“Bringing her extraordinary depth of learning on both sides of this fascinating story, Chinese and Jewish, Irene Eber has located and translated mostly from Yiddish (and Polish) some hitherto unknown writings by Jews living in refuge in Shanghai in the years leading up and during World War Two. Given the provenance of the material presented, we are all lucky to have this wonderful volume in English and with Professor Eber''s insightful explanatory introductions as well.”—Joshua Fogel, Canada Research Chair, York University
(Joshua Fogel 20080207)
“Irene Eber has constructed a fascinating insight into a little-known community of Jewish refugees who fled like blown leaves before the storm of Nazism, landing in Shanghai, where they clung to life, culture, and religion. Without this valuable record, a revealing piece of history might have gone unrecorded.”—David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
(David K. Shipler )
“A literary and historical gem! Sinologist Irene Eber gives a marvelously fresh and enlightening overview of Jewish history in Shanghai, highlighting the complexity of Holocaust refugees interacting not only with Chinese culture and the Japanese occupation, but also with other Jews from strikingly varied cultural backgrounds. As a native speaker of Yiddish, Eber has poured her heart into these sensitive translations, which document the personal and cultural diversity of the writers and their remarkable ingenuity, creativity and resilience.”—Barbara Johnson, Ithaca College
(Barbara Johnson )
"Eber''s book consists of fascinating documents--poems, feuilletons, short fiction, extracts from letters and diaries. . . . [A] haunting and valuable book."—Seven Oaks Magazine
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Seven Oaks Magazine )
“[Eber] has painted a colorful picture of how uprooted and displaced families exemplified courage, strength, and determination to survive and even thrive under the most difficult circumstances. . . . All writers and readers of history can learn a valuable lesson from Eber.”—Jewish Book World
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Jewish Book World )
“Thank goodness for Irene Eber and the University of Chicago Press. . . . [Voices from Shanghai] is a slim, lovingly produced collection of letters, poems, stories and diary entries written by a number of refugees after they’d settled in China. . . . Countless emotions are conveyed in these pages: both humor and anger over the situation; joy about being alive, but frustration about being unable to rise above certain circumstances; and fear, even depression and, at times, crippling inertia.”—Jewish Exponent
(Robert Leitner
Jewish Exponent )
"Eber''s book consists of fascinating documents--poems, fueilletons, short fiction, extracts from letters and diaries. . . . Only one of the selections had ever been translated into English until Eber took on the task, producing this haunting and valuable book."
(
Diplomat and International Canada )
“Irene Eber’s Voices from Shanghai is a unique document in the annals of Holocaust literature. The literary testimonies by Expressionist writers of the enchanting and also tortured mingling of Chinese and European culture that characterized Shanghai during the Second World War opens up for us a forgotten chapter of the Holocaust. I am confident that this book will be favorably received by scholars of China and the Holocaust as well as the wider reading public.”—Paul Mendes-Flohr, University of Chicago Divinity School
(Paul Mendes-Flohr )
