Shanghai Breezes
The Isaac Jacob Life Narrative Interview
by Elaine Mendelow¹

The life story of Isaac Jacob holds several of the diasporic characteristics cited by diaspora scholar and author Robin Cohen.² Their application and explanation will offer important synergies between theory and practice, resulting in a fuller understanding of the family’s journey.

Isaac Jacob’s maternal grandfather was able to leave Iraq because he had an attractive job offer in Bombay from the Sassoon family, who also were responsible for the subsequent move to Shanghai, illustrating Cohen’s ninth characteristic of “expansion from a homeland for work, trade or colonial ambitions” (Cohen 17).

Isaac’s father Ezra left Baghdad not solely for work reasons; he wanted to avoid conscription. Isaac relates:

IJ: Iraq was under the Ottoman, the Turkish Empire, and they wanted to conscript all young people into the army probably at 16, so he had to leave. His brother left before him, and his father had passed away I don’t know when in Baghdad, and his mother was still alive, and they all moved to Bombay and then to Shanghai. The brother moved there first and then he told his brother, told him to come . . . IJ: They had a potential job at ED Sassoon company. They were very, very wealthy Jewish Baghdadian Jews who came there in the 1850s and established very big businesses, actually importing opium and exporting . . . goods, like cotton goods, a tremendous job.

Half a century after Isaac Jacob’s father Ezra left Iraq for India, Isaac and his brothers left Israel for the United States for the same reason: “Expansion from a homeland for work, trade . . . ” (Cohen 17).

sraeli bureaucracy inhibited business growth of the Jacob radio store/repair shop:

IJ: We opened this radio store—the red tape is so . . . They used to come to the store and check all the radios—checked for the excise tax, a red tag, and if it didn’t have a red tag, they would confiscate the radio. For instance, there was no tape recorder at that time; we had a wire recorder. That was the first kind of recorder that came out in the fifties. The recording is made on a very thin steel wire. We didn’t have tape recorders, a wire recorder . . . the tape is made . . . we had that from Shanghai and they said where is the excise tax? [we said] We don’t have it; we got it from Shanghai. [they said] Well, we’ll have to confiscate it . . . That’s what killed everything, my outlook on Israel.

When Isaac’s brothers began the family’s emigration, the United States was an attractive destination because of the brothers’ fluency in spoken and written English, acquired from their British schooling in Shanghai. Isaac also related that the siblings always spoke to each other in English. English could be considered the primary language of that generation of Isaac’s family, although conversations with his father were a bilingual mélange: his father spoke to him in Judeo-Arabic, which Isaac could understand better than he could speak it, and Isaac answered his father in English, which his father could understand better than he could speak it.

Though they may have been scattered across the globe, Jews from Iraq always thought of themselves as part of a distinct entity. Cohen cites the diasporic characteristic of “a strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time based on a common history/fate” (Cohen 17), which describes the mindset of Isaac’s family.

The Iraqi Sephardic Jews were just such a closely knit community, within and without Iraq. In Shanghai as in Bombay, they lived near each other, worshipped together and married one another. When relatives from Iraq/Bombay visited their Shanghai cousins, engagements would often result, as took place with Isaac’s family.

Memory of a common history/fate is forefronted by the assistance of the Shanghai Iraqi Jewish community to the Jewish refugees during World War II. Isaac describes their plight:

IJ: We were not in the same areas as the refugees that came, the refugees from Europe and all the other refugees that came. They had houses where they could find houses. Then with the instigation of the Germans, who came to the Japanese authorities, they tried to convince the Japanese authorities that all these refugees who had escaped—they wanted to annihilate them. The Japanese authorities refused. They compromised. They said they would intern them in the ghettos. They didn’t say Jews, they said all who came between 1937-9 would have to move into this ghetto and this was, it was a very dilapidated place. It was near the Japanese occupation section part of China, where these people had to go the housing was impossible, ten families cramped into one house, dysentery, typhoid, all kinds of diseases. There was one person, one Japanese official in charge of giving the visas to exit the area. He was a very nasty person. They had a hard time trying to get out, to do business . . . She [my mother] was the kindest person, very, very kind. She tried to help everyone, against my father’s wishes.

With the arrival of Ashkenazi Eastern European Jews fleeing the Holocaust, Sephardic Shanghai Jews offered essential assistance to the newcomers, making it possible for them to survive the harsh conditions of Japanese occupation. Though the needy Jews were not Sephardic or Iraqi, the universalism/shared Jewish identity, forged by the bond of membership in klal Yisroel, the Jewish people, superseded the particularism of any individual cultural subset. At great personal expense, the resident Iraqi Jewish community provided those snatched from the fires of the Holocaust whatever was needed for survival, a proud moment of Yichud, or Jewish unity.

