While much international attention has been focused in recent years on China’s northwest (Xinjiang and the Uyghurs), the study of modern northeast China, which was a considerably more important historical and strategic arena, has been somewhat marginalized. Focusing on Harbin, this volume provides a vertical and horizontal analysis of northeast China since the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, within the context of contemporary international events, while covering the lives and interrelations of the regional ethnic and religious communities, underlying the role of Jews, in comprehensive, virtually encyclopedic, details never discussed before, let alone in one volume. As such, it is an outstanding lifelong achievement.

Yitzhak Shichor, professor emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem