September 15, 2005
Blogging the jewish autonomous region
Lisa Dickey, a reporter for the Washington Post has made a return trip to Russian and is chronicling her observations there in "Russian Chronicles - Ten years later." (Her original chronicles are here.) The current chronicles are presented this time as a blog. (Good thinking! I guess that the Washington Post really does get it!)
Dickey and photographer, David Hillegas most recently journeyed to Birobidzhan. Birobidzhan is the capital of the Jewish autonomous region of Russia.
Here's the history:
Birobidzhan has one of the more unusual histories of any Russian city I've been in. Founded in 1927 as a "homeland" for Soviet Jews, it was declared the capital of the new Jewish Autonomous Region in 1934. Unfortunately for the Jewish migrants who were enticed to move here, it was located thousands of miles away from European Russia, with harsh winters and swarms of ravenous mosquitoes in the summer.
Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, 41,000 Soviet Jews relocated here. Some were fleeing persecution and famine in western Russia and Ukraine, while others were drawn by government promises of free rail travel and 600 rubles per "settler." But many of them left almost as soon as they got here -- by 1938, 28,000 had fled the region's harsh conditions. Still, the Jewish schools and synagogues functioned up until the late 1940s, when a resurgence of religious repression shut them down, seemingly for good. After that, all Jewish cultural and religious activities essentially went underground, until perestroika finally led to a revival in the late 1980s.
Dickey thought that there wouldn't be much left of the Jewish population as many of the Jews there had emigrated to Israel.
Though Dickey visited the old synagogue she also heard that Birobidzhan had a new synagogue and rabbi:
There is also, at long last, an official rabbi, an energetic young Israeli named Mordechai Sheiner who came here in 2002. He'd never been to Birobidzhan before, but spoke Russian thanks to two years he spent in Ukraine, working at another synagogue. Numerous people in town have raved about him, telling us he's the best thing to happen to Birobidzhan's Jewish community in a very long while.
With so many of the region's Jewish residents having left, how did this seeming resurgence come about? Where did the money come from for the new buildings? And is this a cosmetic change, or does it signal a real turnaround in the fortunes of the Jewish Autonomous Region?
My suspicion, though Dickey doesn't write it, is that Rabbi Scheiner is Lubavitch.
In her first entry from Birobidzhan, Dickey wrote about finding a room and linked back to her account of the Jewish community there from 1995.
I have to say that I'm quite impressed with this format of travelogue.
Technorati tags: Washington Post, Judaism
Posted by SoccerDad at September 15, 2005 06:23 AM
Blogging the jewish autonomous region
Lisa Dickey, a reporter for the Washington Post has made a return trip to Russian and is chronicling her observations there in "Russian Chronicles - Ten years later." (Her original chronicles are here.) The current chronicles are presented this time as a blog. (Good thinking! I guess that the Washington Post really does get it!)
Dickey and photographer, David Hillegas most recently journeyed to Birobidzhan. Birobidzhan is the capital of the Jewish autonomous region of Russia.
Here's the history:
Birobidzhan has one of the more unusual histories of any Russian city I've been in. Founded in 1927 as a "homeland" for Soviet Jews, it was declared the capital of the new Jewish Autonomous Region in 1934. Unfortunately for the Jewish migrants who were enticed to move here, it was located thousands of miles away from European Russia, with harsh winters and swarms of ravenous mosquitoes in the summer.
Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, 41,000 Soviet Jews relocated here. Some were fleeing persecution and famine in western Russia and Ukraine, while others were drawn by government promises of free rail travel and 600 rubles per "settler." But many of them left almost as soon as they got here -- by 1938, 28,000 had fled the region's harsh conditions. Still, the Jewish schools and synagogues functioned up until the late 1940s, when a resurgence of religious repression shut them down, seemingly for good. After that, all Jewish cultural and religious activities essentially went underground, until perestroika finally led to a revival in the late 1980s.
Dickey thought that there wouldn't be much left of the Jewish population as many of the Jews there had emigrated to Israel.
Though Dickey visited the old synagogue she also heard that Birobidzhan had a new synagogue and rabbi:
There is also, at long last, an official rabbi, an energetic young Israeli named Mordechai Sheiner who came here in 2002. He'd never been to Birobidzhan before, but spoke Russian thanks to two years he spent in Ukraine, working at another synagogue. Numerous people in town have raved about him, telling us he's the best thing to happen to Birobidzhan's Jewish community in a very long while.
With so many of the region's Jewish residents having left, how did this seeming resurgence come about? Where did the money come from for the new buildings? And is this a cosmetic change, or does it signal a real turnaround in the fortunes of the Jewish Autonomous Region?
My suspicion, though Dickey doesn't write it, is that Rabbi Scheiner is Lubavitch.
In her first entry from Birobidzhan, Dickey wrote about finding a room and linked back to her account of the Jewish community there from 1995.
I have to say that I'm quite impressed with this format of travelogue.
Technorati tags: Washington Post, Judaism
Posted by SoccerDad at September 15, 2005 06:23 AM
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