."
* Magnier was recently on assignment in Harbin. Lijin Yin in The Times'' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.
Restoring Jewish Legacy
China Org. - Culture
When doors around the world closed to Jewish refugees fleeing Europe on the eve of World War II, Shanghai accepted them with no visa required.
They created a thriving community in Hongkou District, with cafes, plays, synagogues, and even their own newspapers, but it is a community that has been all but forgotten by Shanghai. Now, as plans to revitalize the area are being drawn up, reporter Zhao Feifei looks at local Jewish legacy, and how it will be remembered In an intriguing corner of the city, Viennese gentlemen once sipped strong coffee outside Austrian bakeries. Some read the local papers, printed in German (there were also newspapers in Polish, Russian and Yiddish). Kosher butcher shops and German delicatessens stood nearby, and candles for the high holy days were sold at Abraham''s Dry Goods.
Images of Shanghai''s Jewish ghetto are still vivid in the mind of 84-year-old Wang Faliang, a resident of Hongkou District who befriended his Jewish neighbors, and whose recollections of the Jewish community are a rare insight into a world long gone.
Hongkou, which lies north of the Suzhou Creek, was the main asylum for Jewish refugees during the late 1930s. From 1938 to 1941, nearly 20,000 Jews fled Germany and Austria to Shanghai. Tilanqiao, an area close to the northern part of the Bund in Hongkou, was home to nearly 30,000 Jews during the World War II. A community thrived there, and more than 400 babies were born.
Today, after nearly four decades of ignoring its Jewish legacy, Shanghai is rousing itself to protect the area, whose memory is still held dear by those who were saved by the refuge here. Over the next five years, the Hongkou District Government will restore and revive the Jewish residential area in Tilanqiao, a project that is listed as one of the 12 key preserved areas under the auspices of the Shanghai Municipal Government.
A basic renovation plan will be revealed next month, says Zhang Zhilang, director of Hongkou District''s Information Department.
Local historic building preservation experts have been working since last November to hammer out a blueprint that would accomplish the twin goals of preserving the old Jewish neighborhood''s cultural heritage and developing its commercial potential. The project involves the reconstruction and embellishment of the district''s old structures, in addition to new constructions for commercial use.
Due to its role in accepting Jewish refugees -- it was the only place that allowed visa-free access to fleeing Jews -- Shanghai is well-known to Jews the world over. As a result, the project has attracted interest from Jewish businessmen overseas, like Canadian Lan Leventhal, who wants to be part of the project, and has established a company called "Living Bridge" which has already created detailed plans in a bid to stay a step ahead of its competitors.
With this sort of interest, Tilanqiao might be well turned into another Xintiandi. But Ruan Yisan, a professor at Tongji University, an ardent preservationist and leader of the preservation team, cautions that the renovation should be focused on the protection of the historic sites rather than on exploiting its commercial potential.
"Some companies have put forward half-baked plans to build ridiculous fun fairs or high-rises around this area," he says. "If priorities are not set correctly, and much focused on profit, the project will flop." As professor Ruan intimates, there is plenty to protect there. Although most of the Jewish refugees left Shanghai at the end of World War II, their houses, synagogues, parks and cafes -- some, with the names still outlined above the doorways -- still stand here, a silent witness to history.
But most of these buildings have either been converted to other uses or fallen into ruin. The Ohel Moishe Synagogue, one of the only two surviving synagogues in Shanghai, is an exception. The synagogue, built in 1927 by a Russian Jew, was one of the city''s four major synagogues of the period, and is today an exhibition center of Jewish history and culture. A small exhibition hall on the second floor tells of the Jewish experience in Shanghai, with pictures on the wall detailing why Shanghai became the "second hometown" for so many Jews.
Wang, the octogenarian who has been the museum''s doorkeeper and tour guide for 11 years, has hosted many political figures, including former US President Bill Clinton and late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The legacy of the Hongkou ghetto is just one piece in what is a long, colorful history of the Jews in the city. Shanghai was settled by a succession of Jews, beginning with Sephardic Jews, who came seeking business opportunities in the 1840s, Russian Jews fleeing pogroms in the 1880s and early 1900s, and finally German and Austrian Jews escaping the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. During World War II, there were 20,000 Jews exiling to Shanghai from Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, along with the earlier Sephardic and Russian Jews, for a total of 31,000 Jews.
