Where Russians cursed in Yiddish (interesting read)

The Jerusalem Post ^ | Oct. 5, 2004 | Sue Fishkoff

[gobucks]

What an unreal story ...; although I know a good bit of the USA's relationship to Israel, the Russian relationship to Israel is something I don't often see.

This part of the story I had never heard of until a side reference to it here on FR.

[gobucks]

ping - this is one freeper who didn't have a dit dot of info about any of this. Figured you two would like the read...

[thegreatbeast]

What an unreal story...

Yeah, thanks. Makes me want to visit this strange little place.

[csvset]

Did a search, found this.

Stalin's Forgotten Zion

[SJackson]

I'll post a couple links for you later. The article presents a rather benign origin of the Autonomous Region. A number of Jewish sprang up in Siberia in the early 19th century and while a few of the citizens were merchants and such, most were political exiles.

Birobidzhan was established the same way. One of the purposes of establishing an "Autonomous Region" for Jews was to dissuade Russian Jews from immigrating to Palestine. It was an illusion, and by the late 30s Stalin was purging Jews in the region.

[SJackson]

Birobidzhan's Jewish Revival

Jewish Settlement in Siberia

And a couple mid 19th century articles on the topic from an excellent source whenever you want historical info.

Sketches of Jewish Life in Russia.

Russia and the Jews.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[ikka]

Isn't it whitewashing a bit to cover this story, and not point out that Stalin basically segregated all the Jews he could into one area, then when he chose to, he wiped them all out in one stroke?

[Alouette]

Jewish Community of Birobidjan

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.

Birobidjan, or the "Jewish Autonomous Region" was a "gift" given by Stalin to the "Jews" (i.e. "Communists of Hebraic origin") so that they could have their own "state". It's really much more suitable for a Palestinian state.

Here is somebody I know standing at far left. No silly, he lives in Moscow no Jews in his right mind would live in Birobidjan.

Another photo op. This time he's second from right.

Birobidjan photo gallery here If you want to view more than only the thumbnails, if you are running Norton you must turn off the "popup blocker" or any other "popup blocking" software you might be using.

[Alouette]

Bring all the remaining Jews to Israel and then make in the "Palestinian State"

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

[Alouette]

"I grew up on Sholem Aleichem Street, I went to Sholem Aleichem School, there's a picture of Sholem Aleichem in my office," Feinfeld told the crowd.

There's an old story that when Sholom Aleichem visited the U.S. in the late 1890's, he met the great humorist Mark Twain, who introduced himself and said, "I'm the American Sholom Aleichem."

[1066AD]

I've been to Russia on business. My interpreter was born in this territory (father in air force). He told me that initially Stalin promised them the Crimea but when the time came he laughed and picked out this area telling them it was the same rough shape and size so they'd have to settle for that (as if they had any choice).

[1066AD]

I've been to Russia on business. My interpreter was born in this territory (father in air force). The Soviet constitution promised autonomy to ethnic groups. He told me that initially Stalin promised the Jews they could have the Crimea but when the time came he laughed and picked out this area telling them it was roughly the same shape and size so they'd have to settle for that (as if they had any choice).

[gobucks]

Thanks for the links.

[Centurion2000]

interesting article.

[gobucks]

Thank you for that antecdote about Twain ... I know a good bit about his life,,, esp how he hated adults in his old age and could only tolerate the presence of children.

"On the other hand ..", I had to google to discover who Sholem Aleichem was.

Would you say that Sholem accurately captured the 'reality' of how folks lived within Yiddish culture?

[Alouette]

Would you say that Sholem accurately captured the 'reality' of how folks lived within Yiddish culture?

It's very hard to say. I've read most of Sholom Aleichem's books and also most of Mark Twain. Sholom Aleichem (real name: Sholom Rabinowitz) was was a leftist and a socialist but he was also a Zionist. His descriptions of "shtetl" life are somewhat romanticised.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, another very famous writer of "shtetl" life. He was a socialist, an occultist, cheated on his wife, and liked young girls when he was in his 80's. He hated religious Jews and Judaism to the point that his books are, in my opinion, grotesque if not downright pornographic.

Go with Sholom Aleichem.

[gobucks]

"Isn't it whitewashing a bit to cover this story, and not point out that Stalin basically segregated all the Jews he could into one area, then when he chose to, he wiped them all out in one stroke?"

/rant on....

Heck, I didn't know Hitler had a well worn copy of The Secret Doctrine, filled with tons of notes in the margins in his distinctive script. I didn't know that Marx was Jewish. I didn't know what the 'Pale of Settlement' was until I began lurking here about 6 years ago. I could go on and on and on about what I don't know, but the J.A.R. I didn't have clue about either .... I just figured, given the wide array of FR backgrounds that a few would find this particular article interesting, and I think I was right.

But, in terms of implying who is really evil when and how, that is straight forward for this Christian. The Devil is evil with a Capital D. Evil is live spelled backwards. Stalin indeed did not like Jews 'living'. Nor did Hitler. Both were godless devils. Hitler's sentiments seemed to be extended to the Poles too ... and effeminate gays; tons of others. And intellectuals of any stripe.

Today who is Hitler? Who is Stalin? Well, Britney Spears could be called a cousin. How? She's not killing anyone, Jews included .... or is she?

Is she helping lay the ground work required for the fulfilment of future acts of evil, the future destruction of a tribe, the persecution of followers of a particular creed? I think so, in a kind of slow accumlation of paper cuts to the souls of those who drip moments of their lives away watching her (or her competitors).

How? Well .... just ask any teen if they feel more alive after watching Britney in one of her videos. what I think you'll see as they report their reactions that they will reveal that they feel LESS alive. And in need of future doses of Britney to return to a false sense of being 'live'.

Preferably, by watching LIVE t.v. Call it soul hijacking by stealth. (Except when the Buckeyes are playing football...). Then, with the souless groundwork laid, all that is needed is a few years of major economic depressive disaster....

Then the communists get what they have been after all along. I don't think it's going to work out to their whims at this time, but I think they're trying as hard as they can, and find the islamofacists convenient allies in the cause. Britney is a pack mule for them. /rant off

In short, I don't know enough about anything to know how to whitewash jack. But I do know how to rant about what's on T.V.; and I do know how to rant about what they didn't teach in school. The J.A.R. was somehow omitted entirely .....

[Cicero]

Fascinating. This is new to me.

[Cicero]

I'd say that I.B. Singer had a love-hate relationship with his ancestors. Some of his later stuff about Jews in America is atrocious, IMHO, but if you keep in mind that he was a progressive with a bias against religion--yet at the same time was fascinated by it and couldn't stop going back to it--the early stetl novels are well worth reading, for me at least.