The article originally appeared in the April 2005 issue of Beijing’s Cultural Geography magazine under the headline, “Paying a Visit to the Jewish Community in Shanghai,” written by Liu Jinqian.
　　Jews left their mark on Shanghai more than any other city in the East through Jewish immigration that stretched across the last 150 years. Today, the cosmopolitan city is again embracing new Jewish residents from around the world, who are finding it easy to reconnect with their cultural identity and are ready to call the city home.
　　
　　Story of Peace Hotel
　　
　　A Shanghai landmark for nearly a century, the Peace Hotel is one of the most famous accommodation establishments in China and the oldest five-star hotel in the city. Located in prime downtown Shanghai, it sits at the doorstep of the Bund--the most famous recreational area of this largest Chinese business hub.
　　The splendid architecture is a snapshot of the glorious days of the first wave of Jewish immigration, which lasted through the latter half of the 19th century. The new settlers were mostly Jews from Iraq and India seeking business opportunities in the burgeoning free-port city, which was forced to open itself to foreign traders along with other major port cities as a result of China’s defeat by Britain in the Opium War (1840-42). The brilliant business acumen of the wealthy new residents, known as Sephardim (including Jewish communities from Spain, North Africa, Iraq, Syria, Greece and Turkey), was evident shortly after their arrival. Their factories, banks and trading houses helped build Shanghai into the “Paris of the East.”
　　The most remarkable example is the Sassoons, a banking clan of Jews from India. The first Jewish settler to Shanghai was Elias David Sassoon, who opened a branch of his father’s Bombay bank in 1845, which quickly grew into the city’s most powerful business empire. The Peace Hotel, one of the grandest buildings in Shanghai in that era, was erected as the Sassoons’ office. In the heyday of Sephardim, 40 percent of Shanghai’s stock exchange members were Jewish.
　　
　　A synagogue in transition
　　
　　FADED MEMORIES: The Ohel Moishe Synagogue, once a place of worship for Jewish people in Shanghai, is now a mini-museum
　　“As an imposing edifice, the Ohel Moishe Synagogue is unique in its architectural style. But it lost its religious meaning some time ago, and is today a mini-museum of Jewish history in Shanghai,” said Wang Yaohua, guide at the synagogue, once one of the four big local Jewish buildings for worship.
　　The historical background for the construction of the Ohel Moishe Synagogue was marked by the second wave of immigration of Jews in the early 20th century, which saw Russian Jews flee the communist revolution in their country. Many of these new immigrants settled in the northeastern cities of Harbin and Dalian, only moving south to Shanghai due to Japan’s invasion and occupation of China’s northeastern provinces from 1931. The new clan of Jews in Shanghai received charitable help from their established Sephardic brethren immediately after their arrival.
　　With the surge of the population of Russian Jews, they began to build synagogues where they could perform religious services. The Ohel Moishe Synagogue, built in 1907, was the first of such efforts. The synagogue was converted into a hat factory at the end of the 1950s, and later into Hongkou Hospital. Now as a museum of that period of history, it has received tens of thousands of tourists, mostly Jewish people from North America, Europe, Australia and Israel.
　　
　　Quick escape
　　
　　The third and also the largest wave of Jewish immigration was triggered by the Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe through World War II. Shanghai became the only choice for war refugees since no visa was needed and waiting for a visa meant less chance of survival.
　　It was not until the end of World War II that the doors were reopened for the Jews in the Middle East and Europe. The majority of the Jewish population in Shanghai left for Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries in the late 1940s and 1950s.
　　When Claude Wilton got off the ship in Shanghai, the 11-year-old boy was amazed by the novel Asian faces of dockworkers, which he had never seen before. As a Jewish family in Germany, Wilton’s parents didn’t decide to flee from their hometown until the watershed incident of “Crystal Night” on November 10, 1938. On that night, more than 7,000 shops owned by Jews were robbed and destroyed and 191 synagogues were torched. Wilton’s father was thrown into prison. The government released harsher economic policies against Jews two days after the incident and rumors started to spread among the Jewish community that their people were being sent to concentration camps and killed with poison gas.
　　The Wilton family did not have many choices in seeking refuge. They considered going to the United States at first, but the entry requirements would take eight years. After learning that Shanghai had neither refugee quotas nor visa requirements, the family made a hasty decision and headed for China. “It is lucky that we did not wait for the United States to scrap the refugee quota. Otherwise, we would have died in Germany,” said Wilton with a shrug.
　　After landing in Shanghai, Wilton’s family first lived in the refugee sanctuary provided by Jewish charitable organizations and then moved to a small apartment purchased after they sold the valuable household items they had brought from home. “Many Jewish people did the same and our stuff sold well among expatriates from other countries and wealthy Chinese people,” Wilton recalled. “You could not get these items in shops.”
　　In his childhood memory of days in Shanghai, Wilton did not see his life much different from that in Germany, except for a scarce supply of food and lack of electricity. He went to school every day even under Japanese occupation.
　　The living conditions in the new apartment, while better than that of the refugee sanctuary, were still harsh for the Wiltons, who had to deal with a bedbug plague. “I would say life in Shanghai was uncomfortable but we had nothing to complain about,” said Claude Wilton. “At least, nobody tried to kill us in Shanghai.”
　　
　　The wave of the future
　　
　　“Come to Shanghai and you can get everything you need,” wrote Director of Shanghai Jewish Community Executive Committee Maurice Ohana, in reply to emails from fellow Jews living in other countries. Maurice said he has received a dozen such emails making enquiries about food, education and accommodation in China every week.
　　Ohana has been doing business in China for 15 years and resettled his family in Shanghai in 1999. Although he was brought up in France, he calls China home and regards himself as an old China hand. His son, a high school student in Shanghai, is busy preparing himself for the Chinese college entrance exam. His two daughters work in his Shanghai-based company. Ohana hopes that they can find their future in China.
　　“China is both an old and a new country, which holds the future of the world,” he said. “I love the country. In France, I would be no more than an average old man, but here I feel youthful.”
　　China’s spectacular economic success in recent years has triggered the spike in the Jewish population in Shanghai. Ohana said when his family first moved to the city in 1999, the city had a Jewish population of 50, who barely had contact with each other. He estimates that today Shanghai is home to around 1,000 Jews, who have formed a close-knit community. He predicts that the Jewish population in Shanghai could double in the next few years.
　　Although his family maintains friendly relations with his Chinese colleagues, Ohana said it is difficult for his generation to cross the cultural barrier completely. He said his intimate friends are mostly Jewish people in Shanghai. However, it is a different case for the younger generation. His three children have totally adapted to local culture and most of their good friends are Chinese.

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