In August 1945, 15,000 European Jewish refugees, 5000 Russian Jews, and a few hundred Iraqi Jews lived in Shanghai. Smaller numbers of Russian Jews resided in Tientsin and Harbin. In late 1945, the Nationalist government –and later the Communists– encouraged Germans and Austrians, including Jews, to leave China. In this lecture Prof. Lazin examines the aliyah (immigration to Israel) of Jews from China between 1945 and 1951, focusing on the efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to facilitate their immigration to Israel.

The talk explores the aliyah of Jews from China between 1945 and 1951, highlighting shifting migration patterns after World War II. Initially, most European Jewish refugees preferred destinations like the USA or Australia over Mandatory Palestine. By 1948, restrictive immigration policies in the US and elsewhere prompted more Jews in China to consider aliyah. However, by 1949, many still chose alternative paths—some repatriated, others emigrated elsewhere, and some remained in China. Ultimately, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), with support from the United Nations' International Refugee Organization (IRO), played a key role in facilitating their aliyah. Several interrelated issues will be examined. What factors influenced Jews in China to make aliyah or resettle elsewhere? And how significant was JDC’s role in the aliyah of the Jews in China?

This is the first program in a JDC Archives webinar series, Across Oceans, Across Cultures: Jewish Refuge in East Asia and the Role of JDC.

Fred Lazin is Professor Emeritus at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at BGU Israel in 1975 and retired in 2010. In 2018, he was a Visiting Fellow at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He has taught at the Hebrew University, UCLA, GWU, Cornell, Tufts and CUNY. He recently became a member of the International Advisory Board, Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. He has authored over eighty scholarly articles and chapters in books and written and/or edited twelve books. His latest book, American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force for Soviet Jewry; A Call to Conscience, was published by Lexington Books in 2019.