Jewish Autonomous Region - Birobidzhan Postcard
The coat of arms of the Jewish Autonomous Region of the Russian Federation. It features an Amur tiger on a field of aquamarine. Two medium blue stripes, edged with white also appear. The tiger is turned to the right toward a viewer that symbolizes an unusual history and original way of the region's development. Add your own text. The Jewish Autonomous Region/Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Russian: Еврейская Aвтономная Oбласть, Yevreyskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast) was established by the Soviet Union in 1934 in the Russian Far East bordering on the Amur river. Aside from Israel it is the world's only Jewish territory with an official status. While the climate of the region is harsh it is blessed with many natural resources: coal, iron, tin, copper, asbestos, gold and forests. Soviet ideology did not recognize Jews as a nationality. The Jewish Autonomous Region, often referred to as "Birobidzhan," (the name of the capital city) was to be a place where Jews would pursue their own, Yiddish, culture and Jewish identity would come to be based on culture as opposed to religion. The Soviets has other reasons for the establishment of a Jewish political entity. 1. To demonstrate the USSR's humans policies to the West. 2. To secure the border region with China in the Far East against incursion of occupation by increasing the population. And 3., to offer the Jews a Soviet alternative to Zionism. The project received enthusiastic support from Jewish Communists and Yiddishists and even a few Zionist gave support. Committees were established to raise money from the United States, Argentina, and even Palestine. Some 1200 non-Soviets actually immigrated there to live in this new Jewish Autonomous Region. Approximately 43,000 Jews moved there between 1928 and 1938, however only about 19,000 remained for more than a few years. With Stalin's purges beginning in 1936 the entire region was declared out of bounds for normal citizens and the NKVD assumed control. Committees and organizations that supported Birobidzhan were abolished; their leaders were liquidated. Yet the Yiddishists continued to hope for a continuation of their Yiddish cultural dream. After World War II Jewish immigration to the Jewish Autonomous Region picked up. Between 1945 and 1948 the total Jewish population was about 30,000. There began a cultural advance in the Yiddish press, theater, and literature. Hopes ran high for a Yiddish Socialist Soviet Republic. However this blossoming of Yiddish culture was soon nipped in its bud as almost every Jewish writer and politician were arrested. They were convicted of subversive activity, trying to make a national culture other than that of the official Soviet culture. The sentences were harsh and penalties were always enforced. Most of the detainees were sent to Siberia to work as Stalin's slave labor force until they died from hard work or until finally that infamous villain, Stalin, died. Most were eventually released from captivity after spending long hard years in forced labor and re-united with their families, but the revival of Yiddish life in Birobidzhan was dead. Today, while the area retains the name Jewish Autonomous Region, and is Russia's only autonomous oblast, the Jewish population is extremely small; about 0.2 % of a total population of 176,558 according to a recent census. In January of 2016 Aleksandr Levintal, the governor of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, invited European Jews suffering from antisemitism to come and resettle the area.
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