Shanghai's small but growing Jewish community has called for the restoration of a historic synagogue and permission to resume religious services there.
The city's education commission used the Ohel Rachel Synagogue for storage and office space until 1998.
Shanghai has declared the 88-year-old building on Shaanxi Road a historical landmark, though it now stands empty.
'It has great historical value and obviously it was built by Jewish people for the purpose of a synagogue. There is no reason we should not be able to use it now that we are back,' said Rabbi Shalom Greenberg, spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Shanghai.
The call by the city's estimated 1,000 Jewish residents came just ahead of a government-organised ceremony at the synagogue today to mark the anniversary of the closing of the Hongkou ghetto, where tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were held during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the second world war.
'We thought this would be a good time to raise the question of what kind of relationship they would like to have with the Jewish people who are currently living in Shanghai,' Rabbi Greenberg said.
The synagogue remains under the control of the education commission, but the government opens it a few times a year for Jewish holidays.
The Jewish community now holds services and other activities in a residential building in the western Hongqiao district with tacit approval of the local government.
Another remaining synagogue, Ohel Moishe, has been converted into a museum as part of a planned property development project in the old Jewish district of Hongkou.
The mainland government does not officially recognise Judaism as one of the state's approved religions. However, authorities appear to be more lenient towards the faith than some other religions because of the lack of Chinese followers and the absence of recruitment for new members.
A seminar on Jewish refugees in Shanghai is also planned for tomorrow. The city was home to tens of thousands of European Jews fleeing persecution by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s.
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