Background Annexation of the Amur Region by Russia Prior to 1858, the area of what is today the Jewish Autonomous Oblast was ruled by a succession of
Chinese imperial dynasties. In 1858, the northern bank of the
Amur River, including the territory of today's Jewish Autonomous Oblast, was split away from the
Qing Chinese territory of
Manchuria and became incorporated into the
Russian Empire pursuant to the
Treaty of Aigun (1858) and the
Convention of Peking (1860).
Military colonization In December 1858, the Russian government authorized the formation of the
Amur Cossack Host to protect the south-east boundary of Siberia and communications on the Amur and
Ussuri rivers. It is estimated that as many as 40,000 men from the Russian military moved into the region.
Soviet policies regarding Jews Although
Judaism as a religion ran counter to the
Bolshevik party's policy of atheism and their crackdown on organized Jewish communities by closing synagogues and harassing believers,
Vladimir Lenin also wanted to appease minority groups to gain their support and provide examples of tolerance. In 1924, the unemployment rate among Jews exceeded 30 percent, as a result of USSR policies against private property ownership, which prohibited them from being craftspeople and small business owners as many had been prior to the revolution. With the goal of getting Jews back to work to be more productive members of society, the government established
Komzet, the committee for the agricultural settlement of Jews. Two Jewish districts () were formed in Crimea and three in south Ukraine. However, an alternative scheme, perceived as more advantageous, was put into practice. The choice of this area was a surprise to Komzet; the area had been chosen for military and economic reasons. The Soviet government wanted to increase settlement in the remote
Russian Far East, especially along the vulnerable border with China. General
Pavel Sudoplatov writes about the government's rationale behind picking the area in the Far East: On 28 March 1928, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee of the USSR passed the decree "On the attaching for Komzet of free territory near the Amur River in the Russian Far East for settlement of the working Jews". The new territory was initially called the
Birobidzhan Jewish National Raion. In the spring of 1928, 654 Jews arrived to settle in the area; however, by October 1928, 49.7% of them had left because of the severe conditions.
Amurzet, which was the center of Jewish settlement south of Birobidzhan from 1929 to 1939, and
Smidovich. The
Organization for Jewish Colonisation in the Soviet Union, a Jewish Communist organization in North America, successfully encouraged the immigration of some US residents, such as the family of the future spy
George Koval, which arrived in 1932. Some 1,200 non-Soviet Jews chose to settle in Birobidzhan. According to the 1939 population census, 17,695 Jews lived in the region (16% of the total population). After the war ended in 1945, there was renewed interest in the idea of Birobidzhan as a potential home for Jewish refugees. The Jewish population in the region peaked at around 46,000–50,000 Jews in 1948, around 25% of the entire population of the JAO. In 1980, a Yiddish school was opened in
Valdgeym. In 1987, the reformist Soviet government led by
Mikhail Gorbachev pardoned many political prisoners and told the American Jewish community that it would allow the emigration of 11,000 Jewish
refuseniks. According to the 1989 Soviet Census, there were 8,887 Jews living in the JAO, or 4% of the total JAO population of 214,085.
Post-Soviet history ers
arriving in Israel, 23 March 1993. In 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast became a
federal subject of Russia and thus was no longer subordinated to
Khabarovsk Krai. However, by that time, most of the Jews had emigrated from the Soviet Union and the remaining Jews constituted fewer than 2% of the local population. In early 1996, 872 people, or 20% of the Jewish population at that time, emigrated to
Tel Aviv via chartered flights. As of 2002, 2,357 Jews were living in the JAO. As of 2005,
Amurzet had a small active Jewish community. An April 2007 article in
The Jerusalem Post claimed that the Jewish population had grown to about 4,000. The article cited
Mordechai Scheiner, the
Chief Rabbi of the JAO from 2002 to 2011, who said that, at the time the article was published, Jewish culture was enjoying a religious and cultural resurgence. By 2010, according to data provided by the Russian Census Bureau, there were only approximately 1,600 people of Jewish descent remaining in the JAO (1% of the total population), while ethnic Russians made up 93% of the JAO population. According to an article published in 2000, Birobidzhan has several state-run schools that teach Yiddish, a Yiddish school for religious instruction and a kindergarten. The five- to seven-year-olds spend two lessons a week learning to speak Yiddish, as well as being taught Jewish songs, dance, and traditions. A 2006 article in
The Washington Times stated that Yiddish is taught in the schools, a Yiddish radio station is in operation, and the
Birobidzhaner Shtern newspaper includes a section in Yiddish. . In 2002, ''
L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin!'', a documentary on Stalin's creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region and its settlement, was released by
The Cinema Guild. In addition to being a history of the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the film features scenes of contemporary Birobidzhan and interviews with Jewish residents. According to an article published in 2010, Yiddish is the language of instruction in only one of Birobidzhan's 14 public schools. Two schools, representing a quarter of the city's students, offer compulsory Yiddish classes for children aged 6 to 10. As of 2012, the
Birobidzhaner Shtern continues to publish 2 or 3 pages per week in Yiddish and one local elementary school still teaches Yiddish. According to a 2012 article, "only a very small minority, mostly seniors, speak Yiddish", a new
Chabad-sponsored synagogue opened at the 14a Sholom-Aleichem Street, and the
Sholem Aleichem Amur State University offers a Yiddish course. A November 2017 article in
The Guardian, titled "Revival of a Soviet Zion: Birobidzhan celebrates its Jewish heritage", examined the current status of the city and suggested that, even though the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia's far east is now barely 1% Jewish, officials hope to woo back people who left after Soviet collapse.
2013 proposals to merge the JAO with adjoining regions In 2013, there were proposals to merge the JAO with
Khabarovsk Krai or with
Amur Oblast. as well as the Jewish community of Russia. There were also questions as to whether a merger would be allowed pursuant to the
Constitution of Russia and whether a merger would require a national referendum. == Culture ==