China opens borders to Jews fleeing persecution

by Judith Kahn

Year 2010 is proving to be an exciting year as Shanghai and San Francisco celebrate the 30th anniversary of its sister city relationship. To commemorate this special relationship, more than 150 projects have been initiated and will continue throughout the year in both Shanghai and the Bay Area.

One of them is the "Jews in Modern China" exhibit, presently at the Presidio Officers' Club, located at 50 Moraga Ave., which runs through May 16. It is also part of the Shanghai Celebration.

The exhibit traces the experiences of Jewish immigration between 1840 and 1949 through documentation and photographs collected by the China International Cultural Exchange Center and loaned to the Presidio by The Center for Jewish Studies in Shanghai. The items in the display were collected from Bay Area people who personally were in Shanghai or who had members of their families in Shanghai during this period. The exhibit sheds light on a relatively unknown piece of history: a time when Jews were able to find sanctuary in China when other nations of the world had closed their doors to Jews who were trying to escape persecution.

Linda Frank, the chairwoman of the exhibit and a volunteer board member of the American Jewish Committee, San Francisco office (AJC), first saw the exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance in 1989. She has had a long affiliation with China over the years. Her interest in the subject matter of the exhibit began with research and interaction with a writer who was born in Shanghai, and her son has lived, studied and worked in China since 1995.

Frank has visited the country eight times, co-led a Jewish tour to China, and is very close with the local Shanghailanders, people who found refuge in China in the 20th century. In addition, she has published numerous articles on business and travel in China. One article appeared in the Asian Street Journal in 1995 in which she discusses an overnight bus trip she took in China.

"Quite an experience," she remarked.

In another article, she wrote about their first family Passover in China. When discussing the exhibit, Frank pointed out that many people are unaware of the relationship between the Chinese and Jewish peoples during an eventful and dynamic period which lasted more than a century.

There were three waves of Jews that immigrated to China, with each settling in different places and driven by different circumstances.

The first to come were Sephardic Jews, who were mostly merchants and business men. They came from the Middle East and other parts of Asia as a result of the Opium War and subsequent upsurge of trade with Britain. They were instrumental in the architectural and commercial development of Shanghai, utilizing their traditional contacts with various British dependencies and astutely investing in real estate, finance, public works and manufacturing. These merchants became the most active foreign consortium in Shanghai and Hong Kong and their influence spread throughout China and the entire Far East.

The Sansoon family, originally from Baghdad, were the first Jews to establish firms and engage in business in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Shanghai soon became the epicenter for business. These merchants were also involved in public welfare, built synagogues and established schools and social services within the community, all of which provided aid to Jewish immigrants and European refugees who later came to China. Following the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, the Sephardic merchants' interests sustained great losses.

Russian Jews, the second wave of Jews, came to China in the 19th century, fleeing from the rise of anti-Semitism and czarist pogroms. Tens of thousands crossed Siberia, reaching northeast China, Inner Mongolia and the southern parts of China. Their migration heightened during the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. These Jews first settled in Harbin and neighboring areas, where they formed the largest Jewish community in the Far East. With their arrival came the formation of Zionist organizations, Yiddish publications and other cultural activities and institutions.

The final period of Jewish immigration to China took place between 1933 and 1941 when European Jews were trying to escape Nazi persecution. Shanghai was an open city, where visa and passports were not required. Despite the Japanese occupation of the city, the refugees lived in relative comfort due to the established Jewish community.

However, the tide changed for the European Jews that came after 1937, when the Japanese acquiesced to the wishes of their German allies. These immigrants had the misfortune to live in a squalid ghetto until the end of the war.

The "Jews in Modern China" exhibit runs through May 16. The Officers' Club is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit the Web sites at www.presidio.gov/calendar or www.ajcsanfrancisco.org/china. For more information on the year-long celebration, visit www.shanghaicelebration.com.