Temple Sholom Presents: Story of Escape to Shanghai, A Kristallnacht Program

Jocelyn Wood will tell the harrowing story of her grandmother’s escape from Nazi Germany to Shanghai at Temple Sholom in Scotch Plains on Sunday, November 10, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. The program is presented in commemoration of Kristallnacht, the night in November 1938 when the Nazi regime launched a mass assault on the Jewish communities of Germany, Austria, and parts of Czechoslovakia.

Ms. Wood’s grandmother, Evelyn Pike Rubin, and her parents escaped to Shanghai, China, from their home in Breslau, Germany. Evelyn was eight years old at the time. Her father had previously been sent to a German labor camp where he was ill-treated. As a result of injuries sustained at the labor camp, he died shortly after their arrival in Shanghai. Evelyn and her mother lived out the war under difficult circumstances in Shanghai and were finally able to come to America in 1945. Evelyn published her memoir, Ghetto Shanghai, in 1985, and was featured in numerous documentaries on the subject of the Shanghai Jews.

This presentation is free and open to the public. The program is hybrid with the audience having the option of attending in person or on Zoom. The speaker will be joining us on Zoom. For those wishing to attend in person on November 10 at 7:00 p.m., Temple Sholom is located at 1925 Lake Avenue in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. For those who wish to join remotely, the link is as follows: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88951175930

Please contact the Temple Sholom office at [email protected] if you need accommodation to participate. The program is presented through the generous support of the Rabbi Sidney Nathanson Fund and the Ruth Rutenberg Fund.