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China Restores Synagogue Founded in 1909

Main Synagogue in the city of Harbin once held 450 Orthodox congregants

by
Isabel Fattal
June 23, 2014
Main Synagogue on Tongjiang Street in Harbin, China. (Museum of Family History)
Main Synagogue on Tongjiang Street in Harbin, China. (Museum of Family History)

After a year of restoration, the Chinese city of Harbin reopened a 105-year-old synagogue to the public last week, JTA reports. The Main Synagogue on Tongjiang Street, once an Orthodox synagogue seating up to 450 people, had been a staple of one of the largest Jewish communities in the region; thousands of Jews fleeing persecution in Europe and Czarist Russia made their way to Harbin in the 20th century.

The synagogue was damaged by a fire in 1931, and ultimately closed down in 1963. The building was later converted into a hospital and a hostel.

According to Dan Ben-Canaan, an Israeli scholar who has lived in Harbin for more than a decade, who worked with the Chinese government on the restoration project, the newly-reopened synagogue “looks exactly the same as when the synagogue first opened in 1909.”

It might look the same, but its purpose has changed: according to JTA, the newly restored building is now meant to function as a concert theater.

Isabel Fattal, a former intern at Tablet Magazine, attends Wesleyan University.