Bidspirit auction | (CHINA). Constitution & By-Laws of

(CHINA). Constitution & By-Laws of the Jewish Club “Kunst.” - УСТАВ ЕВРЕЙСКОГО КЛУБА ”КУНСТ.” Tientsin (Tianjin), Pioneer Press, 1930. FIRST EDITION. Text in Russian and English. Mint condition. Previous owner, Leo Gershevitch (President of the Tientsin Jewish Hebrew Association, The Tientsin Zionist Organization) with his Yiddish stamp on upper cover. pp. 16. Punch-holes. Original printed wrappers. 8vo. OCLC lists just one copy worldwide (NLI). The “Kunst” club was a Jewish theater group in Tientsin.  Up until 1904 only ten Jewish families lived in Tientsin a city located in northern China along the shore of the Bohai Sea.  In 1906 the Jews established the Tientsin Jewish Union which rendered various religious services. Side by side with this union, the Tientsin Hebrew Association was active in the city and took care of welfare needs such as soup kitchens, hospitals, homes for the elderly, etc. The 1917 Russian Revolution fueled the rapid growth of the city's Jewish population with many Jewish immigrants from Russia, and in 1920 the community was formally named The Hebrew Association of Tientsin (THA). In this context the community built a synagogue, engaged a Rabbi and a Shochet. Committees for Eretz Israel affairs and hospitals were set up. A singular feature of the community was the establishment of the Benevolent Society in 1920, whose aim was to assist Jews in need and help them settle into their new environment.  In 1935 the number of Jews in Tientsin reached 3,500 and the city became the third largest Jewish community in China after Shanghai and Harbin. Large numbers of Jewish refugees streamed into Tientsin leading to and during World War II. Almost all Jews left the city following the 1949 Chinese Revolution and settled overseas across the globe.