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Rabbinic single-issue periodical of teachings by rabbis in Shanghai, refugees of the Holocaust. Before World War I the Jewish population in Shanghai numbered around 700, substantially increased to around 25,000, first by Jews from Russia fleeing from the 1917 Revolution, then between 1932 and 1940 by refugees from Nazism in Germany and German occupied countries who found out that they could enter the free port of Shanghai without visas. The Japanese closed Shanghai to further immigration and after the outbreak of the Pacific war in December 1941 they deported to Shanghai most of the Jews living in Japan or in transit to other countries. Almost all left Shanghai after World War II, largely with American help, for Israel, the United States, or other parts of the world. A few elderly people remained to live out their days under the Chinese Communists.
The main period of Hebrew printing in Shanghai was during World War II and immediately after (1940–46), when remnants of Lithuanian yeshivot (Mir, Slobodka), as well as Lubavich Hasidim found refuge in Shanghai and printed - mostly photostatically - rabbinic, ethical, and hasidic works in limited editions for their own use. To the 80 items enumerated by Z. Harkavy (in Ha-Sefer, no. 9, 1961, 52–53; Hashlamot le-Mafte'ah ha-Maftehot (by S. Shunami, 1966, 3-4) have to be added many more items. |
