Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday 27 Iyar 5773, began the second day of his trip to China at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum in the city’s Hongkou district.

The Prime Minister and his wife toured the Ohel Moshe Shul which was dedicated in 1927 and served the war refugees who fled the persecutions of the Holocaust.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that his visit was the closing of a cycle. He recalled his moving visit to the museum in 1998 and added that it was a monument to the good heart of the people of Shanghai towards the Jewish People. The Prime Minister noted that the latter would never forget what happened in Shanghai and commended the preservation work that has been done and which allows everyone to experience the importance and exceptional nature of what happened there.

He said that even as most of the world closed its doors to the Jews 70 years ago, Shanghai was among the few places that opened its gates. He added that while the fate of the Jewish People has changed significantly since then, when Jews could only plead to be rescued, today the Jewish People has a state and army of its own, and no longer needs to plead to be rescued. The Prime Minister said that we can defend ourselves. He asserted that we warmly welcome the friendship of the Chinese people, and pointed out that not only are we both ancient peoples that embrace the past and also aspire to grasp the future, we do so while remembering both the recent and distant past in which the Chinese people showed us their good hearts.

For the history of the Shanghai Jewish community and ghetto, click here.

In the shul guest book, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote to the people of Shanghai and the Hongkou district that the Jewish People would never forget the refuge and the kindness that they afforded us during the Nazi period, and added his greetings from Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked the Hongkou party secretary and invited him to visit Jerusalem later this year and concluded with the words, “This year in the rebuilt Jerusalem.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)