Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his career and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania.
Shortly prior to and during World War II, and coinciding with the Second Sino-Japanese War, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were resettled in the Japanese Empire. The onset of the European war by Nazi Germany involved the lethal mass persecutions and genocide of Jews, later known as the Holocaust, resulting in thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing east. Most ended up in Japanese-occupied China. Termed the Fugu Plan by the Japanese at the time, popular accounts of the resettlement plan have resurfaced in the 21st century on Chinese social media as an antisemitic conspiracy theory against China.
Antisemitism in Japan has developed over the years despite the presence of a relatively small and obscure Jewish population. Japan had no traditional antisemitism until nationalist ideology and propaganda began to spread on the eve of World War II. Before and during the war, Nazi Germany, an ally to the Japanese, encouraged Japan to adopt antisemitic policies. In the post-war period, extremist groups and ideologues have promoted conspiracy theories.
Rabbi Menachem Shmuel David Raichik was an Orthodox rabbi of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, and the pioneer of Chabad's activities in Los Angeles, California. Raichik served as a shaliach for the sixth and seventh Lubavitcher Rebbes.
The Shanghai Ghetto, formally known as the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees, was an area of approximately one square mile (2.6 km2) in the Hongkou district of Japanese-occupied Shanghai. The area included the community around the Ohel Moshe Synagogue. Shanghai was notable for a long period as the only place in the world that unconditionally offered refuge for Jews escaping from the Nazis. After the Japanese occupied all of Shanghai in 1941, the Japanese army forced about 23,000 of the city's Jewish refugees to be restricted or relocated to the Shanghai Ghetto from 1941 to 1945 by the Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees. It was one of the poorest and most crowded areas of the city. Local Jewish families and American Jewish charities aided them with shelter, food, and clothing. The Japanese authorities increasingly stepped up restrictions, surrounded the ghetto with barbed wire, and the local Chinese residents, whose living conditions were often as bad, did not leave. By 21 August 1941, the Japanese government closed Shanghai to Jewish immigration.
Moshe Shatzkes was a rabbi and renowned Talmudic scholar, commonly known as the Łomża Rov".
Zorach or Zorah Wahrhaftig, also known as Zerach Warhaftig, was an Israeli rabbi, lawyer, and politician. He was a signatory of Israel's Declaration of Independence.
The history of the Jews in Finland goes back to the late 18th century. Many of the first Jews to arrive were nineteenth-century Russian soldiers who stayed in Finland after their military service ended. The two synagogues in active use today in Finland were built by Jewish congregations in Helsinki and Turku in 1906 and 1912, respectively. The Vyborg Synagogue was destroyed by Russian air bombings on 30 November 1939, the first day of the Winter War. Today, Finland is home to around 1,800 Jews, of which 1,400 live in the Greater Helsinki area and 200 in Turku. Finnish and Swedish are the most common mother tongues of Jews in Finland, and many also speak Yiddish, German, Russian or Hebrew. Since data collection began in 2008, incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise in Finland. The number of incidents are likely under-reported, as Finland does not have a systematic method for recording specific forms of hate speech that incite violence or hatred.
The Mirrer Yeshiva Central Institute, commonly known as the Mir Yeshiva or the Mirrer Yeshiva, is a Haredi yeshiva located in Brooklyn, New York.
The Mir Yeshiva, commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Lithuanian yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire. After relocating a number of times during World War II, it has evolved into three yeshivas: one in Jerusalem and two in Brooklyn, New York: the Mir Yeshiva, and Bais Hatalmud.
The history of the Jews in Kobe, Japan, is recorded from the 19th century onwards.
Abraham Setsuzō Kotsuji was a Japanese Orientalist, and the son of a Shinto priest who descended from a long line of Shinto priests. During the Holocaust he helped Jewish refugees to escape the Nazis, arranging for them to stay first in Kobe and later in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. He also fought against Nazi-inspired anti-Jewish propaganda. A book about how he helped Jewish refugees was written by Japanese actor Jundai Yamada and published in April 2013 by NHK Shuppan.
Chaim Walkin was a Chinese-born Israeli Orthodox rabbi, dean, and lecturer.
Arie Leo Hanin was a Lithuanian-American political activist.
Tatsuo Osako, of Chiba, Japan was a citizen of the Japanese Empire during World War II who is most notable for transporting Jews to safety. He worked as a clerk for the tourism bureau in Tsuruga, a port city in Japan. His role involved aiding refugees, particularly Jewish and other Europeans, who were traveling from Vladivostok, Russia's Pacific port, to Japan before the Pearl Harbor bombing. In his capacity as the ship's escort and clerk, he distributed funds provided by Jewish organizations to assist the refugees.
Persona Non Grata is a 2015 Japanese biographical drama film directed by Cellin Gluck. It depicts the life of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who was appointed a vice-consul and later a consul in Lithuania and served there from 1939 to 1940 and who saved lives of some 6,000 Jewish refugees by issuing transit visas to the Japanese Empire.
After the German invasion of Poland in World War II and the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, many yeshivas that had previously been part of Poland found themselves under Soviet communist rule, which did not tolerate religious institutions. The yeshivas therefore escaped to Vilnius in Lithuania on the advice of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. In Lithuania, the yeshivas were able to function fully for over a year and many of the students survived the Holocaust because of their taking refuge there, either because they managed to escape from there or because they were ultimately deported to other areas of Russia that the Nazis did not reach. Many students, however, did not manage to escape and were killed by the Nazis or their Lithuanian collaborators.
Although Japan was a member of the Axis, and therefore an ally of Nazi Germany, it did not actively participate in the Holocaust. Anti-semitic attitudes were insignificant in Japan during World War II and there was little interest in the Jewish question, which was seen as a European issue. Furthermore, Nazi Germany did not pressure Japan on the issue.
Hillel Levine is an American social scientist, rabbi, and author. He was Professor of Religion at Boston University, where he served as the first director of the Center for Judaic Studies. In addition to books on Jewish history, he authored studies on social theory, comparative historical sociology, and the social epistemology of Judaism. He also served as Deputy Director for Museum Planning of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in which capacity he contributed to the preliminary planning of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
