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Posted on 01/13/2003 6:53:51 AM PST by Alouette
In April 1928, twenty years before the founding of Israel, Joseph Stalin created the world's first Jewish homeland in the Soviet Union, in a barren stretch of land on Siberia's Far Eastern border. Although conceived as a solution to the 'Jewish problem,' The Jewish Autonomous Region (or J.A.R.), became a center for Yiddish culture and tradition, and was the first place in the world where Yiddish culture thrived. The J.A.R. attracted Jewish settlers from across the Soviet Union and even as far away as the United States, Argentina, and Palestine. By 1948 the Jewish population had peaked at 45,000 (roughly one-quarter of the region's total demographics). The J.A.R. was home to Yiddish schools, theaters, publications and synagogues.
Filmed on location in Birobidzhan, capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, L'CHAYIM, COMRADE STALIN! features interviews with pioneer settlers and current residents, plus footage never before seen outside Russia (as well as the rare propaganda film Seekers of Happiness). This beautifully directed and startling work offers a fascinating glimpse into the most intriguing chapter in 20th century Jewish and Russian histories.
Birobidzhan, the capital of the J.A.R., is geographically closer to Seoul than it is to Moscow. But it is to this Far Eastern region of Siberia (bordering China) that Joseph Stalin encouraged Jewish settlement in April of 1928. On May 7, 1934, these 13,900 square miles (the size of Belgium) were officially designated the Jewish Autonomous Region. The establishment of the J.A.R. was designed to serve Stalin in several ways: 1) easing the tension of anti-Semitism in Western Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (where the majority of Soviet Jews lived), 2) improving relations with the West through this powerful propaganda tool, and 3) most important to Stalin, as Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931, strengthening the borders of the Soviet Far East against possible encroachment from Japan and China. Jewish migration was voluntary, but it was in keeping with Stalin’s proclivity for shuffling entire peoples about. The government hoped to pry Jews from the traditional trades of the shtetl and create a "useful", agrarian Jewish peasantry tied to a national territory.
The J.A.R. was the first – and only – place in the world where Yiddish culture had its own homeland and where this culture could flourish (a status that continues to this day). Young, Jewish idealists flocked to this secular Zion, only to encounter a wilderness of virgin forests and swampland. The weather ranged from harsh winters (of minus 40 Fahrenheit) to summers of unrelenting humidity and swarming flies and mosquitoes. Nevertheless, they built a homeland rich in Jewish culture. Over 1,200 Jews from countries such as Lithuania, Argentina and the United States — even Palestine — were drawn to this utopia of Jewish freedom and Yiddish cultural expression. By 1948, the J.A.R. reached its peak population of 45,000 Jews, about 1/4 of the region’s total population. Yiddish culture flourished: there was a Yiddish theatre, clubs for writers, Yiddish schools, a Yiddish library and publishing house, and even a synagogue. The region’s newspaper, Di Birobidzhaner Shtern, was printed in Russian and Yiddish. Even the street signs were in Yiddish. In fact, Yiddish was established as the official tongue. This all came to a bitter, abrupt halt during Stalin’s anti-Semitic purges at the end of 1948 to 1953.
Today, 50 years later, Yiddish culture has enjoyed a renaissance in the U.S. (with Yiddish language courses, klezmer concerts, film festivals, etc.). This renaissance has even reached the hinterlands of the J.A.R. In Birobidzhan, Yiddish is once again proliferating in the region. All the state buildings still bear Yiddish signs, the Birobidzhaner Shtern continues to publish a Yiddish section, there is a Yiddish teacher’s institute (even though only 1 in 8 students is Jewish) and Jewish music festivals. The total Jewish population (who identify themselves as Jews) numbers fewer than 6,000, out of a total population of 220,000.
While perestroika has enabled this modest cultural and religious resurgence among the J.A.R.’s Jews, it has also allowed many Jews to flee the region and its economic hardships. Their dwindling numbers have also led to the Moscow Duma’s growing determination to remove the J.A.R.’s Jewish designation. Without the preservation of the J.A.R., this historical chapter in Soviet (and world) Jewry will be erased. What will become of the embers of Yiddish life and culture, of this unique civilization, in the J.A.R.? Will they be fanned by the faint resurgence of Jewish identity, or will they be tamped out permanently?
I am especially pleased to say that much of this is due to the efforts of a young American rabbi who emigrated to Russia with his Israeli-Russian wife, for the purpose of bring Russian Jews back to their traditional, religious heritage. This idealistic young man is the son of Alouette, and now (as Paul Harvey would say) you know the rest of the story
How did they manage to escape/move away? Where did they go,and what did they do? Did they have to denounce their "Jewishness"?
About 15 years ago, some American journalist visited there, discovered that Jewish culture there was nearly extinct, having been replaced with Communism using the Yiddish language, and a town librarian who actually pleaded for some reader in America to propose marriage to her so she could get the hell out of there.
Ironically, while all the old "Yiddishists" of the "Worker's Circle" and the "Bund" are extinct, the only communities where Yiddish still thrives, where families speak it and where it is taught to children in schools, are in the Hasidic communities of Borough Park, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, (all in Brooklyn) Stamford Hill (in London), Meah Shearim (in Israel).
In that case, mazzal tov, Alouette.
I was in Meah Shearim two weeks ago. With its primitive praying facilities (at least the ones I saw) and its Orthodox in their black coats and hats crossing the street, it seemed very quaint.
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