The Harbin Jewish Community and the Regional Conflicts of Northeast China, 1903-1963 Ming Hui Pan A Thesis In the Department of Religions and Cultures Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Religion) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada March 2020 © Ming Hui Pan, 2020 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Ming Hui Pan Entitled: The Harbin Jewish Community and the Regional Conflicts of Northeast China, 1903-1963 and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Religion) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: ___________________________ Chair Dr. Mark Steinberg ___________________________ External Examiner Dr. Kathryn Hellerstein ___________________________ Examiner Dr. Csaba Nickolenyi ___________________________ Examiner Dr. Norman Ravvin ___________________________ Examiner Dr. Marc des Jardins ___________________________ Supervisor Dr. Ira Robinson Approved by _____________________________________________ Dr. Marc des Jardins, Graduate Program Director March 10, 2020 ______________________________________________ Dr. André Roy, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science ii Abstract The Harbin Jewish Community and the Regional Conflicts of Northeast China, 1903-1963 Ming Hui Pan, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2020 This study examines the historical development of the Harbin Jewish community in Northeast China from its beginning in the early 1900s to its end in the 1960s. Scholars seldom pay enough attention to the Harbin Jewish community, the largest and most influential Jewish community in Asia. This study aims to fill this significant geopolitical gap of the history of Jews in the East. I develop two major narrative strategies in locating the Harbin Jewish Community in its historical map: (1) chronologically intertwining the development of the Harbin Jewish community within the local history of Harbin, by examining the relations between the Harbin Jewish community and its changing governors, namely, the Russian, Chinese, and Japanese policies towards the Jews; (2) investigating in parallel the contacts between the Harbin Jewish community with its contemporary Jewish communities in Shanghai, Europe and the United States, especially during the globally influential World War I and World War II period. This study challenges the argument that the Chinese and the Jews did not cross paths in these important historical events mentioned above. By tracing the history of the Harbin Jewish community, this study demonstrates that Jewish experience in China must be perceived as a whole and the survival of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the Holocaust in WWII should be put into its historical context rather than a single historical accident. The Harbin Jewish community thereby has an enduring legacy in the reconstruction of postmodern historiography and international relationships. iii To my parents To my teacher iv Acknowledgment I would like to express my very great appreciation to Dr. Ira Robinson for his valuable and constructive suggestions for this work. To be honest, during the development of this project, I almost gave up several times due to the obscurity of the topic and the culture and language barriers. But Dr. Robinson kept encouraging me with limitless patience. He mapped almost all the historical contexts, collected data from newspapers, and repeatedly corrected and edited my writing. Without his supervision and constant help this study would not have been possible. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Norman Ravvin and Dr. Marc des Jardins, for their kind concern for this work. Dr. Des Jardins was the first professor I contacted in the department and finally he became one of my supervisors. I would also like to thank Dr. Naftali Cohn, who wrote all the recommendation letters for me during my study. My grateful thanks are also extended to Dr. Norma Baumel Joseph, Dr. Carly Daniel-Hughes, and Dr. Lynda Clarke, whose critical reading helped me to improve dramatically, to Dr. Leslie Orr and Dr. Michael Oppenheim, from whom I learnt the historical and philosophical methodologies to get access to the academic research. At last, my thanks to my previous supervisor Wang Zhijun of Heilongjiang University, who shared with me his Chinese collection on the history of the Harbin Jewish Community. I wish to acknowledge the constant financial support provided by Concordia University Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies, which allowed me to spend my time and energy mainly on the study. In addition, I am grateful to the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, whose support enabled me to do research in Israel and to join the Ulpan at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I am also thankful to the American Academy for Jewish Research (AAJR), who granted me the travel funding to do the research at the Center v for Jewish History in New York. Special thanks should be given to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Advice given by the JDC archives director Linda Levi and the archives project specialist Isabelle Rohr was a great help in developing a public presentation on my research at the JDC. I would also like to thank Ruth and David Musher for their support and enthusiasm for the Harbin project, and Barbara Kay’s family who are the descendants of Harbin Rabbi Levin. Their engagement with this project made the academic study on history extend to real life. Finally, I wish to thank my best friends Esti Mayer and Samantha Senecal, and my parents Pan Hongjun and Zou Chunming for their support and encouragement throughout my study. vi Contents List of Tables ..............................................................................................................................x List of Maps .............................................................................................................................. xi List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... xii Chapter I: Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.1. The Significance of the Harbin Jewish Community in Jewish and Chinese History .......1 1.1.1. The History Gap of Jews in China ..........................................................................1 1.1.2. The Harbin Jewish Community in the Geopolitics of Modern Time .......................2 1.1.3. On Modern Jewish and Chinese History .................................................................4 1.2. The Japanese History Problem and the Jews ..................................................................6 1.2.1. Japan’s Holy War...................................................................................................7 1.2.2. The Tokyo Trial .....................................................................................................9 1.2.3. Effect on Jewish history ....................................................................................... 11 1.3. Chapters ...................................................................................................................... 12 Chapter II: The Origins of the Harbin Jewish Community under Russian Domination ............... 16 2.1. Foundation of the Harbin Jewish Community .............................................................. 16 2.1.1. “Matey” Imperialists – Russia’s Expansion to China ............................................ 16 2.1.2. Manchuria Before the Russians Came .................................................................. 20 2.1.3. Jewish Presence in Harbin .................................................................................... 25 2.2. The Expansion of the Harbin Jewish Community ........................................................ 30 2.2.1. The Russo-Japanese War ..................................................................................... 30 2.2.2. Russian Policy on the Jews in Harbin ................................................................... 34 2.3. The Manchurian Haven ............................................................................................... 39 2.3.1. Burgeoning Jewish Business in Northeast China .................................................. 39 2.3.2. An Eastern Zion ................................................................................................... 43 2.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 48 Chapter III: Transformation of the Harbin Jewish Community after WWI ................................. 51 3.1. The Influx of Russian Jewish Émigrés and the Emerge of Anti-Semitism in Asia ........ 52 3.1.1. JDC and HIAS Supported the Jews in China since WWI ...................................... 53 3.1.2. Siberian Intervention and the Emerge of Anti-Semitism in Asia ........................... 57 3.1.3. The Chinese Took Over the CER and Stemmed Anti-Semitism in Manchuria ...... 59 vii 3.2. Golden Age of the Harbin Jewish Community under Chinese Rule ............................. 63 3.2.1. Chinese – Administrated Harbin .......................................................................... 64 3.2.2. Prosperity of the Harbin Jewish Community .......................................................