page_title: Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum
section_title: Ohel Moshe Synagogue
hierarchical_section_title: Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum / Ohel Moshe Synagogue
caption_attribution_description: English: Ohel Moishe Synagogue, in the former Jewish ghetto of Shanghai, China
context_page_description: The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum is a museum commemorating the Jewish refugees who lived in Shanghai during World War II after fleeing Europe to escape the Holocaust. It is located at the former Ohel Moshe or Moishe Synagogue, in the Tilanqiao Historic Area of Hongkou district, Shanghai, China. The museum features documents, photographs, films, and personal items documenting the lives of some of the more than 20,000 Jewish residents of the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees, better known as the Shanghai Ghetto, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.
context_section_description: The Ohel Moshe congregation was established by Russian Jewish immigrants in Shanghai in 1907. This Ashkenazi congregation was named after Moshe Greenberg, a member of the Russian Jewish community, and was first established in a rented space. As the congregation grew to 250 families by the 1920s, Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi, Chief Rabbi of Shanghai, supported the creation of a new space for the congregation. In 1927, the current structure was created by remodeling an existing three-story building in the Hongkou District, removing the second floor and adding a mezzanine. The synagogue is situated on what was once Ward Road (now Changyang Road), close to the Ward Road Gaol (now Tilanqiao Prison).
  The synagogue was confiscated by the government after the communist takeover in 1949 and converted into a psychiatric hospital. It was also used for office space. It reopened in the 1990s.
  Ohel Moshe and Ohel Rachel are the only two Jewish temples of old Shanghai that still stand, out of the original six. In 2004, the Ohel Moshe Synagogue was inscribed on the list of architectural heritage treasures of Shanghai. In 2007, the Government of Hongkou District restored the synagogue to its original architectural style based on the original drawings in the municipal archives, and opened it as a museum commemorating the Jewish refugees. Some of the residential buildings from the ghetto period still stand around the former synagogue, though most have been demolished. The museum itself, and the remaining historic structures, are preserved as part of the Tilanqiao Historic Area.
caption: A closeup view of the synagogue
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