[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E56]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        THE SHANGHAI SYNAGOGUE: A VERY SPECIAL JEWISH COMMUNITY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 2, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, this past December, Congregation B'nai 
Emunah in San Francisco marked its fiftieth anniversary. This Saturday, 
the congregation will celebrate this important milestone. I invite my 
colleagues to join me in congratulating this very special Jewish 
community on its longevity, unique history, and contributions to our 
city.
  The name of the Congregation--B'nai Emunah--means ``Children of 
Faith,'' and its history is truly unique. After Jewish businesses and 
synagogues were destroyed by the Nazis in 1938, many countries closed 
their borders to Jewish migrants who sought to flee the racism, terror 
and persecution they found under Nazi rule.
  One stunning exception to this was the city of Shanghai, China. There 
threatened remnants of the Jewish community from Germany and Austria 
found refuge. Shanghai was a free city governed by the international 
Shanghai Municipal Council. The city and the Chinese people had already 
welcomed thousands of Russian Jewish refugees after the Soviet 
revolution of 1917. In 1938 Shanghai required no visas or other 
formalities for the more than 20,000 Jewish immigrants from Germany and 
Austria who flocked to that safe haven.
  Mr. Speaker, immediately upon arriving in Shanghai, the German and 
Austrian Jewish community rebuilt in camps the sanctuaries that they 
had watched the Nazi mob destroy in their homelands. When the war in 
the Pacific broke out in 1941, the community was ghettoized in a 
dilapidated Chinese slum, but their synagogues continued to function. 
They survived and flourished even under Japanese occupation and 
occasional mistaken bombs from U.S. Air Force planes.
  Following World War II and the outbreak of the Civil War in China, 
the entire Jewish community in Shanghai left China and dispersed. 
Thousands relocated to San Francisco, the nearest American port. In 
1949 a group of dedicated Jews met with one of the rabbis from Shanghai 
and made the decision to reestablish the synagogue they had twice lost. 
The new congregation embraced all the elements of the late Shanghai 
community--Russian, Sephardim and German/Austrian--and was named 
congregation B'nai Emunah, although it has always been known as ``The 
Shanghai Synagogue.''
  In the last fifty years, Congregation B'nai Emunah has expanded and 
flourished. A new generation has emerged to whom the Shanghai story is 
as important to their own identity as it was to the preceding 
generation. This jubilee fiftieth year will see the building of the 
``Shanghai Center,'' which will house a museum, library and archive. 
Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in extending 
congratulations to Congregation B'nai Emunah on this very important 
occasion.

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