Coordinates: 48°36′N 132°12′E

Jewish Autonomous Oblast

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO;
Russian: Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast (ЕАО); Yiddish:
‫יִידישע אװטָאנָאמע געגנט‬, yidishe avtonome gegnt; Autonomous oblast

[jɪdɪʃɛ avtɔnɔmɛ ɡɛɡnt])[13] is a federal subject of Еврейская автономная область

Russia in the Russian Far East, bordering Other transcription(s)
Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast in Russia and  • Yiddish ‫יִידישע אװטָאנָאמע געגנט‬‎
Heilongjiang province in China.[14] Its
administrative center is the town of Birobidzhan.

The JAO was designated by a Soviet official decree

in 1928, and officially established in 1934. At its
height, in the late 1940s, the Jewish population in
the region peaked around 46,000–50,000,
approximately 25% of the population.[15] As of the
2010 Census, JAO's total population was 176,558
people,[8] or 0.1% of the total population of Russia.
By 2010, there were only 1,628 Jews remaining in
the JAO, or fewer than 1% of the population, A wintery Tunguska River near Nikolaevka
according to data provided by the Russian Census village.
Bureau, while ethnic Russians made up 92.7% of
the JAO population.[16] Judaism is practiced by
only 0.2% of the population of the JAO.[17]

Article 65 of the Constitution of Russia provides Flag Coat of arms

that the JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast. It
is one of two official Jewish jurisdictions in the
world, the other being Israel.[18]

Contents
History
Background
Annexation of the Amur Region by Coordinates: 48°36′N 132°12′E
Russia
Country Russia
Military colonization
Federal district Far Eastern[1]
Construction of the Trans-Siberian
Economic region Far Eastern[2]
Railway
Russian Civil War Administrative Birobidzhan[3]
center
Soviet policies with respect to minorities
and Jews Government
Early history
 • Body Legislative Assembly[4]
Establishment  • Governor[6] Rostislav Goldshteyn[5]

Growth of Jewish communities in the Area[7]

early 1930s  • Total 36,000 km2
(14,000 sq mi)
 Stalin era and World War II  • Rank 61st
Cold War Population (2010 Census)[8]
Post-breakup of the Soviet Union  • Total 176,558
 • Estimate (2018)[9] 162,014 (−8.2%)
2013 proposals to merge the JAO with
adjoining regions  • Rank 80th
 • Density 4.9/km2 (13/sq mi)
Geography
 • Urban 67.6%
Climate  • Rural 32.4%
Government Time zone UTC+10 (MSK+7  [10])
Administrative divisions
ISO 3166 code RU-YEV
Economy License plates 79
Transportation OKTMO ID 99000000
Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge
Official languages Russian[11]
Current demographics
Website www.eao.ru (http://www.
Life expectancy
eao.ru)
Languages spoken
Religion
Culture
See also
References
Notes
Sources
Further reading
External links

History

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 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.[19]
This military colonization included settlers from Transbaikalia. Between 1858 and 1882 many
settlements consisting of wooden houses were founded.[20] It is estimated that as many as 40,000
men from the Russian military moved into the region.[20]
Expeditions of scientists, including geographers, ethnographers, naturalists, and botanists such as
Mikhail Ivanovich Venyukov (1832–1901), Leopold von Schrenck, Karl Maximovich, Gustav Radde
(1831–1903), and Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov promoted research in the area.[19]

Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway

In 1899, construction began on the regional section of the

Trans-Siberian Railway connecting Chita and Vladivostok.
The project produced a large influx of new settlers and the
foundation of new settlements. Between 1908 and 1912
stations opened at Volochayevka, Obluchye, Bira, Birakan,
Londoko, In, and Tikhonkaya. The railway construction
finished in October 1916 with the opening of the 2,590-
metre (8,500  ft) Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur at
Khabarovsk.
Map of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
During this time, before the 1917 revolutions, most local
inhabitants were farmers.[19] The only industrial enterprise
was the Tungussky timber mill, although gold was mined in
the Sutara River, and there were some small railway
workshops.[19]

Russian Civil War

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast with
the administrative center of
In 1922, during the Russian Civil War, the territory of the
Birobidzhan underscored.
future Jewish Autonomous Oblast became the scene of the
Battle of Volochayevka.[21]

Soviet policies with respect to minorities and Jews

Although Judaism as a religion ran counter to the Bolshevik party's policy of atheism, Vladimir
Lenin wanted to appease minority groups to gain their support and provide examples of
tolerance.[22]

