San Francisco's Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park is a popular, charming little lake, with its pedal boats, waterfall and Chinese pavilion.

It was named after William W. Stow, who was one of the most openly anti-Semitic politicians in California's history.

We want the lake to be renamed after a true hero, the late Dr. Ho Feng-Shan 何鳳山 (Chasid Umot Haolam - Righteous Among the Nations), who was a R.O.C. diplomat in Vienna during WWII.

Ho Feng-Shan saved thousands of Jewish lives in the Nazi-occupied Austria by issuing the persecuted Jewish people visas - despite the orders of his superiors.

Ho Feng-Shan continued to work as a diplomat after the war for the R.O.C. (Taiwan) government until his retirement in 1973. He settled in San Francisco, where he spent the last 2.5 decades of his life.

He was also a founding member of the Chinese Lutheran Church of Richmond, which is just a few minutes walk away from Golden Gate Park.

The  neighborhoods around Golden Gate Park have a sizeable Jewish, Chinese and Taiwanese population. Ho Feng-Shan represents one of the strongest links between these communities.

We believe it is now time to properly remember and honor Ho Feng-Shan in San Francisco.

By renaming the Stow Lake to Ho Feng-Shan Lake, San Francisco can at once rid itself of the name of an antisemite, instead honor someone who saved Jews, and name a public space after an Asian American.