The second Jewish Recreation Club was built in the early 1950s after the first one was destroyed during the Battle of Hong Kong (8 – 25 December 1941). It lasted until 1992 when the site was razed to make way for the Robinson Place complex and the new Jewish Community Centre.
The Hong Kong Public Libraries has a number of photos of the old Jewish Recreation Club taken in 1989 and 1990, and they are presented here:
Thanks to Sarah Li, who kindly provided this photo that was taken in the 1960s by her father, Mr. Li Hin-Tai:
If you have any photos of the Jewish Recreation Club, we’d love to include them here.
Please scan them at 150 dpi and send them to contactus@jhshk.org.
Or maybe you remember the Club. You can tell us about it here:
Fred Ezekiel (Miami, FL) wrote on 16 December 2020:
“The layout of the club was very simple. On the ground floor, there was quite a large bar, with the kitchen and quite a large lobby. From there, you entered the auditorium which had a stage, and a full badminton court with room on all sides for spectators and coffee tables. From the bar area, steps went up to the first floor, which had the two very nice and large rest rooms. The remainder of the floor was the card room with a couple of poker and bridge tables.
From the outside, you drove down to a car park area, which had enough space for at least ten cars. Then there was quite a lawn and a clay tennis court, which unfortunately was not very good, so not much tennis was played. The badminton court was excellent, so we used to play there almost every Wednesday and often on Sunday evenings as well.
The club was open all week, except for usually Friday and Saturday nights unless there was a special event. Sure, we had the usual Purim and Chanukah formal balls — with mixed dancing! There would be bridge nights, and poker was usually played on Sunday and Thursday evenings. For a while the club was used pretty extensively and I was the secretary for two years. I was a keen badminton player and I brought many non-Jewish friends to play there as it probably was one of the best badminton courts in HK in those days. For this sport, I was also a member of the Kowloon Cricket Club and the Ladies Recreation Club. In fact, I have a silver runners up handicap cup from the LRC.
The clubhouse was open during the day on Saturdays but not the kitchen, so sometimes we’d rest there and have a drink after services.”
KM (Hong Kong) wrote on 7 May 2019:
“I used to love going to the community’s open day/fair every year. I remember walking down the driveway/slope and into the open garden area where all the stalls were. And we children would run around. I also recall across the garden area were stairs down to another old building and that is where my nursery school was and we had animal crackers at break. Sandlands or Sandilands, it was called. There was a very tall man every year at the fair (I think possibly with a moustache?) and he was well known for running the bagel and lox stall. I don’t know why I remember him. Perhaps because he was SO tall for a little girl! I also remember going into the building, the hall and I think there was a stage at one end.”
Jewish Historical Society of Hong Kong 