Embedded Files
Jewish Response
Many Jews relocated to the JAR, some excited for the opportunity to create a new society and others hoping to improve their living conditions. Many Jews even immigrated from the United States and other parts of the world, escaping the Great Depression. However, most Soviet Jews were more inclined to move to major cities in the Soviet Union instead of Birobidzhan. Despite the Soviet governments efforts to promote Birobidzhan to Soviet Jews, by 1939 less than 18,000 of the region’s approximately 109,000 inhabitants were “ethnically Jews”.
Following World War II, there was brief increase in Jewish settlers, due to many Jews no longer having a home after the Holocaust, and Jewish cultural life in Birobidzhan began to thrive. However, near the end of Stalin's life, antisemitism resurfaced, including the Doctor's Plot, through the Soviet government fighting against the "Jewish nationalist conspiracy" and "repressions had a devastating impact on the realization of the idea of attracting many Soviet Jews to Birobidzhan" (Levin). These events led to Jewish culture being diminished and halted Jewish resettlement in the region so much so that "the 1959 census revealed 1,269 Jews in the JAR’s population".
Overall, the Soviet Union did not recieve the Jewish response they were accepting, "the plans on paper were very far from their realization on the ground," (Levin).
This image was produced by authorities of the JAR for potential settlers.
Document authorizing settlement in the JAR, 1939. The document states that the settler enjoys all right and privileges provided by law.
The Realities of Life in Birobidzhan
The living conditions in Birobidzhan were incredibly poor, with many Jewish families living in zemlyanki, thatch huts built over a hole in the ground. The government failed to provide suitable housing, food, healthcare, and working conditions. The region was incredibly underdeveloped and the Soviet government provided little help. The weather was often not favorable and there was only taiga and marshes. Goldwasser says, "The living conditions were so basic that during the next five years more than half of the immigrants left,".
Yiddish culture was preserved through theaters, schools, clubs, and libraries. Yiddish became the official language of the region, brandished on street signs and taught in schools. With all of these establishments, Goldwasser says "hopes ran high that Birobidzhan would become a great center of Jewish settlement and culture in the Soviet Union,".
Many of the Jews who initially immigrated to Birobidzhan were artisans and craftspeople. The intention was that the JAR would revolve mainly around agriculture, however most of the settlers were not familiar with agricultural work and the Soviet state provided little preparation or training.
During the Great Terror and after World War II, Jews in the JAR were subject to persecution and Jewish institutions were suspended, including Yiddish-speaking schools. Many inhabitants of the JAR were imprisioned and some lost their lives. The Kremlin closed agencies that handled Jewish settlement and this effectively ended the resettlement project, leaving Birobidzhan "'autonomous' and 'Jewish' only in name" (Vitale). Birobidzhan was not distinctly Jewish, as one rabbi from the region, Riss, said that "our community has lost the understanding of what it means to be Jewish" (Walker). According to Vitale, "less than 10 years after the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Stalin’s regime destroyed the local Jewish culture". Jews left the JAR for Israel in large numbers.
Birobidzhan was merely a fiction of developed Soviet Jewishness, with the Soviet government blocking the formation of a distinct Jewish society. Goldwasser comments, "Mail sent from the area during this period reflects the political and cultural climate. A postmark from 1955 shows no Hebrew lettering, one still uses the Russian abbreviation for "Jewish region" but without the word "autonomous," while a later postmark just states "Birobidzhan region,".
Jews at a colony in the Amurzet region on a tea break from work, Birobidzhan, ca. 1929.
A monument of Stalin in Birobidzhan.
Collective farmer Michael Gefen and his wife Sheina and their daughter tending their homestead in Birobidzhan.
This poster from 1936, just two years after the establishment of the JAR, celebrates the achievements and modernization of the JAR.
It shows illustrations of happy Soviet Jews in Birobidzhan on the right, industrial development and modernization on the right. In the center, two happy and productive workers are shown.
This poster is contradictory to the actual situation in Birobidzhan. The Soviet state hoped to represent the JAR as thriving and therefore the Jews settled there as contributing to the socialist society, despite its several negative circumstances and the Soviet state's contradictory approaches.
This propaganda poster promotes Soviet socialist education and warns against the dangers of Jewish religious education.
The left side depicts the cheder, the traditional Jewish religious school. It uses gloomy colors and imagery that shows unhappy students and poor living conditions. This is all to point to the conclusion that religious education is anti-modern that results in poverty and suffering. It specifically critiques religious observance and practices. The right side depicts Soviet education. It uses bright colors and imagery of happy children learning science and arts that results in progress.
This poster undermines traditional religion, specifically Judaism, and promotes atheism and socialist education. This shows the Soviet Unions greater goal of integrating Jews into Soviet socialist society by eliminating their religious life and promoting socialism, including in Birobidzhan. It exposes the Soviet Union's antisemitism and their lack of religious tolerance by denouncing religion and depicting religion, particularly Judaism, as leading to regression and a poor quality of life.
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