Seder HaTefilot, English title page

Some Jews escaping Soviet and/or Nazi tyranny in the 1930s found refuge at Shanghai’s Ohel Rachel, a Sephardi synagogue with a majestic edifice, a Torah Ark containing ~30 scrolls, and a 700-person capacity sanctuary. Since arriving in Shanghai after the First Opium War (1839-1842), Jews from Baghdad and Bombay built businesses but not permanent synagogues; six were eventually established. Known as the largest synagogue in the Far East, the Ohel Rachel was designed to memorialize Rachel, wife of Sir Jacob Elias Sassoon (1843-1916), an Iraqi Jewish entrepreneur and philanthropist. The prayer book used by the synagogue was in both Hebrew and English.