Editing Jewish Autonomous Oblast (section)

==== Soviet policies regarding minorities and Jews ====
Although [[Judaism]] as a religion ran counter to the [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik party]]'s policy of atheism and their crackdown on organized Jewish communities by closing synagogues and harassing believers, [[Vladimir Lenin]] also wanted to appease minority groups to gain their support and provide examples of tolerance.<ref name=siegel/>

In 1924, the unemployment rate among Jews exceeded 30 percent,<ref name="komzet">{{Cite web |last=Kipnis |first=Mark |title=Komzet |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11427.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116155108/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11427.html |archive-date=16 January 2017 |website=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |publisher=Encyclopaedia Judaica}}</ref> as a result of USSR policies against private property ownership, which prohibited them from being craftspeople and small businessmen as many had been prior to the revolution.<ref name="sadandabsurd">{{Cite web |last=Masha Gessen |date=September 7, 2016 |title='Sad And Absurd': The U.S.S.R.'s Disastrous Effort To Create A Jewish Homeland |url=https://www.npr.org/2016/09/07/492962278/sad-and-absurd-the-u-s-s-r-s-disastrous-effort-to-create-a-jewish-homeland |publisher=[[NPR]]}}</ref> With the goal of getting Jews back to work to be more productive members of society, the government established [[Komzet]], the committee for the agricultural settlement of Jews.<ref name=komzet/> The Soviet government entertained the idea of resettling all Jews in the USSR in a designated territory where they would be able to pursue a lifestyle that was "socialist in content and national in form". The Russians also wanted to offer an alternative to [[Zionism]], the establishment of the [[Mandate for Palestine|Mandate of Palestine]] as a Jewish homeland. [[Socialist Zionist]]s such as [[Ber Borochov]] were gaining followers at that time, and Zionism was the favored ideology in the world's political economy to the Yiddish interpretations, which were essentially incompatible with the USSR because of the Yiddish movement's growing opposition (e.g. [[Emma Goldman]]) to the very ethno-nationalism which constituted and structured Soviet states.<ref name="pereltsvaig" />

[[Crimea]] was initially considered in the early 1920s, when it already had a significant Jewish population.<ref name="pereltsvaig">{{Cite web |last=Asya Pereltsvaig |author-link=Asya Pereltsvaig |date=October 9, 2014 |title=Birobidzhan: Frustrated Dreams of a Jewish Homeland |url=https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/russia-ukraine-and-the-caucasus/birobidzhan-frustrated-dreams-jewish-homeland.html}}</ref> Two Jewish districts ({{lang|ru|raiony}}) were formed in Crimea and three in south Ukraine.<ref name=komzet/><ref name="Yaacov Ro'i 1995 193">{{Cite book |last=Yaacov Ro'i |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJBH5pxzSyMC&pg=PA193 |title=Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union |publisher=Frank Cass & Co. |year=2004 |isbn=9780714646190 |page=193}}</ref> However, an alternative scheme, perceived as more advantageous, was put into practice.<ref name=pereltsvaig/>{{Multiple image
| image1            = Rosja 1990.jpg
| caption1          = A child playing in the JAO.
| image2            = Chapel of St. Dmitry Donskoy.jpg
| caption2          = The Chapel of St. Dmitry Donskoy.
| image3            = Волочаевский бой фото5.jpg
| caption3          = A monument to the Volochaevsky battle.
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 250
| align             = right
| image4            = Government-hq.jpg
| caption4          = A Yiddish-Russian sign on the JAO government headquarters.
}}