Shanghai To Preserve Memory of Jewish Refugee Neighborhood
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Shanghai is applying to have the neighborhood that sheltered Jewish refugees during World War II added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Some 20,000 Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis lived in Shanghai, in the Tilanqiao area of Hongkou District, according to Xinhua news service.
The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum is working with the Hongkou district government to complete the application. As part of the application, the city completed the collecting of the refugee list, data bank, literary, video and audio material.
Shanghai also has announced plans to rebuild a cafe where Jewish refugees gathered during their time in the city. The Wiener Cafe Restaurant, opened in 1939, will be rebuilt using its original blueprints opposite the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. It was demolished in 2009 to expand the city subway system.
Thousands of Forward readers support our nonprofit newsroom.
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
