Shanghai French Concession
With a capacity for 1,000 people, the New Synagogue was described as a "grand" and "splendid" building. The Japanese, who had occupied the Chinese sections of the city since the 1937 Battle of Shanghai, provided tons of cement, a precious commodity during the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, for the foundation of the New Synagogue. Soon after the synagogue was opened, however, the Pacific War broke out on 8 December 1941. The Japanese army occupied the Shanghai French Concession and the Shanghai International Settlement, and took over the synagogue for their own use. It was returned to the Russian Jewish community after the end of World War II.