Something different this time. From 2010 to 2012, I lived in Shanghai where I taught English to graduate students at Fudan University, often ranked among the top 5 universities in China and the number one university in Shanghai.
Shanghai is a very large city, probably the most populous city in the world, with some interesting museums and sites. One particularly interesting neighborhood is the Old Jewish Ghetto. Unlike many places in modern China, the historically important buildings are largely preserved and there is a museum devoted to the Jewish ghetto and the World War Two Jewish Refugee in Shanghai experience. There is also a well maintained but non-functioning synogogue that is open to the public and staffed by non-Jewish Chinese people. (Elsewhere in the city, during the time I was there, there were two functioning active synogogues for the city’s Jewish residents, virtually all non-Chinese, and Jewish visitors.)
Shanghai, like most Chinese coastal cities, is surprisingly young, and only started to develop in the 19th Century (Yes, AD) as maritime trade was not something that most Chinese had much interest in. Although World War Two and Nazi persecution and genocide produced a huge flood of Jews into Shanghai, in fact, Jews were present from the early 19th Century.
The early Jews came from two sources. In the 19th Century many Jews, including members of the Baghdadi Sassoon family, came to Shanghai as part of the post Opium War international business community. In the 20th Century, in the wake of the Russian Civil War and the Bolshevik / Communist take over of Russia, many White Russian Jews fled into China, some of them settling in Shanghai.
When the Nazis rose to power and the Jewish Community realized what they were up to and how serious their intent was, it was difficult to find destination that would take them in. Shanghai, however, with its many extraterritorial communities and neighborhoods that, by treaty, operated outside Chinese law, meant that it was a place where many could come and take residence. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the resulting chaos and anarchy, ironically also made Shanghai a place where desperate people could come and take residence.
As a piece of surreality, not only was a it a long trip from Germany to Shanghai, but in the late 1930s, the primary means of travel was cruise ship and many had no choice but to either day or purchase expensive, luxury cruise ship tickets, abandon their homes, businesses, and much of their life savings, and then head off to Asia where they were likely to resettle with little to build on and eke out a life in poverty. But in the mood, during the ocean voyage, they were fed luxuriously and slept in the best quality beds money could buy.
Almost all of the Shanghai Jewish residents fled again in 1949 when the Communists took over the nation and the city.
These photos are just some random shots I took. While I wanted to include some of people, I took too few of those and decided it was best not to share photos of old students in a public forum, particularly with the current political climate. A shame, they were good guys, smart, curious, often surprisingly unsophisticated in their knowledge of this neighborhood or the Jewish people yet eager to learn. I miss them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I apologize for lack of references. My Shanghai history collection is in a box in storage about 20 miles away. Nevertheless, the story of the Shanghai Jewish Community is easily researched with a bit of Google-fu. Enjoy. I know, I promised not to do that. On the other hand, a few clicks and there are pieces from the BBC, New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, of course, multiple pages at Wikipedia, and academic papers at the JSTOR database.
A very interesting A 2021 Article on the Shanghai Jewish Museum a decade after I visited. The museum definitely has grown in the ten years since my visit.
While looking for references, I stumbled across this newsletter from an organization devoted to maintaining interest and research on the Jews in China. Although not really familiar with the organization, I like their piece here:
Just for fun, I am sharing this 1940 pop song that was written in collaboration by brothers Otto and Walter Joachim, Shanghai Jewish residents in collaboration with Chen Gexin.
Yao Lee - Rose, rose, I love you -1940 (姚莉-玫瑰玫瑰我愛你)