In 1924, the unemployment rate among Jews exceeded 30%, partially as a result of pogroms[23] but
also as a result of USSR policies against private property ownership, which prohibited them from
being craftspeople and small businessmen as many had been prior to the revolution.[24] 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.[23] The Soviet
government entertained the idea of resettling all Jews in the USSR in a designated territory where
they would be able to pursue a lifestyle that was "socialist in content and national in form". The
Soviets also wanted to offer an alternative to Zionism, the establishment of Mandate of Palestine as
a Jewish homeland. Socialist Zionists such as Ber Borochov were gaining followers at that time,
and Zionism was the favored ideology in the world's political economy to the Yiddish
interpretations which were essentially incompatible with the USSR because of the Yiddish
movement's growing opposition (e.g. Emma Goldman) to the very ethno-nationalism which
constituted and structured Soviet states.[19]

The location that was initially considered in the early 1920s was Crimea, which already had a
significant Jewish population.[19] Two Jewish districts (raiony) were formed in Crimea and three
in south Ukraine.[23][25] However, an alternative scheme, perceived as more advantageous, was put
into practice.[19]
Early history

Establishment

Eventually, Birobidzhan, in what is now the JAO, was

chosen by the Soviet leadership as the site for the Jewish
region.[26] The choice of this area was a surprise to
Komzet; the area had been chosen for military and
economic reasons.[22] This area was often infiltrated by A child playing in the JAO.
China, while Japan also wanted Russia to lose the
provinces of the Soviet Far East. At the time, there were
only about 30,000 inhabitants in the area, mostly
descendants of Trans-Baikal Cossacks resettled there by
tsarist authorities, Koreans, Kazakhs, and the Tungusic
peoples.[27] The Soviet government wanted to increase
settlement in the remote Soviet 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: "The establishment of the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Birobidzhan in 1928 was
ordered by Stalin only as an effort to strengthen the Far
Eastern border region with an outpost, not as a favour to
the Jews. The area was constantly penetrated by Chinese
and White Russian resistance groups, and the idea was to The Chapel of St. Dmitry Donskoy.
shield the territory by establishing a settlement whose
inhabitants would be hostile to white Russian émigrés,
especially the Cossacks. The status of this region was
defined shrewdly as an autonomous district, not an
autonomous republic, which meant that no local
legislature, high court, or government post of ministerial
rank was permitted. It was an autonomous area, but a bare
frontier, not a political center."[28]

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 Far East for settlement of the working Jews."[29] The
decree meant "a possibility of establishment of a Jewish
administrative territorial unit on the territory of said A monument to the Volochaevsky battle.
region".[19][29]

The new territory was initially called the Birobidzhan

Jewish National Raion.[22]

Birobidzhan had a harsh geography and climate: it was

mountainous, covered with virgin forests of oak, pine and
cedar, and also swamplands, and any new settlers would
have to build their lives from scratch. To make colonization
more enticing, the Soviet government allowed private land
ownership. This led to many non-Jews settling in the
oblast to get a free farm.[30]
In the spring of 1928, 654 Jews arrived to settle in the A Yiddish-Russian sign on the JAO
area; however, by October 1928, 49.7% of them had left government headquarters.
because of the severe conditions.[22] In the summer of
1928, there were torrential rains that flooded the crops and
an outbreak of anthrax that killed the cattle.[31]

On 7 May 1934, the Presidium of the General Executive

Committee accepted the decree on its transformation into the Jewish Autonomous Region within
the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.[19] In 1938, with the formation of the Khabarovsk
Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) was included in its structure.[29]

Growth of Jewish communities in the early 1930s

In the 1930s, a Soviet promotional campaign was created

to entice more Jewish settlers to move there. The
campaign partly incorporated the standard Soviet
promotional tools of the era, including posters and
Yiddish-language novels describing a socialist utopia there.
In one instance, leaflets promoting Birobidzhan were
dropped from an airplane over a Jewish neighborhood in
Belarus. In another instance, a government-produced
Yiddish film called Seekers of Happiness told the story of a
Jewish family from the United States making a new life for
Market near the village Nikolaevka.
itself in Birobidzhan.[19]

Early Jewish settlements included Valdgeym, dating from

1928, which included the first collective farm established
in the oblast,[32] Amurzet, which was the center of Jewish
settlement south of Birobidzhan from 1929 to 1939,[33] and
Smidovich.

