Jewish Autonomous Oblast

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) is a federal subject of Russia in the far east of the country, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast in Russia and Heilongjiang province in China. 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 its population. It is one of the few places in the world where Yiddish is a recognized minority language.

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 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 there was a 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

thumb|[[Birobidzhaners 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.

thumb|Memorial for Jewish poet [[Isaac Leibovich Bronfman.]]

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.

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 (Obluchye) and a further 11 urban-type settlements.

Economy

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is part of the Far Eastern Economic Region; it has industry and agriculture and its transportation network involves roads, rail and water ways. Although landlocked, it is a free economic zone. The oblast's mineral and building and finishing material resources are in demand on the Russian market. Nonferrous metallurgy, engineering, metalworking, and the building material, forest, woodworking, light industrial, and food industries are the most highly developed industrial sectors.

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 Kimkano–Sutarsky Mining and Processing Plant (with revenues of $ million in 2017), Teploozersky Cement Plant ($ million) and Brider Trading House ($ million).

Transportation

The region's well-developed transportation network consists of of railways, including the Tsarist-era Trans-Siberian Railway; of waterways along the Amur and Tunguska rivers; and of roads, including of paved roads. The most important road is the Khabarovsk-Birobidzhan-Obluchye-Amur 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 long, $355 million bridge that links Nizhneleninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast with Tongjiang in the Heilongjiang Province of China. The bridge opened in 2021 and transports more than of cargo and 1.5 million passengers per year.

Demographics

The population of JAO has declined by over 40% since 1989 due to massive exodus in 1989–1996, with the numbers recorded being and

Ethnic groups

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Ethnicities in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 2021

! Ethnicity

!Population !! Percentage

| Russians

|133,625|| 88.8%

| Ukrainians

|1,292|| 0.9%

| Jews

|837|| 0.6%

| Tatars

|431|| 0.3%

| Azerbaijanis

|411|| 0.3%

| Tajiks

|371|| 0.2%

| Other ethnicities

| 2,712|| 1.8%

| Ethnicity not stated

| 10,774|| 7.2%

In the late 1940s, the Jewish population in the region peaked around 46,000–50,000, approximately 25% of its population. The census of 1959 found that the Jewish population of the JAO had declined by approximately 50%, down to 14,269 persons. In early 1996, 872 people, or 20% of the Jewish population at that time, emigrated to Israel.

Births: 1,120 (7.7 per 1,000)
Deaths: 2,193 (15.1 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2024):

1.35 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021):

Total – 66.12 years
Male – 61.73
Female – 70.58

Languages spoken

In the Soviet Union there was an attempt to make Yiddish an official language within Birobidzhan.

According to the statute of JAO (1997), Yiddish is one of the recognized minority languages.

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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.