Harbin was an enclave of relative tolerance in the first half of the 20th century, as chaos, war and revolution raged in a troubled world. Jews, mainly from Russia, came to see it as a sanctuary and a land of opportunity.
The first Jews arrived in Harbin around 1899 and came in search of opportunity after the opening of the Russia-China railroad. In 1917  a second group of Russian Jews came as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution. A third group sought to escape a Russia-China border conflict in 1929.

Harbin’s Jewish population peaked at about 15,000 by the 1930’s. It had two large synagogues, as well as its own hospital, old age home, clubs, shops, bakeries and Yiddish newspapers. By 1955, only 319 Jews were left to maintain community institutions. In 1982, the Harbin Jewish community consisted of one elderly resident, Anna Agre, who kept many of the communal archives under her bed. She died in 1985.

The 1917 revolution in Russia was the cause of very rapid growth in the Jewish presence in Tientsin to 500-600 families. In 1920 the community was formally called The Hebrew Association of Tientsin (THA) . The community built a synagogue, engaged a Rabbi and a Shochet, and provided full religious services.

The Tientsin Jewish School was established in 1925. It provided free education in Hebrew and English to those children needing it. By 1936 the school had 110 students and 15 teachers. Most of the students, even then, received free education. Jewish communal life including a fine club, restaurant, meeting
halls, theatre and a well stocked library. The Charity Society was established in 1931 and provided interest free loans to the needy.

The Russian-Jewish community in Tientsin was indeed very fortunate that it managed to escape any real form of persecution during World War II. The primary reason for this was that there was a non-aggression pact between the USSR and Japan during most of the war. In effect this
meant that  Russians were not treated by the Japanese as aliens.