From Poverty to Culture: The Refugee Community in Shanghai During World War ll

From Poverty to Culture: The Refugee Community in Shanghai During World War ll

Date

May 18 2014
, 2PM- 4PM

The eighth annual Herbert H. and Irma B. Risch Memorial Program on Immigration

 

Speaker Rabbi Marvin Tokayer

 

Sunday May 18th 2pm

 

Venue: Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, 7401 Park Heights Ave, Baltimore, MD 21208

 

*THIS IS A FREE EVENT, NO REGISTRATION NECESSARY*

 

The Risch memorial program is our largest and most important annual event in our calendar year.  Each year we focus on a different aspect of the topic of immigration.  This year, as JMM looks at cultural ties between the Chinese and the Jewish communities through its Project Mah Jongg exhibit, we have invited a very special expert on the Jews of East Asia to be our featured speaker.  Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, former rabbi of the Jewish community of Japan and author of the Fugu Plan, will deliver the keynote presentation From Poverty to Culture: The  Refugee  Community in Shanghai During World War ll.

 

You won’t want to miss this powerful evocation of how the 20,000 Jews of Shanghai struggled against impossible odds to not only survive, but thrive in this unexpected refuge. Rabbi Marvin Tokayer will bring to life this unique immigrant story.

 

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer served as United States Air Force Chaplain in Japan, upon his discharge he returned to Tokyo to serve for eight years as the rabbi for the Jewish community of Japan. He wrote 20 books in Japanese, including several bestsellers; discovered literally the last of the Chinese Jews; located a long-lost Jewish cemetery in Nagasaki; contributed to the Encyclopedia Judaica; acted as a bridge for many travelers between East and West; served the needs of his congregation; and became spellbound by the threads of a story which he began piecing together.  Rabbi Tokayer’s new book, Pepper, Silk and Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East, co-authored with Dr. Ellen Rodman, has just been published.

 

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