Editing Birobidzhan

{{Short description|Administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2012}}
{{Infobox Russian inhabited locality
|en_name         = 
|ru_name         = {{lang|ru|Биробиджан}}
|loc_name1       = {{lang|yi|ביראָבידזשאן}}
|loc_lang1       = [[Yiddish]]
|image_skyline   = Биробиджан, вокзальная площадь.JPG
|image_caption   = [[Birobidzhan railway station]]
|coordinates     = {{coord|48|48|N|132|56|E|display=inline,title}}
|map_label_position=left
|image_coa       = Coat of arms of Birobidzhan.svg
|image_flag      =Flag of Birobidzhan.png 
|holiday         = Last Saturday of May
|holiday_ref     = <ref name="TownDay">Charter of Birobidzhan, Article&nbsp;1</ref>
|federal_subject = [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]]
|federal_subject_ref=<ref name="Ref715" />
|adm_city_jur    = [[city of federal subject significance|town of oblast significance]] of Birobidzhan
|adm_city_jur_ref= <ref name="Ref715" />
|adm_ctr_of1     = [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]]
|adm_ctr_of1_ref = <ref name="Ref715" />
|adm_ctr_of2     = [[Birobidzhansky District]]
|adm_ctr_of2_ref = <ref name="Ref715" />
|inhabloc_cat    = Town
|inhabloc_cat_ref= <ref name="Ref715" />
|urban_okrug_jur = Birobidzhan Urban Okrug
|urban_okrug_jur_ref=<ref name="Ref718" />
|mun_admctr_of1  = Birobidzhan Urban Okrug
|mun_admctr_of1_ref=<ref name="Ref718" />
|mun_admctr_of2  = Birobidzhansky Municipal District
|mun_admctr_of2_ref=<ref name="OKTMO">{{OKTMO reference|99 605}}</ref>
|leader_title    = Mayor
|leader_title_ref= <ref name="HeadLegis">Charter of Birobidzhan, Article&nbsp;16</ref>
|leader_name     = {{ill|Aleksandr Golovaty|ru|Головатый,_Александр_Сергеевич}}
|leader_name_ref =<ref name="Head">[http://www.biradm.ru Official website of Birobidzhan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024181416/http://www.biradm.ru/ |date=October 24, 2014 }} {{in lang|ru}}</ref>
|representative_body = [[Town Duma of Birobidzhan|Town Duma]]
|representative_body_ref= <ref name="HeadLegis" />
|area_km2        = 169.38
|area_km2_ref    = <ref name="Area">Russian Federal State Statistics Service. [http://www.gks.ru/scripts/db_inet2/passport/table.aspx?opt=99701000200620072008200920102011 Economic and Social Measures of the Urban Okrugs and Urban Settlements in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast—the Town of Birobidzhan (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)]</ref>
|pop_2010census  = 75413
|pop_2010census_rank=215th
|pop_2010census_ref=<ref name="2010Census">{{ru-pop-ref|2010Census}}</ref>
|pop_density     =
|pop_latest      = 74791
|pop_latest_date = January 2014
|pop_latest_ref  = <ref name="2014Est">Jewish Autonomous Oblast Territorial Branch of the [[Russian Federal State Statistics Service|Federal State Statistics Service]]. [http://evrstat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/evrstat/resources/ff64758043606586b551f574665da2b8/%D0%A3%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B6%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D1%87%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8+%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE+%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F+%D0%BD%D0%B0+1+%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8F+2014+%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0+%D0%B8+%D0%B2+%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BC+%D0%B7%D0%B0+2013+%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4.doc Permanent Population Estimate as of January&nbsp;1, 2014 and the 2013 Average] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304222416/http://evrstat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/evrstat/resources/ff64758043606586b551f574665da2b8/%D0%A3%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B6%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F+%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D1%87%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8+%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE+%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F+%D0%BD%D0%B0+1+%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8F+2014+%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0+%D0%B8+%D0%B2+%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BC+%D0%B7%D0%B0+2013+%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4.doc |date=March 4, 2016 }} {{in lang|ru}}</ref>
|established_date= 1931
|established_date_ref=<ref name="gr" />
|current_cat_date= 1937
|current_cat_date_ref=<ref name="gr" />
|postal_codes    = 679000, 679002, 679005, 679006, 679011, 679013–679017, 679700, 679801, 679950
|dialing_codes   = 42622
|website         = http://www.biradm.ru/
}}
'''Birobidzhan''' ({{lang-rus|Биробиджан|p=bʲɪrəbʲɪˈdʐan}}; {{langx|yi|ביראָבידזשאַן}}, {{IPA|yi|ˌbɪrɔbɪˈdʒan|IPA}}), also spelt '''Birobijan''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|b|ɪr|ə|b|ɪ|ˈ|dʒ|ɑː|n}} {{respell|BIRR-ə-bih-JAHN}}), is a [[types of inhabited localities in Russia|town]] and the [[administrative centre]] of the [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]], [[Russia]], located on the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]], near the [[China–Russia border]].

