ShtetLink. [June 2009]
Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, Manchuria Jewish community: The Russo-Manchurian Treaty of 1897 enabled Russia to build the Chinese Eastern railway and Harbin as its administrative center. New business opportunities attracted Jews when the Czar them settle without restrictions until between 1902 and 1903 Jewish inhabitants, most came from Russia, increased from 100 to 500. Jewish community ((Harbinskoe Evreiskoe Duhovnoe Obshestvo-HEDO) history. [March 2009] Jerusalem Post article.
JOWBR burial listings [August 2010]
Tess Johnston (Old China Hand Research Service Unlimited) has been a tremendous help in getting information on members of my tree who lived in Harbin, China up until the late 1940s. She has access to much information on Jews who lived in Harbin and Shanghai. She now lives in Charlottesville, VA; phone: 703-242-4576. Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. [date?]
Mr. B. Mirkin, Sec., Igud Yotzei Sin, Ponve Center, 13 Grusenberg Street, POB 1601 Israel, phone: 035171997 has information on the cemetery and its contemplated restoration."Manchuria Memories" by Riva Moiseef Bassin in Jewish World Review . [October 2000]
Inside the Harbin Jewish History and Cultural Center [January 2010]
"Harbin is also home to the biggest Jewish cemetery in the Far East, boasting 700 gravestones with clearly legible Hebrew inscriptions." [source of further information on the former Jewish community.]
University of Heidelberg Harbin Project: "From approximate 3000 graves of which 1200 with tombstones, 853 were selected and transferred to an area of 6,532.00 square meters in an eastern suburb about 10 km from the centre of Harbin. During the Cultural Revolution, maintenance of the cemetery ceased: Slabs subsided, tombstones inclined, cracked or damaged, and some of the slabs disappeared. The Jewish community stopped functioning on December 31, 1963, and until that date 23 graves were added to the new location, bringing a total of 876 graves to the site. Maintenance was restarted in 1991, and 450 gravestones could be identified today. [discussion of gravestones and see photos of overviews]... The project was carried out by the History Department, Centre for European History and Culture (ZEGK), University of Heidelberg, led by Professor Madeleine Herren in cooperation with the School of Western Studies, Heilongjiang University, guided by Professor Dan Ben-Canaan. The current map contains all tombstones that could be found and identified at the time the inventory was taken - September 2008. All findings including the photographs are on display at the database. Browse the Database."
54 Dongda Zhi Street Cemetery: Established in 1903 at 54 Dongda Zhi Street and enlarged and relocated to Tai'an Street in the 1920s.
UPDATE: "The first Jewish cemetery in Harbin was erected in 1903, at the end of “Bolshoy Prospect”, the main street of the NANGANG quarter, and was operated in its original location until 1958." In 1958, the cemetery was closed and the graves relocated to a new location in the HUANG-SHAN district located about 50 km north of the city. "In all, a total of 853 graves were relocated, 600 with tombstones, the rest with marked tables only (for which some had marble tombstones erected at a later stage). The Jewish community ceased to exist on December 31, 1963, and until that date 23 graves were added to the new location, to achieve a total of 876 graves. [September 2004] List of 515 graves, with names in Russian (but not in English) and dates can be viewed here [February 2009]
Huangshan Jewish Cemetery -China re-opens Jewish cemetery (04/3/2000) "China has re-opened a cemetery for members of the Jewish faith, prior to the traditional Tomb-sweeping Day, which falls on April 4. The cemetery, suited in Harbin, capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is said to be the largest of its kind in Asia. Some 20,000 Jewish people came to the city after the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1896. They built the first Jewish cemetery in China in 1903, which later housed more than 2,000 tombs. In 1953, the local government moved 605 well-preserved tombs to the current site, the Huangshan Cemetery. Zhou Jifa, an official in charge of local funeral affairs, said that the cemetery is open to anybody who wants to pay respects there, and that he hoped the relatives of the deceased would visit the cemetery often. Cemetery workers have cleaned up the cemetery and placed flowers in front of each of the tombs." [January 2001]
"Set up in 1903, it is the largest and the best-preserved Jewish Cemetery in the Far East. Here, the deceased were totally buried according to the Hebrew Scriptures. The tombstones are not limited to one style, but all reflect the cultural features of the Jewish People. This holy land buries the relatives of the Leah Rabin, the former prime minister of Israel, which reflects their deep affection to Harbin, the land once they lived." Source: Jewish Heritage in Harbin [January 2010]
"Finding Family Roots at Harbin's Jewish Cemetery": 2004 article with photo. "The Jewish cemetery was initially built in downtown Harbin in 1903. The municipal government and what was then the Jewish Religious Association together moved over 600 tombs in 1958 to Huangshan. "The 836-square-meter cemetery today holds 583 well-preserved graves, and is the biggest and best-protected Jewish cemetery in the Far East," said Li Shuxiao, deputy director of the Harbin Jews Research Center of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. / On September 2, 2004, a group of more than 100 Jews from Israel, the United States, Russia, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and France went to the cemetery to visit their relatives' graves. They were in the city to attend the International Seminar on Jewish History and Culture in Harbin, which opened on August 31 under the aegis of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, the Israel-China Friendship Society, and the Association of Former Residents of China."
[January 2010]
Tai'an Street Cemetery: Its 2,420 sq meters was the largest alien residents' cemeteries in Harbin. In 1958, 853 graves were transferred from the old Jewish cemetery located at the end of Bolshoi Prospekt behind the Russian Orthodox Usenski cemetery. 23 graves were added before Nov. 20, 1965 when the Jewish community stopped functioning. 515 graves of 800 have been identified. As more people go, maybe more names can be identified. The Association of Former Residents of China documented the Harbin cemetery. I have a complete list of those buried there (all whose monuments were legible when they took an inventory in 1994), but they are all in Russian. These were transliterated through the help of those at JewishGen. Source: website. [updated August 2009]]
[UPDATE]Find-a-Grave listing of burials in Harbin [July 2015]