Robert Cairns in The Scribe describes below the movement of Jews to Shanghai and some extracts below give a flavour of their importance in the city. I have mentioned some of these people in my novel, but particularly Victor Sassoon, who was the most influential Jewish character in Shanghai in 1936.

One of the most interesting chapters in Shanghai’s history was the growth of a vibrant Jewish community, exiles who found refuge in the city from hardship, war and persecution.

Generally, the Jews who came to Shanghai were Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spanish or Portuguese descent) Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of Eastern European ancestry) and Western European Jews.

The most conspicuous group was Sephardic Jews, who were among the first foreign traders to come to the city. Initially, they traded in cotton and similar goods and then became involved in the opium trade.

Their business interests also extended to other areas including real estate, banking, shipping and utilities. Their success was helped by their being able to maximise family ties with international Jewish communities.

Many Sephardic Jews had come to Shanghai from British-controlled areas like Baghdad, Bombay and Hong Kong.

Well-known Sephardic families included the Sassoon’s, the Hardoon’s and the Kadoorie’s.

David Sassoon was one of Shanghai’s most famous citizens. Sassoon was one the first major Jewish traders in China. Born in 1875, from a family of well-known Baghdad Jews, he had come to Shanghai from Bombay.

Trade in opium, tea and silk made wealthy tycoons of many petty merchants in the course of the nineteenth century. An enormous trade developed in Shanghai, which by the 1930s had become one of the largest ports in the world.

The firm, Dave Sassoon & Company, was soon involved in to cotton trade and began trading in opium in the early 1830s. After the Opium War ended in 1842, his company moved its headquarters to Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Perhaps the most famous member of Shanghai’s Sassoon family in the 20th century was Sir Victor Sassoon – who became the chairman of the company, E D Sassoon.

One of the city’s leading property developers in the 1930s, he was responsible for the construction of buildings such as Broadway Mansions, Embankment House, and the Cathay Hotel – one of Asia’s finest hotels (see elsewhere in this site).

“Sir Victor Sassoon cut a large figure in Shanghai society, headily indulging his appetite for parties good food, women, and horses” says Stella Dong in Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City. Horseracing was a consuming passion of Sir Victor, who once remarked: “There is only one race greater than the Jews and that is the Derby.”

Sir Victor walked with the aid of two sticks as the result of injuries in the First World War, where he had served in the Royal Flying Corps. He frequently claimed he would never marry “as nobody would ever marry me except for my money and position”. However, shortly before his death he married his nurse.

British-born Sir Victor deeply resented the anti-Semitism of many of the British living in Shanghai. Jews, for example, were forbidden to join the British Country Club. Consequently, Shanghai’s Jewish Community established a Jewish Country Club on property owned by the Kadoorie family.

The Kadoorie family was a major force in Shanghai Jewish life; one of their most famous members was Ely Kadoorie. He began his career with David Sassoon in 1880 before launching his own businesses, and making a fortune from banking, real estate and rubber production. The Kadoorie family now live in Hong Kong where they are well-known for their contribution to business and charity work.

The rise of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany – which intensified in the late 1930s – forced a number of European and German Jews to seek refuge in Shanghai. Many came to the city because they had been denied access to other places and it did not require a visa or passport. Between 1931 and 1941, 20,000 Jews took refuge in the city.