Israel says, 'Thank You Shanghai'

[Randy W]

in the Shanghaiist . . .

 

Watch: Israel says 'Thank You Shanghai' in video launched ahead of WW2 anniversary

Shanghai Jewish refugees

 

 

 

Quote

During the Second World War, Japanese-occupied Shanghai became a haven where Jews fleeing Nazi persecution stayed for quite some while. Shanghai's Jewish Quarter, in the Tilanqiao neighbourhood of Hongkou district, was home to over 20,000 Jewish settlers. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees museum now stands in the place of the old synagogue and the whole area has been revamped to commemorate this period in history.

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[credzba]

I don't intend to make this political, just an observation.

 

I work in Israel, and have a number of close friends there.

I also, of course, enjoy China, and have friends and family there.

Finally, we live in USA, and have friends/family here.

 

5 years ago, when i went to Israel, people saw USA as almost a sister country.

If I had my own complaints about USA, usually people shrugged, and figured every country had issues.

China, and asian people did not exist in Israel that i ever saw.

 

Recently when i visit, and discuss non-work related matter the Israeli / USA relationship does not seem strong.

I have friends in Israel who will ask about what Americans think of Israel.

The feeling with America seems to be much more tenuous than in the past.

I often see asian people visiting for work (maybe vacation, but I think look like work people).

 

The video thanking China is a very nice gesture, but I wonder if something deeper is not involved.

[Greg.D.]

The video thanking China is a very nice gesture, but I wonder if something deeper is not involved.

I think this.

 

I was not aware of the Shanghai as Jewish haven story. Anyway, good luck to Israel building a mutually beneficial relationship with China. I think they each have something to offer the other.

[True Blue]

I read Tony Blair will be there as well as the ex Japan Prime Minister and a representative from North Korea (but not their loony leader - Kim Dim Son.

Will there be any American officials in attendance on September 3rd?

 

I've read conflicting things.

 

(a) U.S. doesn't want to "offend" Japan. Which I think is sort of lame excuse given the U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor...not the other way around.

(b) U.S. wants to snub Xi;s government Why is anyone's guess?

© U.S. doesn't want to send anyone because Vladimir Putin will be there. It's not a Russian function and besides both China and Russia were our allies in WW2

(d) The U.S. wasn't officially invited (b) snub in reverse I find that hard to believe.

(e) U.S. doesn't like the military weapons parade aspect. OK but it's not our parade.

 

Anyone have any intel or just wait and watch it on CCTV?

 

True Blue

 

ps- Credzba - I think you are spot on with your observations

Edited September 1, 2015 by True Blue (see edit history)

[Greg.D.]

Max Baucus (ambassador) will be there.

 

I think Europe and U.S. will be staying away because it's an over-the-top armament and force show, meant to put some fear into neighbors and citizens alike. There are some ironies about Taiwan and the ruling party and who did the heavy lifting in the war against Japan so they are not sending their top people either. Not that China as a whole didn't suffer greatly. Flying Tigers will be honored.

[newacct]

Some interesting history about Jewish settlement in the Japanese Empire:

they proposed that large numbers of Jewish refugees should be encouraged to settle in Manchukuo or Japan-occupied Shanghai, thus gaining the benefit of the supposed economic prowess of the Jews and also convincing the United States, and specifically American Jewry, to grant political favor and economic investment into Japan. The idea was partly based on the acceptance of the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as being as a genuine document by at least part of the Japanese leadership.

 

In other words, the Japanese welcomed the Jews, ironically, because they believed the anti-Semitic propaganda garbage that said the Jews supposedly had lots of money and political influence (the same lies that caused Jews to be persecuted in Europe).

[Randy W]

In the 1930s, Shanghai took in thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe. They brought their past struggles and ideals with them, fighting and sometimes dying together with the Chinese in the global struggle against fascism.

Read more (in the Sixth Tone): http://ow.ly/E32950FogZd

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2986005845051589/

The Jewish Refugees Who Fought for China
In the 1930s, Shanghai took in thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe. Some of them would stand with China in its own battle against fascism.

Chen Jian is the curator of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.

In my role as curator of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, I spend most of my time studying and memorializing the history of the 20,000 Jews who fled the Holocaust and the turmoil of Europe for the relative safety of the “Shanghai Ghetto.”

Quote

 

Yet, the relationship between China and its Jewish population in the middle of the last century was not one of one-sided succor. Jews, including many Jewish refugees, made outstanding contributions to China’s revolution and fight for national independence.

A century ago, the Communist International and the then-Russian Communist Party dispatched several agents to help foment revolution in China, including Russians like Grigori Voitinsky and Vladimir Neiman-Nikolsky and the Dutch Communist Henk Sneevliet. In addition to their shared commitment to Communism, all three were of Jewish heritage.

Of the three, Sneevliet might be the most famous, in part because of the role he played in saving China’s earliest Communist revolutionaries from arrest. On June 3, 1921, Sneevliet arrived in Shanghai under journalistic cover and soon made contact with local Communists. On the evening of July 30, less than a month after the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), members of the CPC’s First National Congress met for a vote on a new party program. Suddenly, an unfamiliar middle-aged man barged into the meeting hall. “Sorry, I’m in the wrong place,” the man declared before hurrying off. Sneevliet, well-versed in the techniques used by the police around the world to crack down on revolutionary activities, suggested that the meeting be adjourned and urged members to leave. By the time police arrived 10 minutes later, the building was already cleared out.

Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, given my current job, I am most interested in the stories of Jews who found refuge in Shanghai and later took up arms, literally or metaphorically, to aid China in its struggle for freedom. China is not the only country where this occurred. As fascism took root and spread across Europe and Asia in the 1920s and 1930s, Jews, Communist or otherwise, fought back on battlefields around the world. For example, some of the Jewish medics who took part in the Spanish Civil War later participated in China’s War of Resistance Against Japan.