The tiny Jewish community of Kobe managed to escape serious harm from the devastating earthquake that struck western Japan this week.
“It was just lucky, that’s all,” said Simon Elimalah, the president of the Kobe synagogue who was reached by telephone Thursday morning his time.
While no one among the community’s 30 families was seriously injured, at least one family lost its home, and several other homes and businesses sustained serious damage, he said.
The Ohel Shelomoh synagogue itself, built in 1970, suffered minor damage.
Rabbi James Lebeau, spiritual leader of the synagogue in Tokyo, also reached by telephone Thursday, described the Kobe shul as a “beautiful Sephardic synagogue” situated in a hillside neighborhood overlooking the city.
“‘The earthquake was very selective,” said Lebeau, who has visited Kobe and was in touch with members of the community there this week.
The Tokyo synagogue, which has about 150 member families, and the one in Kobe are the only two synagogues in Japan, the rabbi said. The Kobe shul does not have its own rabbi.
Elimalah said tablets depicting the Ten Commandments, made of marble and hanging in the Kobe shul, fell during the quake and were shattered.
Despite the relative good fortune of the Jewish community, Elimalah, sounding tired and depressed, described the general scene in Kobe as horrific.
“It looks like after World War II,” tie said. “Food is hard to get, gasoline is hard to get.
“And it’s still going on,” he added.
Because of structural damage sustained during the quake itself, “every day, another building falls down. Some of the buildings – you wouldn’t believe they could come down.”
At least 4,000 people were killed and 21,000 injured in the earthquake, which struck the city of 1.4 million early Tuesday morning local time. It was the worst earthquake to hit Japan in more than 70 years.
The Kobe Jewish community was formed in the 1930s mostly by Russian immigrants who established import-export businesses, according to Lebeau.
During World War II, Lebeau explained, the community swelled with the influx of some 1,500 refugees from Nazi Europe, including almost all the students and faculty of the Lithuanian Mir Yeshiva.
These refuges spent most of the war in Shanghai. But in a little-known chapter of the Jews of Shanghai, their first port of entry was Kobe.
They had arrived in Japan with visas issued by Sempo Sugihara, the then- Japanese consul general in Kovno, Lithuania. Sugihara was awarded a posthumous Righteous Among the Nations award by Yad Vashem in 1984.
Last year, Japan, whose wartime government had opposed Sugihara’s actions, acknowledged his heroic role and agreed to include his story in its high school textbooks.
Today most of the Europeans have left Kobe and the Jewish community is largely Sephardi, composed of Jews of Iraqi, Syrian and Moroccan descent. These Middle Eastern Jews were attracted to Japan primarily for business reasons.
The synagogue, which is Orthodox, holds Shabbat and holiday services. It serves the entire Kansai region of Japan, which includes the cities of Osaka and Kyoto, according to Lebeau.
Elimalah, president of the synagogue, said that many Jews who do business in the area, especially Israelis, also attend the synagogue regularly, but he did not have an accurate count for them.
Elimalah himself was born in Morocco and came to Japan 12 years ago by way of Israel. He runs what he described as the first Moroccan restaurant in Japan.
The restaurant suffered serious damage from the earthquake, he said.
Both the Tokyo and Kobe synagogues have begun raising funds to aid the victims of the quake.
Elimalah said he was housing a family whose home was badly damaged. There were also reports that the synagogue would be offering an apartment above the sanctuary as a refuge for those in need.
“We would like to make services Saturday,” Elimalah said. “We hope that everyone will come.”
Several American Jewish organizations have also started relief efforts. They include the American Jewish World Service, B’nai B’rith International, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
These funds will be distributed to Jews and non-Jews alike, according to the organizations.
Those wishing to contact the Kobe synagogue directly can write to: The Jewish Community of Kansai; 12/12 Kitano-cho 4 chome; Chuo-ku; Port P.O. Box No. 639; Kobe, Japan 651-01.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
