It was all Chinese to me, really, but with a touch of Hebrew, and that’s because I was standing in what was once a Jewish ghetto, in Shanghai, China.
Shanghai, a modern metropolis today, is significantly different than when it was a city for Jewish refugees escaping World War II. It’s a city under non-stop construction where low buildings give way to skyscrapers, and it’s a conundrum – pricey hotels are around the corner from housing communities with no bathrooms or kitchens. The energy in Shanghai is infectious, and while China is a Communist country, capitalism flows from every direction, from Shanghai Tang, a leading Chinese luxury brand, to the local branch of the restaurant TGI Fridays. There’s no escaping a myriad of places to spend money; even the markets are overflowing with pearls, jade and silk.
A city of epic proportions, with a population of 20 million, Shanghai is currently hosting the 2010 World Expo. The expo is a global event to promote the exchange of ideas and development in economy, culture, science and technology, as well as to improve international relations. It runs from May 1 through Oct. 31, and organizers expect 70 million visitors.
With the help of the Peninsula hotel, I learned about a tour of Jewish Shanghai with Dvir Bar-Gal, an Israeli who has been living in China for years. Half a day was spent on tour of the Jewish areas, and the other half was a look into modern Shanghai.
My group comprised Jewish people from around the world – Canadians, Australians, South Africans and Israelis. We found our way to Huoshan Park in the Hongkou District area, where tens of thousands of Jewish refugees lived during World War II.
The park has a small plaque written in Hebrew, Chinese and English commemorating the European Jewish refugees. Bar-Gal talked about the refugees while we sat in the park on an unusually clear and sunny day and journeyed back in time.
Across the street from where we were sitting, Bar-Gal pointed to a building where the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee once operated. A worldwide Jewish relief organization, the JDC was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries.
China saved more Jews during World War II than any other country because Shanghai was an open port city, so people didn’t need a visa or passport to enter the city; as well, righteous gentiles in Europe such as Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Lithuania, and the Chinese consul general Ho Feng Shan, against the orders of the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, issued visas to Jews. The Israeli government awarded the honour of Righteous Among the Nations to Sugihara in 1985 and to Ho Feng, who issued thousands of visas to Austrian Jews, in 2001.
Former U.S. treasury secretary W. Michael Blumenthal, pop artist Peter Max and haredi Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz were among the Jewish refugees to Shanghai.
A short distance away from Huoshan Park, we walked into a small alley filled with crowded apartments, in what was once the Jewish ghetto. Remnants of Judaism, such as nails on doors where mezuzahs once were, or a metal design of a Jewish star in a door, remain.
Seven synagogues were built in Shanghai. We visited the Ohel Moishe Synagogue, now known as the Jewish Refugee Memorial Hall. It’s a small museum dedicated to the history of the Jewish experience in Shanghai. Today, the only operational synagogue is run by Chabad, the Beit Menachem.
I nicknamed the city Shang-Chai, as during the 1930s when the rest of the world was shutting doors on Jews, Shanghai was one of the only cities worldwide welcoming people who were escaping the Nazis. There was already an established Jewish community, as the Sephardi Jews from Baghdad and Bombay arrived in the middle to late 1800s, notably the Kadooris, the Sassoons and Hardoons, who built many of the city’s greatest business empires.
One of the premier hotels is the Peninsula, owned by the real estate magnates, the Kadoories. The Kadoorie family, longtime residents of Shanghai, built up the Jewish community, establishing important institutions such as the Shanghai Jewish Youth Association in 1937. They also established a Jewish day school, as well as setting up a fund with the Sassoon family to help refugees escaping Europe set up businesses and become self-sufficient.
The Peninsula’s hotel rooms today are opulent and luxurious, and the staff provides first-class service in every sense of the word. The subtle elegance is inviting and warm, and having tea in the lobby is a real treat, not to mention the live music to go with the magnificent food.
Until World War II, Shanghai was divided into three different sections known as concessions – Chinese, British and French. The area of old Shanghai, known as the former French Concession, is filled with restored colonial-era buildings, gardens and shops. It’s a relaxing place to wander, shop for souvenirs, custom-tailored clothing or have a cup of tea in a café.
A trendy, happening area in the French Concession is Xintiandi. This neighbourhood is renovated and features Shanghai’s signature stone-gate homes, with their stone-carved pillars and archways, shops, bars and restaurants. Ironically, one of Xintiandi’s must-see places is the meeting-house-turned-museum, where the Communist party of China was founded in 1920.
Xintiandi was intriguing; it had a feel of China meets Rodeo Drive. But for a more authentic old Chinese feeling, I spent time in Yu Garden. Established in the 16th century, it is a classic Chinese garden filled with ornate pagodas, flowering trees, pretty ponds and the still-operational Huxinting Teahouse. Outside the peaceful garden is the chaotic Yuyuan Bazaar, a good place for souvenirs and inexpensive street food.
Later in the day, an Israeli friend, Ziv, who lives in Shanghai, joined the tour. Hilariously, in China I found myself speaking more Hebrew than English.
We then headed toward the Bund, a curving riverside boulevard of historic buildings of various architectural styles. The most beautiful structures were built in the early 1900s, with the river port on one side and the old foreign concessions on the other. Foreign magnates spared no expense and imported Italian marble, Oregon pine and British bronze work. The buildings were used as banks, private clubs and hotels.
Former Joint building
One of the must-see buildings is the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, formerly known as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. It is located at 12 the Bund. Stepping inside, you are transported to Italy. It has shiny marble mosaic floors, an airy octagonal rotunda and eight wall murals from the 1920s, representative of world financial centres such as Tokyo, New York and London.
One of Shanghai’s most prominent pedestrian streets is Nanjing Road, and it will leave you wondering if you are really in China, and not Europe. It is an enormous bustling boulevard; video screens flashing with advertising and alive with a mix of locals and tourists wandering as well as shopping. If you want to go off the beaten path, walk behind the Nanjing Road and another slice of China awaits you – small stores selling everything from mannequins to door knobs. Motorcycles galore litter the streets, and people pedalling on bikes pull supplies from one area to the next.
Shanghai’s history is intriguing, and its present is propelling fast and furiously into the future. Of course, even travelling solo, I found my place, and my people, but no matter, at the end of the day, it was still all Chinese to me!
[Masada Siegel photos]