Many Jews probably know that May is Jewish American Heritage Month, but it is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well. The Baltimore Jewish Council is committed to bringing those two groups together, as they share similar histories and are by no means exclusive.
In 2024, the BJC featured a speaker who is Chinese American and Jewish. This year, they presented a screening of the animated film “A Jewish Girl in Shanghai.”
As BJC Director of Community Relations Megan Brantley said, the story of three children and the Shanghai Ghetto during World War II is one that spoke to a wide audience of attendees who came ready to learn new historical facts and even a new perspective.
“We were thinking of another way to really showcase the diversity of the Jewish experience globally,” Brantley said. “One of the things I really focus on is showcasing more than just the stories we already know.”
The screening, held on May 3, also featured a speaker panel that included current Holocaust Remembrance Committee member Lisa Sparks, whose mother, Yvonne Daniel, was born in the Shanghai Ghetto, as well as Rabbi Rachel Safman of Beth Israel Congregation, who has experience in different Asian communities, Brantley said.
For the BJC, this event is not just a chance to celebrate the heritage of two groups that have and will continue to intertwine, but to also highlight a small piece of history that is often forgotten when the Holocaust is discussed.
Shanghai was, for part of the period of Nazi rule, the only place in the world that offered unconditional admittance for Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied European states. When Japan, which was allied with the Nazis, took over control of Shanghai, they created the titular ghetto and forced Jews in the city into it.
“A Jewish Girl in Shanghai” tells the story of a Jewish girl and her family who are refugees, and a Chinese orphan whom she and her brother befriend. The story illuminates a specific moment in history, but it also speaks to the larger question of relations between groups and how people can interact and become close despite their differences on paper. On top of that, it reminded viewers that there are families who grew out of these relationships.
As to why it matters for a Jewish organization to also represent Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, too, Brantley said it can be summed up simply.
“Because there are Jews that are both,” she said. “While the story of the Shanghai Ghetto is really more a story of Ashkenazi, Eastern European Jews fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe, there have been, for a long time, Jews across Asia.”
The story is, of course, a Jewish one. But it is more than that, and in that fact lies much of the value of showing it, Brantley said.
“We wouldn’t be sitting here if there was not a Jewish story here, right? Obviously. But it’s a more nuanced story. It’s a sensitive story. And the fact that this film deals with children experiencing this, and it’s not just the two Jewish children that the film focuses on — they make a friend with an orphan Chinese boy who is living under Nazi-Japanese occupation.
So that’s part of the discussion as well,” Brantley said.
The crowd at the event numbered around 70 people, and included Jews, Asians, Jewish-Asians and people who don’t belong to either community.
“The stuff that we’re focusing on is, of course, a very Jewish story,” Brantley said. “There’s a lot of nuance and layers and complexity to this story.”
The event was held for the confluence of two important celebrations, but Brantley said that it will also serve as a launch point for other events that tell complex, intersectional stories about Jews, regardless of what month it is — although it will hopefully become a staple each May, as well.
“I think it’s going to be a bigger conversation about how do we acknowledge this as a community?” Brantley said.
