DEPUTY chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel and senior NSW Labor MP Walt Secord was recently given rare permission by the Chinese government to visit the historic Ohel Rachel Synagogue in Shanghai.
Founded in 1920 and consecrated a year later, the Sephardi shul was effectively closed in 1948 and taken over by the Communists in 1949.
It is one of only two synagogues still standing in Shanghai – out of an original six – and is the largest synagogue in the Far East.
Ohel Rachel is closed to the public, but it has been made available recently to the local expatriate Jewish population on a very limited basis on occasional High Holy Days.
Full story in The Australian Jewish News