The Organization for Jewish Colonisation in the Soviet

A menorah dominates the front of
Union, a Jewish Communist organization in North
Birobidzhan's railway station.
America, successfully encouraged the immigration of some
US residents, such as the family of the future spy George
Koval, which arrived in 1932.[19][34] Some 1,200 non-
Soviet Jews chose to settle in Birobidzhan.[19][26]

As the Jewish population grew, so did the impact of

Yiddish culture on the region. The settlers established a
Yiddish newspaper, the Birobidzhaner Shtern; a theatre
troupe was created; and streets being built in the new city
were named after prominent Yiddish authors such as
Sholom Aleichem and I. L. Peretz.[35]
Vladimirovka village.

Stalin era and World War II

The Jewish population of JAO reached a pre-war peak of 20,000 in 1937.[36] According to the 1939
population census, 17,695 Jews lived in the region (16% of the total population).[29][37]

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.[15]
Cold War

The census of 1959 found that the Jewish population of the JAO had declined by approximately
50%, down to 14,269 persons.[37]

A synagogue was opened at the end of World War II, but it closed in the mid-1960s after a fire left
it severely damaged.[38]

In 1980, a Yiddish school was opened in Valdgeym.[39]

In 1987, the 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 refuseniks.[40]
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.[22]

Post-breakup of the Soviet Union

In 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast became the federal
subject of Russia and thus was not anymore 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.[35] In early 1996, 872 people, or 20% of the Jewish
population at that time, emigrated to Tel Aviv via chartered flights.[41] As of 2002, 2,357 Jews were
living in the JAO.[37] A 2004 article stated that the number of Jews in the region "was now
growing".[42] As of 2005, Amurzet had a small active Jewish community.[43] 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.[44] 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.[45]

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.[46] 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.[47]

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.[48]

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.[49][50]

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.[49]

According to a 2012 article, "only a very small minority, mostly seniors, speak Yiddish", a new
Chabad-sponsored synagogue opened at 14a Sholom-Aleichem Street, and Sholem Aleichem Amur
State University offers a Yiddish course.[38]
According to a 2015 article, kosher meat arrives by train from
Moscow every few weeks, a Sunday school functions, and there
is also a minyan on Friday night and Shabbat.[51]

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.[52]

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.[19] The proposals led to
protests,[19] and were rejected by residents,[53] as well as the
Jewish community of Russia. There were also questions as to
whether a merger would be allowed pursuant to the Memorial for Jewish Soviet poet
Constitution of Russia and whether a merger would require a Isaac Leibovich Broifman.
national referendum.[19]

Geography
The northern and western section of the oblast is mountainous, with the Lesser Khingan and the
Bureya Range, among others. At 1,421 metres (4,662  ft) Mount Studencheskaya, located in the
Bureya Range, is the highest point of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. The southern and eastern
section is part of the Amur valley, with only a few small residual ridges.[54]

Climate

The territory has a monsoonal/anticyclonic climate, with warm, wet, humid summers due to the
influence of the East Asian monsoon, and cold, dry, windy conditions prevailing in the winter
months courtesy of the Siberian high-pressure system.

Government
Article 65 of the Constitution of Russia provides that the JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast.

Administrative divisions

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is divided into five districts, including Birobidzhan, a town which
has district status; the oblast has one other town and a further 11 urban-type settlements.

Economy
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is part of the Far Eastern Economic Region; it has well-developed
industry and agriculture and a dense transportation network. Its status as a free economic zone
increases the opportunities for economic development. The oblast's rich mineral and building and
finishing material resources are in great demand on the Russian market. Nonferrous metallurgy,
 engineering, metalworking, and the building
material, forest, woodworking, light, and food
industries are the most highly developed
industrial sectors.[55]

Agriculture is the Jewish Autonomous

Oblast's main economic sector owing to fertile
soils and a moist climate.

The largest companies in the region include

Life expectancy at birth in the JAO.
Kimkano - Sutarsky Mining and Processing
Plant (with revenues of $116.55 million in
2017), Teploozersky Cement Plant ($29.14
million) and Brider Trading House ($24
million).[56]

Transportation

The region's well-developed transportation

network consists of 530  km (330  mi) of
railways, including the Trans-Siberian
Railway; 600 km (370 mi) of waterways along
Proportion of Jews in the general population of the JAO
the Amur and Tunguska rivers; and 1,900 km
by year.
(1,200  mi) of roads, including 1,600  km
(1,000  mi) of paved roads. The most
important road is the Khabarovsk-Birobidzhan-Obluchye-A

mur Region highway with ferry service across the Amur. The Birobidzhan Yuzhniy Airfield, in the
center of the region, connects Birobidzhan with Khabarovsk and outlying district centers.

Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge

The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge is a 19.9  km (12.4  mi) long, $355 million bridge
that will link Nizhneleninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast with Tongjiang in the
Heilongjiang Province of China. The bridge opened in 2021[57] and is expected to transport more
than 3  million tonnes (3.3  million short tons; 3.0  million long tons) of cargo and 1.5 million
passengers per year.[58]

Current demographics
The population of JAO has declined by almost 20% since 1989, with the numbers recorded being
215,937 (1989 Census)[59] and 176,558 (2010 Census);[8] The 2010 Census reported the largest
group to be the 160,185 ethnic Russians (93%), followed by 4,871 ethnic Ukrainians (3%), and
1,628 ethnic Jews (1%).[8] Additionally, 3,832 people were registered from administrative
databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in
this group is the same as that of the declared group.[60]

In 2012, there were 2445 births (14.0 per 1000), and 2636 deaths (15.1 per 1000).[61] The total
fertility rate has seen an upward trend since 2009, rising from 1.67 to 1.96 children per adult.[62]

Life expectancy
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast has one of the lowest life expectancy rates in Russia. This statistics
varies noticeably from year to year due to small number of population in the region.[63][64]

Languages spoken

Yiddish is taught in three of the region's schools, but the community is almost exclusively Russian-
speaking.[65]

Religion

Religion in Jewish Autonomous Oblast as of 2012 (Sreda Arena Atlas)[17][66]

Russian Orthodoxy   23%
Other Orthodox   6%
Other Christians   10%
Islam   1%
Judaism   1%
Spiritual but not religious   35%
Atheism and irreligion   22%
Other and undeclared   3%

According to a 2012 survey, 23% of the population of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast adhere to
Russian Orthodoxy, 6% are Orthodox Christians of other church jurisdictions or Orthodox
believers who are not members of any church, and 9% are unaffiliated or generic Christians.[17]
Judaism is practiced by only 0.2% of the population. In addition, 35% of the population identify as
"spiritual but not religious", 22% profess atheism, and 5% follow other religions or declined to
answer the question. This is one of the least religious regions in Russia.[17]

Archbishop Ephraim (Prosyanka) (2015) is the head of the Russian Orthodox Eparchy (Diocese) of
Birobidzhan (established 2002).

Culture
JAO and its history have been portrayed in the documentary film L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin!.[67]
The film tells the story of Stalin's creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast and its partial
settlement by thousands of Russian- and Yiddish-speaking Jews and was released in 2002. As well
as relating the history of the creation of the proposed Jewish homeland, the film features scenes of
life in contemporary Birobidzhan and interviews with Jewish residents.

See also
Beit T'shuva
East Asian Jews
Far Eastern Railway (of former Baikal-Amur (BAM) project)
History of the Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
History of the Jews in Russia
History of the Jews in the Soviet Union
In Search of Happiness
Boris "Dov" Kaufman
List of Chairmen of the Legislative Assembly of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Proposals for a Jewish state
 Slattery Report, a proposal in the US to settle Jewish refugees from Europe in Alaska.
Yevsektsiya

