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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF HARBIN
How a Manchurian Fishing Village Became a Railroad Town and a Haven for Jews
By
Irene Clurman and Professor Dan Ben-Canaan
Born out of a free-will business adventure and voluntary resettlement from
Russia, the
Jewish community of Harbin
wrote a unique chapter in the history of the Diaspora. Starting with the
settlement of the first Jewish family at the end of the 19th century, Harbin’s
Jews arrived at a particularly fortunate moment in time. They enjoyed the
“boom town” experience that accompanied frontier expansion, as well as the
cultural development nurtured by the wealth of new entrepreneurs.
This distinguished many of them from the refugees
characterized by misfortune and distress who later settled in such Chinese cities as Shanghai. For most members of the Harbin Jewish community, the sojourn in China meant the start of a new, prosperous and dynamic life.
By the
end of the 19th century, Jews in Czarist Russia were desperate to escape the country’s
poverty, pogroms and institutionalized anti-Semitism. Visas to America did not
grow on trees, and Jews had trouble obtaining permits for any kind of travel,
even within Russia. However, in a little known footnote to history, the
Czar who plagued and reviled his Jewish subjects also offered them an out.
The
Russian government in 1895 had leased a land concession from China to build
the Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria as an extension of the
cross-country Trans-Siberian line. Once the tracks were laid, the
Czar was so
eager to establish Russia’s economic hold along the route that he offered Jews
a chance to live without restrictions if they moved to Manchuria. They
could chose between small communities in the Manchurian outback or the larger
settlement of Harbin, which means “place of drying fish nets” in Chinese.
Originally a cluster of sleepy
fishing villages at the confluence of the
Songhua
(known then by its Russian name,
Sungari
)
and Heilong or Amur Rivers,
Harbin had become the railroad’s administrative hub and was developing into a
thriving frontier town.
The Czar’s offer
had its drawbacks. Ukrainian Jews from the Pale of Settlement had to summon
their courage, pack their possessions, turn their backs on all that was
familiar and face several uncomfortable and uneasy weeks on the Trans-Siberian
railroad to reach Harbin. Siberian Jews, just across the border from Manchuria, faced a
shorter train trip but a similar plunge into the unknown. Harbin winters were
bitterly cold, and in spring, gritty dust from Mongolia turned the skies yellow
and covered every surface, animal, vegetable and mineral. In the early years,
European-style amenities were few and far between, and Jewish institutions were
nonexistent.
Despite these
deterrents, waves of Russian pogroms provided Harbin with a steady
supply of Jewish residents. Demobilized Jewish soldiers settled in Harbin at the
end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, and more Russian refugees, both Jewish
and gentile, arrived during and after World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution.
Although
desperation led many Jews to China, a large number new “Harbiners” also welcomed the
opportunity to be pioneers in
an uncharted land. The railroad brought prosperity and a need for all types of
goods and services. Even better, local Chinese had no tradition of
anti-Semitism. Word spread fast in the old countries: a Jew could live in Harbin
without fear of persecution -- and
make a nice living, too.
The railroad
engineering bureau moved to Harbin from Vladivostok in 1898 to begin
construction. The first Jew, S.I. Bertsel, arrived in 1899.
Shortly thereafter, the first Harbin “minyan” took place. By 1900, the town
had 45 Jews, and by the end of 1902, Harbin had 300 Jews and more than 10
Jewish-owned shops.
Although figures
vary, the Harbin Jewish population reportedly topped 20,000 at its peak in the
1920s. There were two major synagogues, the Main or “Old” Synagogue and the New
Synagogue. The Jewish community also established a library, a Talmud Torah, an
elementary and a secondary school, a cemetery, a women’s charitable
organization, a soup kitchen, a home for the aged and a Jewish hospital, which
treated both Jews and non-Jews.
Jews were furriers, bankers,
bakers, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, teachers and people of letters and the arts. They owned coal mines, lumber mills,
breweries and
candy factories. The Jewish-owned Hotel Moderne boasted a restaurant, a cinema,
a billiard room, a bar and a barber shop. Because of its ornate, European-inspired architecture, Harbin became known as the “Oriental St.
Petersburg” and the “Paris of the Orient”.
Its rich cultural
life led to the nickname “City of Music.”
Between 1918 and
1930, about 20 Jewish newspapers and periodicals were published in Harbin. All
but one – the Yiddish Der Vayter Mizrekh (The Far East) - were in
Russian. Russian was the lingua franca for Jews and gentiles alike, as well as
for their Chinese employees and business associates. Modern Mandarin speakers in
Harbin still use a number of Russian loan words, such as lie-ba for
bread, from the Russian khleba.
