Stalin's Jewish Enclave In Siberia Stages Revival

By Julius Strauss in Birobidjan, The Telegraph (UK), 17 August 2004

It was surely one of Stalin's unlikeliest projects: the creation of a Jewish homeland on the far eastern marches of Siberia in an uninhabited land of forest, swamps and wild animals.

In 1934 the Soviet leader declared the area the Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidjan and persuaded tens of thousands of poor Jews from Ukraine and Belarus to move there as farmers. Over the decades, ravaged by disease, the Great Terror and emigration to Israel, the Jewish community of Birobidjan almost disappeared.

Ten years ago barely a few thousand Jews were left. Most had forgotten their native Yiddish and were reluctant to profess their religion.

Now, just as it seemed that the Stalinist attempt to create a socialist Israel in the wilderness would fade into history, local Jews have effected a remarkable revival, fuelled by a thriving economy, money from foreign Jewish groups and a return from Israel of disillusioned migrants.

Fifteen years ago Jewish life here was disappearing, said Valery Guryevich, the deputy head of the Jewish Autonomous Republic of Birobidjan. This year for the first time we have more Jews coming back from Israel than leaving.

Isa Promushkin, 68, and his wife, Tsila, 65, are among 300 emigres who have returned this year. They left with their sons, Roman, 42, and Misha, 40, five years ago but became disillusioned with the Israeli jobs market, the lack of security and the gap between their Yiddish cultural roots and Hebrew-dominated Israel.

Mr Promushkin said: There we lived in a one-room flat. Here we had a three-room flat. In Israel people just sit on benches all day. They don't know what it is to pick berries and mushrooms. And the climate is better here.

The number of Jews in Birobidjan is now growing, albeit slowly, for the first time in half a century. The trend is mirrored by a marked Jewish cultural revival. In Lenin Street the finishing touches are being put to a new synagogue in time for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the region next month.

A Jewish cultural centre opened four years ago and has a growing library of in Yiddish and Hebrew books. Courses in those languages attract dozens of young Jews and even a few Russians. Jewish newspapers are sold.

For the first time since the 1940s a Jew can fulfil his cultural and religious needs in Birobidjan, said Lev Toitman, the 79-year-old community leader who served as a Red Army sniper in the war.

The idea of a Jewish homeland was inspired partly by communist dogma—which dictated that each nation should have its homeland within the greater Soviet home—and partly by fears that China might try to overrun the uninhabited area.

Thousands of Jewish farmers answered the Communist Party's call to settle and about 1,000 foreign Jews, some American, joined them.

For most, the dream soon turned sour. The settlers were forced to live in primitive wooden barracks. Many died of disease in the swamps. The foreign Jews who survived left or were swept away by purges.

After the war Birobidjan enjoyed a brief renaissance as fresh immigrants arrived, some of them survivors of the Nazi camps. The Jewish population rose to 45,000. But with the rise of anti-semitism in the 1940s institutions were closed and community leaders were taken to the gulags.

By 2002 Jews represented less than five per cent of the local population. But now the community is optimistic.

Nadezhda Yakolevna, 55, a librarian at the cultural centre, said: I see how many children come to our Sunday school and clubs. They sing Yiddish songs. There's a Yiddish radio programme.

Of course it's a revival. My son came back from Israel. He said in Russia there is a future, it's a great country with a lot of resources.