References

Notes
1. Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном
представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в
силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", No. 20, ст. 2112, 15
мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000 On the
Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District.
Effective as of May 13, 2000.).
2. Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский
классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения
№5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995
Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the
Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
3. Charter of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Article 5
4. Charter of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Article 15
5. Official website of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Alexander Borisovich Levintal (http://eao.r
u/?p=6) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210417185911/https://www.eao.ru/?p=6) April
17, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Governor of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (in Russian
and Yiddish)
6. Charter of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Article 22
7. Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (May
21, 2004). "Территория, число районов, населённых пунктов и сельских администраций
по субъектам Российской Федерации (Territory, Number of Districts, Inhabited Localities,
and Rural Administration by Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation)" (http://perepis2002.r
u/ct/html/TOM_01_03.htm). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia
Population Census of 2002) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved
November 1, 2011.
8. Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). Всероссийская перепись населения 2010
года. Том 1 (http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/perepis_itogi1612.htm)
[2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Всероссийская перепись населения
2010 года [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service.
9. "26. Численность постоянного населения Российской Федерации по муниципальным
образованиям на 1 января 2018 года" (http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2018/bul_dr/mun_ob
r2018.rar). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
10. "Об исчислении времени" (http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&prevDoc=102483854&ba
cklink=1&&nd=102148085). Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in
Russian). June 3, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
11. Official throughout the Russian Federation according to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of
Russia.
12. Charter of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Article 4
13. In standard Yiddish: ‫יִידישע אױטָאנָאמע געגנט‬, Yidishe Oytonome Gegnt
14. Eran Laor Cartographic Collection. The National Library of Israel. "Map of Manchuria and
region, 1942" (http://primo.nli.org.il/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=NLI&docId=NN
L_MAPS_JER003509115).
15. David Holley (August 7, 2005). "In Russia's Far East, a Jewish Revival" (http://articles.latimes.c
om/2005/aug/07/world/fg-enclave7). Los Angeles Times.
16. "Информационные материалы об окончательных итогах Всероссийской переписи
населения 2010 года" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200501193326/https://www.gks.ru/free_
doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.xls). Archived from the original (http://www.gks.ru/f
ree_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.xls) on May 1, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
17. "Arena: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia" (http://sreda.org/en/arena). Sreda, 2012.
18. " 'Sad And Absurd': The U.S.S.R.'s Disastrous Effort To Create A Jewish Homeland" (https://ww
w.npr.org/2016/09/07/492962278/sad-and-absurd-the-u-s-s-r-s-disastrous-effort-to-create-a-je
wish-homeland). NPR.org. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
19. Asya Pereltsvaig (October 9, 2014). "Birobidzhan: Frustrated Dreams of a Jewish Homeland"
(http://www.languagesoftheworld.info/russia-ukraine-and-the-caucasus/birobidzhan-frustrated-d
reams-jewish-homeland.html).
20. Ravenstein, Ernst Georg (1861). The Russians on the Amur: its discovery, conquest, and
colonization, with a description of the country, its inhabitants, productions, and commercial
capabilities ... (https://books.google.com/books?id=_XEEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA156) Trübner and
co. p. 156.
21. Anniversary of the Battle of Volochayevka (http://www.prlib.ru/en-us/History/Pages/Item.aspx?it
emid=990)
22. "Nation Making in Russia's Jewish Autonomous Oblast" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160902
184547/https://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/demokratizatsiya%20archive/05-03_siege
l.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (https://www2.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/demokra
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Further reading
American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidjan, Birobidjan: The Jewish
Autonomous Territory in the USSR. New York: American Committee for the Settlement of Jews
in Birobidjan, 1936.
Melech Epstein, The Jew and Communism: The Story of Early Communist Victories and
Ultimate Defeats in the Jewish Community, USA, 1919–1941. New York: Trade Union
Sponsoring Committee, 1959.
Henry Frankel, The Jews in the Soviet Union and Birobidjan. New York: American Birobidjan
Committee, 1946.
Masha Gessen, Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s
Jewish Autonomous Region, 2016.
Ber Boris Kotlerman and Shmuel Yavin, Bauhaus in Birobidzhan. Tel Aviv: Bauhaus Center,
2009.
Nora Levin, The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival: Volume 1. New
York: New York University Press, 1988.
James N. Rosenberg, How the Back-to-the-Soil Movement Began: Two Years of Blazing the
New Jewish "Covered Wagon" Trail Across the Russian Prairies. Philadelphia: United Jewish
Campaign, 1925.
Anna Shternshis, Soviet and Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.
Henry Felix Srebrnik, Dreams of Nationhood: American Jewish Communists and the Soviet
Birobidzhan Project, 1924–1951. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010.
Robert Weinberg, Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish
Homeland: An Illustrated History, 1928–1996. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press,
1998.
External links
Official website of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (http://www.eao.ru/en/) Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20170114120929/http://eao.ru/en/) January 14, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland: An
Illustrated History, 1928–1996 (http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/)
A 1939 Soviet pamphlet about the JAO (https://archive.org/details/TheJewishAutonomousRegi
on)
Meeting of the Frontiers: The Birobidzhan Album (1920s–1930s photographs of Birobidzhan) (h
ttp://frontiers.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfdigcol/nlrph.html#j_eng)

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