*Primary sources from the Keston Center.
“Where Jews feel mostly Russian” from The Times (1970)
"Where Jews feel mostly Russian" was written by David Bonavia for The Times (London) in 1970 after visiting the JAR. During this time, the Soviet Union was supporting a "renaissance of Jewish culture" after what Bonavia believed to be a result of allegations that Soviet Jews were oppressed. The JAR was used as proof that Soviet Jews experience cultural and political freedoms, despite international opposition. To support this, the Soviet Union increased printing of the Birobidzhaner Shtern, a Yiddish theatre troupe, and a Jew was appointed a high position within the regional Communist Party organization.
Despite these developments, Bonavia and other westerners are still suspicious of the state of the Jewish population in Birobidzhan. Only a small minority of the total population of Soviet Jews live in the JAR. One Jew he interviewed said this could be because most Soviet Jews felt themselves to be Soviet citizens and did not require a territorial homeland. However Bonavia points out how it is much more complicated than this. Many Jews who initially resettled in Birobidzhan were disillusioned by the unfamiliar agricultural lifestyle, and therefore moved to major Soviet cities.
Bonavia comments that the JAR is more distinctly Russian than Jewish. In the whole region, there is only one synagogue, and no kosher kitchens. Jewish religious life was almost completely snuffed out, with most Jews in the JAR embarrassed of the Jewish religion. In schools, there is no teaching of Yiddish or Jewish history. Bonavia states that "the overall picture is one of rather rapid assimilation for the tiny proportion of Soviet Jews who came here in the 1930s and for their descendants". He goes on "In the 'Soviet Israel' it is easier to opt for assimilation than for marked Jewishness...Birobidjan has not proved a powerful magnet".
“Moscow tries facelift for Birobidjan” from the Jewish Chronicle (1970)
"Moscow tries facelift for Birobidjan" from the Jewish Chronicle in 1970 offers a western Jewish interpretation of the state of Birobidzhan. The author states that Birobidzhan is "a paradoxical by-product of the Soviet 'anti-Zionist' campaign" that "is an official effort by Moscow to portray Birobidjan as having a particularly Jewish character and to stress this image abroad". However, this portrayal is not at all accurate of the region.
In reality, Jews only make up a small percentage of the population of the JAR and it is in fact a region of rapid assimilation. The author draws on Bonavia's account, providing additional insight into the state of Jewish culture and religious life in the JAR, which is mostly insignificant.
The author does address the positive developments in Birobidzhan, including the new Jewish first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's regional committee and the expansion of the Birobidzhaner Shtern. However, they point out how these advancements only occurred because they have "propaganda value in the West" and how "none of this, however, invalidates the Times description of Birobidjan as an area of rapid Russification".
“Red star of David” from The Guardian (1977)
In "Red star of David" from The Guardian in 1977, Robert Toth reports on the Jewish cultural suppression in the JAR. Despite the JAR being created for Jewish "national self-preservation" no actions to preserve tradition have been made. Isaak Priskolnik, a headmaster, says "it is a historical process for the Jewish population to decrease until Jews, and other nationalities, all become Soviet".
Toth comments on the lack of Hebrew education, because Hebrew was branded as counterrevolutionary, and the small Jewish population in the JAR. Yiddish is no longer taught ever since Stalin made efforts to "extinguish the ethnic consciousness of Jews", contradicting the Soviet Union's initial approach. In addition to language, Jewish religion has been almost completely diminished. Despite these negative developments, Soviet propaganda insists that "cultural life is flourishing" in the JAR.
Toth asks a compelling question: So why have a Jewish autonomous region at all? The title of the newspaper article says it all. The Jewish population has been subject to Russification, turning the star of David red, creating a Soviet Jew that is not really Jewish at all. Tibor Krausz states in The Jerusalem Report in 2016, "right from the start Birobidzhan has always been like that: Jewish on the surface but not in any significant depth".