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PlacesPeople & PlacesLiving · since 1845

CHINA · 31.2°N 121.5°E · CITY

Shanghai

Three waves - Sephardi merchants (Kadoorie/Hardoon era), Russian exiles, and the 1938-41 "Shanghai Ghetto" refuge of ~17,000-20,000 European Jews when no country would take them.

Modern locality anchor

Shanghai

China · City · 31.2°N 121.5°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

View location

Where is Shanghai?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Shanghai?

1845–1917

Sephardi merchant era (1840s)

1917–1937

Russian-Jewish exile era

This section addresses destruction and loss. It is one chapter, not the whole story — continue to what survives and what was created after
1938–1945

1938-41: European refugee haven (Hongkou "Shanghai Ghetto", 1943-45)

1949–present

Post-1949 departure

Today

Today

Refuge-haven memory; small contemporary presence.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Shanghai sound like?

Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Yiddish (ייִדיש)Ladino / Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo; Haketía)

Yiddish (ייִדיש) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Shanghai

Refuge-haven memory; small contemporary presence.

  • Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum (Ohel Moshe)

    museum · museum

  • Ohel Rachel Synagogue

    synagogue · public landmark

    Built 1920; landmark.

  • Hongkou "ghetto" area

    historic quarter · public landmark

KEEP GOING

Related places & stories

Guided story · 7 stopsThe vanished Jewish cities of Eastern Europe — and what remainsOn the eve of WWII, one in three Warsaw residents was Jewish. What happened — and what is still standing?Begin the route

SOURCES & REVIEW

  • Holocaust Encyclopedia

    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · open source

  • Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)

    Macmillan Reference USA · 2007

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit) and Yiddish (ייִדיש)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →