Earlier attempts by the Soviet government to relocate Jews to the Crimea and to Ukraine
ended with a severe backlash by local residents of the prospective host regions. To avoid
local opposition, the government chose an area with extremely few inhabitants.
Unfortunately for Jewish migrants, there was a good reason why virtually nobody lived in
this region: the winters are extremely harsh, the land was very swampy, and communication and roads were practically nonexistent.
Influenced by an effective propaganda campaign and problems of starvation and high
unemployment in western Russia, 41,000 Soviet Jews relocated to the area in the late
1920s and early 1930s.
By 1938, however, 28,000 of them had fled this region due to
unbearable conditions.
The region hosted Jewish schools and synagogues until the 1940s,
when there was a resurgence of religious repression following the Second World War.
Today Birobidzhan is the industrial, cultural, educational, scientific and religious center
of the autonomy. On July 26, 1997 the "Freud" Jewish community was founded to
provide welfare and social aid to local Jews.
Jewish leaders of Birobidjan are planning to open the first ever synagogue in Birobidjan in September
2004. The building will also include a Jewish Sunday School and a soup kitchen.
A major portion of the funds has been contributed by the FJC Russia, and the JDC. Local
authorities also agreed to help the project, making it the first synagogue in
Russia to be built partly with the state money.