Shanghai Jews??

This is a flashback to a few days ago in shanghai. One of Jordan's shanghai bucket list items was to go to a long abandoned synagogue dating back to WWII. During the holocaust, china sympathized and helped aid the Jews by providing them a place of sanctuary and escape. Many were smuggled out through Switzerland and Japan and brought to china. Approximately 24,000 Jews escaped persecution by making the move across the world. This synagogue has been rehabbed and converted into a working museum. 

For those of you with good eyes, the foreward here describes how and why the museum came to be. 

Jewish life in the "shanghai ghetto" was as normal as can be, with kosher bakeries and delis, and a few synagogues to boot. 

Here is the inside of the synagogue we visited. 

Pretty normal, right? 

This is a famous yeshiva that was transplanted from Europe to china - Beth Aharon synagogue housed it and it's students. 

There was even a newspaper!

Unfortunately literally no Jews remain today. Following the war they dispersed to western locations around the globe - Australia, the states, etc. the museum has some great stories of this, including one of a bicultural marriage where their half Chinese daughter returned to china years later to connect with her roots and has never looked back. Jordan and I both agree that it would have been far more interesting and compelling if at least some Jews had remained in china. 

This is a must see for people visiting shanghai with two or three days.