Jewish Autonomous Region

In the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin offered to provide Soviet Jews with a “promised land” in the Far East. This is how the Jewish Autonomous Region was formed. It was planned that 100,000 Jews would move there, but, in the end, only 19,000 arrived. A monument to the first immigrants is installed on the square near the train station in Birobidzhan, the capital of the region.

The city of Birobidzhan grew in the 1930s from a small station called Tikhonkaya on the final section of Trans Siberian railway. Although the Jewish population is small, traces of its culture are found here and there, even the coat of arms features a stylized Jewish candlestick-menorah. The central street and the local university are named after Sholom Aleichem, one of the “Pushkins” of Yiddish literature.

By the way, locals advise people to visit Birobidzhan on one of the main Jewish holidays - Purim, Pesach or Hanukkah. They are actively celebrated there and it is at this time that cultural life in the city heats up.