Having lived through the troublesome years of Japanese occupation during World War II, the Jacob family now faced another looming crisis: the impending Chinese communist takeover of Shanghai, which motivated the Jacob family to resettle. They left for Israel, ending the diaspora of over two millennia.

The state of Israel was established in May of 1948, the existence of which made it possible for the Jacob family to make Aliyah in April of 1949, just one month before the communist takeover in May, 1949. A family member, Rose Jacob, remarked on the fortuitous timing: What if the years had been reversed and the Communist takeover had occurred in 1948 and the state of Israel had been established in 1949? The wheel of fortune in the diasporic lottery had spun propitiously in their favor; a person of faith would see hashgacha pratis, divine providence, in the equation. The Japanese Occupation and the anticipated communist takeover of Shanghai perfectly illustrate another of Cohen’s diasporic characteristics: “a troubled relationship with host societies/lack of acceptance/possibility of another calamity” (Cohen 17).

The journey to Israel from Shanghai involved an ocean voyage to San Francisco, followed by a cross-country train ride to Ellis Island, before proceeding to Israel. Isaac relates the circumstances of their journey:

IJ: From China, we landed in San Francisco and took a train to New York. It took 4 and 1/2 to five days. It was a sealed train; the windows were not open more than an inch or inch and a half. The FBI agents, many, many FBI agents in the cars to make sure that nobody gets off the train. They used to count at night to make sure that everyone was there. One day my brother was fed up with sitting on the chair to sleep, so he decided to find a place where he could sleep horizontally, so he went to the baggage car on top of the baggage and to sleep. The agents came at night and realized one person was missing. They asked us who it was, and I said my brother was sleeping in the baggage car. They were very angry. We got to New York, and we went on a small boat to Ellis Island, we were there for four or five days, the immigration center. We were grateful to be there because we hadn’t had any kosher food for a very long time, and the Jewish Agency brought us kosher food. So we were very appreciative of that kosher food after five days.

From Ellis Island, the family proceeded on to Israel via Italy:

IJ: We went from Ellis Island on a ship from New York to Italy. We landed on the west coast of Italy. . . . We stayed in Italy for two to three weeks. They were processing us to see if we had any illnesses, contagious diseases just to make sure there was nobody sick going to Israel . . . My father had eye problems, glaucoma, so my father had to get treated for glaucoma and my brother stayed behind with him. We went from Italy to Israel, landed in Haifa, Haifa port. The authorities came on board. They found I was almost 18; they said, “We need everybody in the army—you’re going to be in the army right away!" So, they separated me from my family and took me to an army base.

Isaac served in the Israeli Army for two years. (His mother didn’t know where he was stationed for nearly two weeks.) He has a picture of himself in a cap modeled on one worn by members of the French Foreign Legion; replaced shortly after by the still-worn Israeli army beret.

An overview of the Jacob family saga perfectly illustrates the last of Cohen’s nine characteristics: “the possibility of a distinctive creative, enriching life in host countries with a tolerance for pluralism” (Cohen 17).

The Jacob family grew and prospered in Iraq, India, England and the United States. The post-Shanghai generations include physicians and rabbis, who took advantage of the educational opportunities open to them in pluralistically tolerant host societies. Very few family members live in Israel, but those living elsewhere continue to maintain a strong connection with Israel; visiting often, attending school/seminary as well as keeping open the possibility of Aliyah, or emigration. Isaac’s sons and their families are Sabbath observant; Isaac and one of his sons live close to one another in the same community, within walking distance to their local synagogue. They are able to celebrate Shabbat and the holidays together. Their pluralistic synagogue holds both Ashkenazi and Sephardic minyanim/services, so they have the opportunity to daven/pray in the Sephardic tradition, in keeping with the Iraqi custom. He describes an Iraqi custom that the family keeps in the Passover Seder to this day:

IJ: Well the way that we celebrate the Passover. Before we said the Manishtana the young kids, the Israelites when they left Egypt, they tied it on their back, and before Manishtana, we went out. We knocked on the door. My father said, “Who’s there?” and we said “Israelim.” Where did you come from? Mitzrayim. We came inside and then we said the Manishtana. . . . I try to do it with the kids.