Shortly before the breakout of World War II, doors throughout world began closing to Jewish refugees -- leaving the Shanghai as the only place where they could enter without a visa. Thousands of Jews poured into Shanghai, helped by the established families, including the wealthy Sassoons, Hardoons and Kadoories. Over the next few years, the area north of the Suzhou Creek, particularly Tangshan, Gongping, Changzhi and Huoshan roads, were transformed into a European enclave, dubbed as "Little Vienna."
Pan Guang, a professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and dean of the Shanghai Jewish Studies Center, points out that many of the exiles were highly talented professionals -- teachers, editors, reporters, writers, painters, musicians and sportsmen. They opened schools, organized playing teams, built up a moving library and even started bands and football teams. Even under the difficult conditions of the times, dozens of Jewish newspapers and magazines were published.
In his book, The Jews of Shanghai, the first of its kind about the community in both English and Chinese, Pan notes that the Jewish community began dissipating after World War II. They left Shanghai for Israel, the United States, Canada and Australia, until in 1948 the population dwindled to 10,000. After October 1949, the Chinese government began sending Jews back to their hometowns, so that by 1957, there were only about 100 Jews remaining in Shanghai. Most of them left during the decade of the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), and by 1976, there were only about 10 Jews left in Shanghai.
In modern days, interest in the city''s Jewish legacy is being rekindled by the growing number of Jewish businessman who work in the city. "Shanghai used to be a colony encircled by different cultures in different times," says Sara Imas, a woman of both Jewish and Chinese origins who was born and raised in Shanghai. "The city''s Jewish history is an integral part of its history. The government''s effort to protect historic sites and remember the stories of that period is an act of respecting the history."
The Jews Of Shanghai
The Kadoories This family made its fortune in Shanghai and Hong Kong real estate and utilities industries. Their Hong Kong and Shanghai hotel chain, which includes the Peninsula Hotel, is among the finest in the world. Their family home, Marble Hall, is today the Children''s Palace of the China Welfare Institute on Yan''an Road.
The Sassoons Once opium traders the Sassoons built and owned high-profile properties like the Cathay Hotel (today the Peace Hotel) and Grosvenor House (the old Jin Jiang Hotel), among others.
Morris Cohen Known by his nickname Two-Gun Cohen, he served as bodyguard and aide-de-camp to Dr Sun Yat-sen, considered China''s greatest revolutionary, eventually becoming a Chinese general.
Michael Medavoy Medavoy, who lived in Shanghai until the age of 7, went on to a career as a Hollywood mogul producer at Columbia, Orion and TriStar Pictures.
Peter Max The influential American pop artist was born in Shanghai.
Eric Halpern The founder, along with other Shanghai Jews, of the Far Eastern Economic Review, and its first editor.
On The Trail: Shanghai''s Jewish Legacy Ohel Rachel Founded by Sir Jacob Sassoon and consecrated in 1920 in his wife''s memory. It is now the site of the Shanghai Education Bureau.
Address: 500 Shaanxi Rd N.
Ohel Moishe The original synagogue, for Orthodox Russian and German Jews, was founded in 1907, and moved to current site in 1927. At one time, it served as the isolation ward of the Shanghai Mental Hospital, but is now an office building with two small rooms reserved as a museum of Jewish life. Address: 62 Changyang Rd
New Synagogue Built and consecrated in 1941. Services continued until 1956. It is now a nightclub. Address: 102 Xiangyang Rd S.
The Shanghai Jewish School First founded in 1900 by D.E.J. Abraham on the grounds of Sheerith Israel, the new school was founded in 1932 by Horace Kadoorie on the grounds of Ohel Rachel. It is now occupied by the Shanghai Education Bureau. Address: 500 Shaanxi Rd N.
The Shanghai Jewish Hospital Originally the B''nai Brith Polyclinic, founded in 1934, the hospital adopted its new name in 1942. It is now the Shanghai ENT (Otolaryngological) Hospital. Address: 83 Fenyang Rd
(eastday.com March 3, 2004)