Israeli rabbi calls on China to recognise Judaism

SHANGHAI, June 13 (Reuters) One of Israel's top two rabbis called on China to officially recognise Judaism as a religion during a visit to Shanghai where he led prayers at the site of a synagogue built in 1920.

Morocco-born Shlomo Amar thanked Shanghai for harbouring some 30,000 Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s and for the absence of anti-semitism in China's history.

But Amar, the first chief rabbi ever to visit the People's Republic of China, said he would also ask the government to restore the Ohel Rachel synagogue in Shanghai to its original purpose, as it is currently a government building.

''This is a very important centre of worship for the Jewish community here and it helps to bring about Jewish unity,'' Amar told reporters yesterday.

''Based on the past few years' experience, the community here is poised to enjoy tremendous growth and everyone will benefit,'' said the rabbi, who will also visit Beijing to meet with some of China's leaders.

China recognises state-backed Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Daoism and Buddhism -- which means citizens can officially identify themselves as followers of these religions -- but not Judaism, which is mainly practised by expatriates living and working in the country.

Amar made no public mention of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Shanghai this week for a security summit.

Ahmadinejad has questioned whether the Holocaust happened and called for Israel's elimination.

Shanghai took in 30,000 Jews in the 1930s as they fled the racial policies of Nazi Germany and some of its allies.

Nearly all of them left in the 1940s with the defeat of Germany, the creation of the state of Israel, and the founding of the avowedly atheist People's Republic of China.

Of the handful left behind, only one, Sara Imas, is known to still live in the city. She holds dual citizenship and is married to a Chinese. The rest of Shanghai's Jewish community is made up of expatriates.

There is a small community of people in the central province of Henan who claim to be descendants of Jews who moved to China more than half a millennium ago. Their numbers are estimated today in the low hundreds.

Amar said he hoped to forge better links with China so as to aid the Jewish community in Shanghai and elsewhere in China.

''I have come here to strengthen the community here, to aid spiritual growth, and to pray for the government to allow freedom of religion for the Jews,'' Amar said.

''Most importantly, the Jewish tradition does not proselytise and we look only to strengthen and unite our own fold. It is in that spirit that I hope to speak to them,'' he said.

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