JDC Heroine Featured in Magazine Cover Story

Laura Margolis, the JDC representative who implemented JDCs World War II-era relief efforts in Shanghai, was recently the subject of Asian Jewish Life Magazines Cover Story article. Jews have reportedly been in China as early as 206 BCE, but their presence in the country peaked in 1941, when thousands of Jewish European refugees had fled to Shanghai–the only free port in the world ready to accept them without passports. Margolis organized a system of emergency relief for the Jewish refugees, and with her help JDC supplied most of the funds needed to support the approximately 15,000 Jews who survived the war in Shanghai.

“How well do I remember the name Margolis,” writes Jerry Moses, a child survivor from Shanghai. “I was one of the children who was waiting for her soups every day in Chaufong Heim in Hongkew. The Jewish Joint, with the help of Mr. Gordon and Miss Margolies, helped find our relatives in Chile and paid for our journey from Shanghai to San Francisco, then by train to Miami, and then by plane to Santiago they were our saviors.”

Want to learn more about our lifesaving work in Shanghai? Explore our topic guide for documents, photos, oral histories and more.

See The Jewish Womens Archives blog post about Laura Margolis here.