City of sanctuary

Israeli Ambassador to China Irit Ben-Abba said that she was "surprised "when she visited the exhibition Jews in Modern Tientsin, opened in the coastal city of Tianjin in mid-July, as it featured only a small part of the collection of the curator of the event.

Since 2001, 70-year-old Song Anna, a retired reporter from Tianjin Daily, has been interviewing Jewish people across the world who once lived in the city or who had relatives that did, collecting photographs from them showing their life in the city.

The exhibition features the cherished photos that Jewish people contributed depicting their childhood in the city, their communities and beloved Chinese friends and neighbors and many shining moments in their lives.

Impressed, Ben-Abba says: "It's very emotional to see a piece of the city's history, and of Jewish history."

The photo exhibition running until the end of this month depicts the lives of Jewish people in Tianjin during the first half of the 20th century, when the Jewish population in the city peaked at around 3,500.

"They may have come from Russia, Europe or escaped from Nazi Germany. ...I would like to express our sincere thanks to all the Chinese people again for their hospitality," the ambassador says, adding they had welcomed Jewish lifestyle in the city and Jewish businesses "nicely".

Ben-Abba visited Tianjin on July 18. As well as viewing the exhibition, she went to a well-preserved synagogue and held a business seminar with Tianjin medical and pharmaceutical companies.

She tells China Daily that she wants to boost business ties between Tianjin and Israel.

"Tianjin has one of the largest Israeli desalination facilities in China and we're trying to explore more opportunities in medical, new energy and other industrial sectors," she says.

After the seminar, she held an in-depth talk with Song about the photo show, during which Song shared her experiences of collecting the photos and letters on display.

Song says: "When I began to search for the photos in Tianjin's archives and libraries, I could hardly find any.

"I was fortunate that many Jewish associations around the world supported my project to trace the Jewish people's steps in Tianjin."

Song was impressed to find that many Jewish people said they loved Tianjin so deeply that they "felt it hard to describe in words".

"Among the people in the show, two are still alive in their 90s," she says.

Song has been in close contact with many of the people whose photos are on show, and she has accompanied some of them to revisit Tianjin since 2001.

She says the Jewish people expressed their love for the city and their sincere gratitude to the love they received from their Tianjin neighbors and business partners.

"Based on their oral history, I have published several books on their lives in the city, including The Jews in Tianjin, and I also have plans to shoot films on this part of history," Song says.

Song published a novel about a Jewish boy's love for his Tianjin nanny which, she says, was derived from the story she once heard from a Jewish man.

"His Tianjin nanny was killed by Japanese invaders, and he said her love for him was even beyond his mother's care".

The photo show was held in Jerusalem in 2010.

The current Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was a senior minister-level official at the time, cut the ribbon for the show.

The show then toured Tel Aviv in 2011.The photos on show have since been collected by the Museum of the Jewish People at Tel Aviv University.

Luan Jianzhang, director general of Tianjin's foreign affairs office, says: "The photos reflect both the friendship between people of Tianjin and Jewish people and the positive outlook for a community with a shared future for humanity."