It is interesting to note that the Jacob family saga also contains several diasporic characteristics found in the Esther story. The two families share a common Mesopotamian locale, if several centuries apart, which might account for the similarities. Esther’s family lived in the time of the Persian Empire and Isaac’s family lived in the time of the Ottoman Empire, which placed both under the rule of a dominating power. The word for ruler, pasha, shares Old Persian and Turkish roots. There are also commonalities of loci and population.

Jewish Spark/Esther Moment

Within the paradigmatic story of Esther, the example of her relative Mordecai had been forefronted to subsequent diasporic populations for his loyalty to the tenets of his Jewish faith: when ordered to bow down to Haman, he refused, on the grounds that a Jew bows down only to God, certainly not to a mere mortal. Even when Mordecai’s refusal led to Haman’s genocidal edict, he did not waver.

Though not as dire, a synergy can be found in Isaac’s decision not to take a job that would require him to work on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, even for a higher position and an increased wage:

IJ: Of course it’s challenging, because looking for a job, saying you’re not going to work on Shabbat, you’re not going to work on the holidays. For instance, I worked in a place and somebody came, there was a salesman, and he said, “I can give you a better job, because I’m going to be a supervisor in this new plant.” Great. He told me what my salary was and I was looking forward to getting a bigger salary. So he invited me for an interview and I went to the interview. He liked what I was saying. I did repairs for the machinery, the quip, photo equipment, the printing things, some. So he said, “The biggest day is Saturday when we do all the repairs.” “Uh, oh,” I said, “I don’t work on Saturdays.” So he said, “Sorry, I can’t hire you.”

Isaac’s sons continue to carry on the tradition of observance. One of them became a rabbi. Isaac felt no pressure to assimilate/not observe Shabbat; for him, as for Mordecai, it was not even an option.

Isaac’s “Esther moment” took the form of a sustained commitment to an observant, Torah-based Orthodox lifestyle. Family loyalty was paramount in both the Jacob family and the Benjamite descendants, Esther and Mordecai. In his interview, when he was asked to speak “words of wisdom,” Isaac Jacob said that family was the most important thing in life; shown by being close to them and ready to help out when needed. Isaac relates this guiding principle of family loyalty:

IJ: Well, the main thing is to stay with the family, to communicate, not fight with family, get angry; just be cordial with your family, and family is the most important thing to think about.

So, too, Mordecai kept a watchful eye on Esther when she was in the king’s palace, inquiring daily after her. Esther also kept an eye out for Mordecai; when she heard that he had rent his clothes and was wearing sackcloth and ashes, she sent him new clothing and sought to inquire as to the cause of his distress. Additionally, Isaac advises,

IJ: Just to be very strong and think of the future. You see, you know time will be better, like they say in Israel, y’hiye tov, it will be good.

Within the saga of Esther, language proficiency plays a crucial part. Mordecai’s facility with understanding several languages for his position as a member of the Sanhedrin enables him to foil a plot against the king’s life: the conspirators were speaking aloud to each other in public in their native tongue, thinking that no one would be able to understand them; Mordecai did, and reported them to the authorities. Isaac’s family spoke Iraqi Arabic, which allowed them to communicate with family members across the generations and miles. In Shanghai, Isaac went to English-speaking schools run by the colonial British authorities, as well as learning Chinese and Hebrew. When it came time to emigrate from Shanghai to Israel, the family was equipped to speak to Iraqi Jewish émigrés, as well as residents who had learned English when what would become Israel was governed by Britain from the end of World War I to 1948 statehood. Their proficiency in English, which the Jacob family had learned in Shanghai, stood them well when they emigrated to the United States and England. Isaac explains his schooling in Shanghai:

IJ: It was in English because it was sort of a British school. They had two exams, there was sixth form and sixth upper. In sixth form, they had an exam not from the school, from Cambridge University, in England. You went to an auditorium. You went to a special auditorium; they opened a package, a special [package].

Isaac relates a World War II memory from his high school days:

IJ: My brothers had cars, but in the Second World War, from 1941 to 1945 you couldn’t get any gas. I went to school opposite a military camp, occupied by US soldiers before 1941, the Marines there, a big base. They knew that the war was coming, so they left. I don’t know exactly when they left, but the Japanese Army took it over.

