On Nov. 11th, Gedenkkonzert zum Jüdischen Exil in Shanghai (Memorial Concert for Jewish Exile in Shanghai), co-organized by Tongji University Art Festival Committee and Konfuzius-Institut München, came to a successful conclusion.
In the late 1930s and mid-1940s, more than 20,000 Jews from Europe managed to escape from Nazi`s inhuman persecution and took refuge in Shanghai. The Jewish refugees stuck together with Chinese people and weathered the difficult war years. Now, more than 70 years after World War II and the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Jacob Symphony Orchestra from Munich, Germany came to Shanghai on invitation and gave a symphonic performance together with teachers and students from the Music and Performance Department of Tongji University. It was not only a concert to commemorate the friendship between the Jewish refugees and Shanghai citizens, but also to push forward the cultural and humanistic exchange between China and Germany.
The Jacob Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1995 by the conductor Daniel Grossmann, devotes itself particularly to Jewish music and strives to enrich German culture in the Jewish symphony. It was the first time for the orchestra to perform in China. After an intensive, three-day rehearsal, the orchestra and music teachers and students from Tongji jointly presented a spectacular audiovisual feast for the audience.
