[MakkabI]

Shanghai is restoring one of the city's two remaining synagogues as part of a growing celebration of the city's Jewish heritage, the government said Thursday.

Built in 1927-28, the Ohel Moishe synagogue was a center of the community in the Tilanqiao neighborhood, where Shanghai's Japanese overlords, under German pressure, forced German and Austrian Jews to live in the final years of World War II.

The refugees left after the war's end and the 1949 communist takeover, and in 1996, the city turned the synagogue into a museum of Jewish history. Its collection will be expanded under the fix-up that began last month, according to a spokeswoman for the Hongkou district government.

Restoration is due to take five months. The project's budget wasn't known, although reports said the government has already spent $1.3 million on restoring the surrounding area and promoting it as a tourist site.

Efforts to salvage Shanghai's Jewish history have been driven by both domestic and overseas scholarly interest, as well as by the growing numbers of Jewish expatriates in the city.

That trend in turn has been embraced by city leaders, who are eager to cast Shanghai as cosmopolitan and welcoming to foreigners. However, they have yet to respond to a call last year from surviving Shanghai Jews for the city to apply for UNESCO World Heritage protection status for Tilanqiao.

The city's other surviving synagogue, Ohel Rachel, is owned by the city's education bureau, which opens it for Jewish services only a few times a year.

Shanghai's estimated 2,000 Jewish residents worship mainly in private homes and Judaism is not recognized as an official religion by China's communist government, which strictly controls religious activities.

Kappa21

You do realize that China, till this date is not recognizing that judaism is a religon?

TheCat

It doesn't really matter, there aren't really any antisemitic acts in China, and while there is no official government recognition, restrictions on public display of Jewish artifacts have been lifted. Historically, China has been good to the Jews, and was one of very few countries that accepted Jews during World War II (hence most of the Jewish community there today).

Kappa21

Well.... its still doesnt chance the fact that in the most populated country in the world, Judaism is still not recognized..... I mean..its Judaism...not something there up against like bhuddism...

Chinese people are an odd bunch really....
read:
http://www.freeman.org/m_online/feb05/krieger.php

TheCat

Very interesting article.
I support its message 100% (i.e. about strengthening ties between the cultures).