When Isaac was in his 80s, he went back to Shanghai with his son, Marty. According to his family, he was treated like “a rock star.” With the help of a Jewish woman they met at a Friday night Sabbath dinner at the local Chabad House, Isaac was able to locate some of his childhood sites:

IJ: The first thing I tried was to look at my house, where I had lived for seventeen, eighteen years. We went to the area there, and we were looking, and it started to rain we were going in that area, I knew it was in that area and we were walking around and I couldn’t find anything, I couldn’t find it, we were walking around and I couldn’t find anything. Then we went to Chabad, there was a Sephardic Chabad, we had dinner there, it was very great, the first meal we had and it was a real good meal. A couple of people were serving; there was a Jewish guy and his wife, they were serving, they were working for the Chabad. We ate there two nights in this Chabad, and Marty got very friendly with the guy. So Marty said, “Maybe we should go out for a beer together.” So we left the group, the group left, or whatever, they went back to the hotel and we stayed with this couple. . . . We couldn’t find the house. So this woman said, “I’ll find it for you.” She ordered the Uber to come and took us to this area, and she speaks Chinese, obviously. . . . So she went to the corner, almost where I lived and there was a forty-story Four Seasons Hotel there near where I lived. So she went to the guards in the hotel and she spoke to them in Chinese and she said to them that they had a house where seven houses were attached and she explained to them. They said, “Oh we remember that. It was knocked down and they built a garden in the area.”

At that point, Isaac and his son left the tour for a day so they could go exactly where they wanted in order to revisit places from Isaac’s life in Shanghai:

IJ: Yes, so we decided not to continue with the tour for one day. We hired actually a tour guide to take us where WE wanted to go. So we went to the school. And everything besides the school that I went to from kindergarten to twelfth grade was still standing there and the shul that I went to was still standing there. We tried to go into the shu, and they said, “You can’t go.” So the guide she spoke to them. She said, “He was here,” so they said, “Okay, you can go walk outside, you can’t go inside.” So we went to the shul. That’s where Hillary Clinton when she went to China, she visited the shul . . . They said they made it into a museum, a museum for the past Jewish life. Chabad uses it once a year for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; they allow them to come and use it.

They also saw the school, a school no longer, where Isaac (re)shared a high school memory that had made it difficult to pay attention to his studies:

IJ: No, it’s a government business. I was telling Marty and the group that we went with, the private [tour], that my classroom when I was a student there was overlooking the street and across the street previously was an American Marine barracks. So when the Japanese took over Shanghai, they had their army base there in this place. And I used to watch from the window, how the Japanese used to train, with bayonets, make-believe bayonets, made of wood. They really tried all-out to kill the other guy. They had masks, like real fighting . . . And now there’s a Starbucks café in that area.

There were a few areas which he found visually unchanged:

IJ: there’s an area called the “Bund.” The Bund is an industrial place where very, very big buildings were built, huge, huge solid stone buildings. One of the buildings was built, was a hotel, by the Sassoon family, the Sassoon was a Sephardic banking family. . . . so, they were very wealthy. So they built this hotel on the Bund, it’s a unique kind of building, many, many rooms, a unique structure. . . . They changed the name, they made it the Peace Hotel they called it now. Also the Bund which was founded in Shanghai, a Hong Kong and Shanghai banking company. There was HSBC, you know, HSBC was founded in Shanghai, and the building is still there.

Though Isaac didn’t meet anyone from his childhood or any of their descendants, he did get to speak his no-longer-in-current-use Shanghai Chinese vernacular:

IJ: on this private tour, she [the Jewish woman from Chabad] took us to a Confucius Temple; Confucius is one of [the gurus, the main people]. I saw a janitor who was sweeping the floor and I asked him in Chinese, I thought that maybe he might know, and it turned that he understood me, and we were conversing. He understood what I was saying, and he was laughing his head off, because he couldn’t believe a foreigner could speak [Chinese].

Isaac’s trip to China illustrates a diasporic experience termed a “pilgrimage,” where the diasporic subject revisits the scene of a forced departure, often with family. (Holocaust survivors usually visit the loci of their childhood, as well as concentration camps where they had been interned.) The pilgrimage provides a form of closure, especially by sharing the experience with descendants. No longer just a memory, they have found their way back to what once was their home. Being brought full circle to their geographical origins gives perspective to reflect on the diasporic journey as destination.

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¹ Dr. Elaine Barron Mendelow received a B.A. and an M.A. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Comparative Studies of Florida Atlantic University. She is a writing consultant at the latter’s Center for Excellence in Writing. She is the founding director of Heritage Biography International, which uses video interviews to create life story narratives. She has kindly allowed us to excerpt this narrative from her book, Narrating Diaspora: A Study of Five Contemporary Jewish Auto/Biographies New Delhi: Prestige Books International, 2021.

² Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction, 2^nd ed. London & New York: Routledge, 2008.