Zionism became
a force during the leadership of Dr. Abraham I. Kaufman
(1885-1971), who headed the Harbin Jewish community before and during the
Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The Harbin Jewish Women’s Association, linked
to the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), was established in
1922. Several Zionist youth organizations were active as well. The largest was
Betar, which sponsored sports, scouting and other recreational activities as
well as social action. Betar was the Hebrew abbreviation for Union of Trumpeldor,
named for Joseph Trumpeldor, a Russian Jewish soldier who, on the way to a prison
camp in Japan, passed through Harbin
in 1905 and was killed in battle in Palestine in 1920.
Inspired in part
by these Zionist activities, many Harbin residents made “aliyah” to Israel both
before and after World War II. (In Chinese, “aliyah” is written as: 犹太人向以色列之移居,
literally meaning “Jew direction Israel him/her migrate”.) There they formed
Igud Yotzei
Sin, the
Association of Former Residents of China, whose members also include former residents
of other cities in China.
In spite of their
energy, enthusiasm and organization, Harbin Jews couldn’t avoid the dark
clouds coming their way. World War I and the Russian Revolution
brought scores of anti-Bolshevik White Russians to Harbin, along with a virulent
strain of anti-Semitism. Although anti-Semitism was never institutionalized in
Harbin as it was in Russia, bullying of Jews by Russian hooligans became common.
The Harbin Russian
Fascist Party was established in 1931, the same year the Japanese Army invaded
Manchuria. Japanese troops occupied Harbin in 1932, and the city became part of
the puppet state of Manchukuo. The Japanese
immediately began expropriating private property and terrorizing the
civilian population. They recruited spies among the locals and allowed Russian
fascists to spearhead anti-Soviet and anti-Jewish campaigns. Foreigners as well
as Chinese were kidnapped, tortured and often murdered by the occupying army and
its collaborators. Fearing for their lives, ordinary citizens had no recourse against
these injustices.
Many of the
incidents were muddied by double-dealing, with the Japanese using Russians
gangsters and Chinese bandits as a front. One such case was the kidnapping and
murder of Simeon Kaspe, a brilliant young concert pianist and naturalized French
citizen. Simeon was the son of Russian-born Joseph Kaspe, who owned the Hotel Moderne as well
as a large jewelry store and a chain of theaters. When Joseph Kaspe refused to
negotiate with the kidnappers, they sent him his son’s ears. Simeon was
tortured for several months and eventually killed, while Japanese authorities
ignored both the French consul’s protests and widespread international
outrage.
Jews began fleeing
Harbin for Tientsin, Shanghai and abroad. By the end of World War II, only about
2,000 Harbin Jews were left to greet the city’s new authorities. The Soviet
Army had taken over from the Japanese. Between 1945 and 1947, the Soviets arbitrarily arrested a number of Jews
and “repatriated” them to Russian gulags.
Following the
victory of the Red Army in 1949, Harbin
became part of the People’s Republic of China, and about 1,000 Jews left for Israel. By 1955, only 319 Jews were left to maintain community institutions.
The community continued to dwindle until its last Harbin member died in 1985.
In recent years,
the Chinese government has officially recognized the historic importance of the
Harbin Jewish community in an effort to promote tourism and deepen economic ties
with other countries, including Israel. Some of the remaining Jewish-built
structures sport multilingual historic plaques. Both synagogues have been
refurbished. The Main Synagogue is now a “no-star” hotel and guesthouse of the Harbin Railway
Department. The New Synagogue houses the Harbin Jewish History and Culture
exhibition.
About 600 graves
from the original Jewish cemetery in central Harbin were moved to an eastern
part of the city in 1952. Former Harbiners and their descendents from around
the world have visited Huangshan Jewish Cemetery to pay their respects. In 2004, when
he was Israel’s vice premier and trade minister, Ehud Olmert left a stone on
the tomb of his grandfather Joseph Olmert, who died in Harbin in 1941.
In 2002, Professor
Dan Ben-Canaan was proclaimed by the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences as
the first Jew to settle in Harbin in
the 21st century. He teaches in the School of Western Studies of
Heilongjiang University and is director of the Sino-Israel Research and Study
Center there, which maintains extensive archives on Harbin Jewish history. The center
also produces films and articles and disseminates information throughout China
and abroad on the subject of the Harbin Jewish community.
Former
Harbiners and their descendents have put down roots in the U.S., Israel, Europe,
Australia, Canada and other countries. Many of them have maintained a connection
with each other across oceans and continents. They also have preserved a deep
respect for the Chinese people, who welcomed Jews without prejudice and provided
asylum during difficult times.
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Copyright © 2007 Irene Clurman
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