The Rival Iraqi Jewish Clans Who Changed the Face of Shanghai
The Sassoons and Kadoories created huge, competing business empires, helped open China to the West and aided Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the Shoah – but their fates differed greatly, as revealed in a new book
By Tzach Yoked | July 17, 2020
The chefs were French, the managers Swiss, the jazz musicians American. In the 1930s, the Majestic was Asia's most luxurious hotel. The world's high and mighty would stop over in Shanghai just to spend a night there. International celebrities made the gleaming hotel a regular stop on their trips to the region.
But then another hotel – the Cathay – was built in the city, and overnight the Majestic became a second-class place. In the Cathay the carpets were brought in from France, the rugs from Japan, the armchairs from India. Crystal chandeliers adorned the corridors, and a spectacular mosaic ceiling welcomed guests in the lobby. The Cathay was "one of the most luxurious hostelries in the world, rivaling the best in Manhattan," Fortune magazine gushed in 1935.
The battle between the two luxury hotels embodied the rivalry between their proprietors: two wealthy families that both managed economic empires in Shanghai. They also had something else in common: Their roots were in the Jewish community of Baghdad.
The Sassoon and Kadoorie families were two dynasties, linked by blood ties, who had immigrated to China a century earlier and established flourishing businesses. They owned prestigious buildings and controlled a wide range of industries – from gas and infrastructures to banks, a casino and, in the case of one of them, also the local opium trade. They transformed Shanghai into an international mecca of tourism, commerce and leisure during the interwar period. They changed the face of the city – and of China.
The Sassoons and the Kadoories "played an important role in opening China to the world," says journalist and writer Jonathan Kaufman, whose newly published book, "The Last Kings of Shanghai," tells the story of the two families.
"In the 1920s and 1930s," Kaufman writes, "middle-class and wealthy Chinese flocked to Shanghai, drawn by economic opportunity and a life unavailable anywhere else in China: glamorous department stores, hotels, nightclubs, gambling casinos.” The city the Sassoons and the Kadoories helped to shape "inspired and enabled a generation of Chinese businessmen to be successful capitalists and entrepreneurs."
Kaufman, a former reporter and editor for the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, and currently director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, spent six years working on the book, traveling the globe to pore through archives, and speak to relatives, acquaintances and Chinese government officials, to trace the history of the two families.
Ultimately, the fate of each of them was very different. The Sassoons suffered a painful fall, lost most of its fortune in the communist revolution and left China, and abandoned the business world. The Kadoories fled to Hong Kong, rebuilt themselves and emerged stronger than ever in terms of both wealth and influence. The family maintained its status on the mainland over the years, in part by cultivating ties with the communist regime and refraining from criticizing it in public. "Your family has always been a friend to China," a senior aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping is quoted as telling Michael Kadoorie, the present head of the family.
Amid the multiple revolutions that modern China has experienced, the Kadoories always made a point of treading carefully in order to preserve their standing. As China opened up to the world – in interwar Shanghai, in Hong Kong under British rule and across China, following the establishment of relations with the West in the late 1970s – they flourished, becoming the richest Western family in the country. Their ongoing success is in large measure a barometer of China's overall receptiveness to the world. Today, with the surge of Chinese nationalism and the deterioration of the political situation in Hong Kong, the family's future faces a new test.
Michael Kadoorie (second from left) with the David Li (fourth from left), chairman of the Bank of East Asia, and other guests, in 2010. Credit: Shanghai Daily - Imaginechina /
Ransom to the Turks
The story begins with the Sassoons, an aristocratic family that lived in Baghdad for 800 years and was one of its wealthiest families. Because of its social, political and economic status, which extended well beyond the bounds of the Jewish community, the head of the family was granted the title "Nasi" – a Hebrew honorific meaning "Prince of the Jews" – by the Ottoman Empire.
"In the 18th century, Baghdad was a crossroads of trade, people were coming from all over the Middle East, even from China," Kaufman tells Haaretz in a recent phone interview from his home, outside Boston. "And all these people would pass through the Sassoons' house, because they knew they were the most important traders in Baghdad."
Please go to Haaretz to read the entire article.
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The Rabbi…
JULY 17, 2020 | BY GILAD ATZMON
Hours after leaving the hospital, his wounded hands wrapped in blue bandages, Chabad Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who survived the Poway synagogue shooting, steeled himself to face the national media and delivered an emotional account of the attack.
In the days following the shooting, the whole of America empathised with the Rabbi, he ticked all the right boxes: a Jew, a victim, a survivor. The American President invited him to the White House, CNN let him speak his mind, the UN General Assembly offered the rabbi a platform so he could moan about the history of Jewish suffering. The Rabbi didn't miss an opportunity to shout: "Am Yisrael Chai, the nation of Israel is alive, do not fear and do not falter, Because God is protecting us and we will survive, we will grow and get stronger and stronger…" The Rabbi was correct, the nation of Israel is alive and kicking, but his message was hardly universal or inclusive.
Our Chabad rebbe didn't manage to maintain his reputation for long. This week most American news outlets reported that the "Rabbi Shot in Poway Synagogue Attack pleaded guilty to federal charges of elaborate tax and wire fraud involving fake "donations" to the Chabad of Poway."
Rabbi Goldstein pleaded guilty to a scheme involving the misuse of at least $6.2 million in contributions and donations to the synagogue. Of those millions, Goldstein admitted to keeping approximately $620,000 for himself.
The details of his fraudulent operation are alarming: Robert Brewer, United States Attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, held a news briefing Tuesday in San Diego to detail what he called "an elaborate, long-term scheme" by Goldstein that "involved careful planning, attention to detail and significant deception all to give the appearance of legitimate donations to the Chabad and lawful deductions."
The Jewish community leader wasn't a lone operator. Goldstein pleaded guilty to his role in a scheme where donors (as many as 18 found so far), made large contributions to Chabad of Poway, but then secretly got most of their money back. Typically, Goldstein would keep a portion of the contribution — 10% — then funnel the rest of the funds back to the donor.
Please go to GILAD ATZMON's website to read the entire article.
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