As of the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 Census]], its population is 75,413, and its official language is [[Yiddish]].<ref name="2010Census">{{ru-pop-ref|2010Census}}</ref> Birobidzhan is named after the two largest rivers in the [[autonomous oblasts of Russia|autonomous oblast]]: the [[Bira (river)|Bira]] and the [[Bidzhan]]. The Bira, which lies to the east of the Bidzhan Valley,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Birobidzhan |url=https://academic-eb-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Birobidzhan/15382 |encyclopedia=Britannica Academic |accessdate=January 31, 2019}}</ref> flows through the town. Both rivers are [[tributary|tributaries]] of the [[Amur]].{{Historical populations|3=1926|4=831|5=1939|6=29648|7=1959|8=40667|9=1970|10=55724|11=1979|12=68630|13=1989|14=83667|15=2002|16=77250|17=2010|18=75413|19=2021|20=68536|type=|footnote=Source: Census data}}

==History==
[[File:Txu-oclc-6614368-nm53-10.jpg|thumb|right|Birobidzhan (1950)]]
Built on the site of an earlier village called Tikhonka,<ref>https://www1.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/html/panel09.html</ref> Birobidzhan was planned by the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] architect [[Hannes Meyer]], and established in 1931. It became the administrative centre of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934, and town status was granted to it in 1937.<ref name="gr">{{Cite book |title=Энциклопедия Города России |publisher=Большая Российская Энциклопедия |year=2003 |isbn=5-7107-7399-9 |location=Moscow |page=47}}</ref> The 36,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> of Birobidzhan were approved by the Politburo on March 28, 1928.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Srebrnik |first=Henry Felix |title=Dreams of nationhood: American Jewish communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan project, 1924-1951 |publisher=Academic Studies Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-936235-11-7 |location=Boston |pages=12 |oclc=769190216}}</ref> After the Bolshevik revolution, the Soviet government set up two organisations that worked with the settlement of Jews  into Birobidzhan, the [[Komzet|KOMZET]] and [[OZET]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Srebrnik |first=Henry Felix |title=Red Star Over Birobidzhan: Canadian Jewish Communists and the "Jewish Autonomous Region" in the Soviet Union |publisher=Canadian Committee on Labour History |year=1999 |pages=129–147}}</ref> These organisations were responsible for the distribution of land as well as domestic responsibilities, ranging from moving to medical assistance. Many Jewish Canadians then gave their support to the Soviet Union by becoming either members or sympathisers with the [[Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist)|Communist Party of Canada]].<ref name=":0"/>

Jewish communists believed that the Soviet Union's creation of Birobidzhan was the "only true and sensible solution to the national question."<ref name=":0" /> The Soviet government used the slogan "To the Jewish Homeland!" to encourage Jewish workers to move to Birobidzhan. The slogan proved successful in convincing Soviet Jews as well as Jews from other countries to move to the city.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Ivanov |first=Alexander |date=December 2009 |title=Facing east: the World ORT Union and the Jewish refugee problem in Europe, 1933–38 |journal=East European Jewish Affairs |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=369–388 |doi=10.1080/13501670903298278 |s2cid=144107382}}</ref> In 1935, [[Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia|Ambijan]] received permission from the Soviet government to aid Jewish families travelling to Birobidzhan from Poland, Romania, Lithuania and Germany.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Srebrnik |first=Henry Felix |date=1998 |title=An idiosyncratic fellow-traveller: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the American committee for the settlement of Jews in Birobidzhan |journal=East European Jewish Affairs |volume=28, 1 |pages=37–53 |doi=10.1080/13501679808577869}}</ref> Jewish workers and engineers travelled to Birobidzhan from Argentina and the United States as well.<ref name=":1" /> This campaign by the Soviet government was known as the Birobidzhan Experiment.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Birobidzhan: Stalin's Forgotten Zion |url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/html/panel04.html# |access-date=17 February 2019}}</ref>

===Factors behind the Birobidzhan Experiment===
Although Birobidzhan was meant to serve as a home for the Jewish population, the authorities struggled to turn the idea into a reality. There were no important cultural connections between the land and the Jewish settlers. The growing population was culturally diverse, with some settlers focused on being modern Russian citizens, some disillusioned by modern cultures with a desire to work the land and promote socialist ideals, with few interested in establishing a cultural homeland. Ulterior motives generated by the Soviet government were the primary reasons for Jewish people to relocate to Birobidzhan. The placement of the Jews in Birobidzhan was meant to serve as a buffer to dissuade any Chinese or Japanese expansion. The region was also a link between the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the [[Amur River]] Valley, and the Soviet government sought to exploit the natural resources of the area, such as fish, timber, iron, tin, and gold.<ref name=":2" />

===Complications during the Experiment===
Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, residence for Jews was restricted to the [[Pale of Settlement]]. As Jews relocated to Birobidzhan, they had to compete with the approximately 27,000 Russians, Cossacks, Koreans, and Ukrainians already residing there for property and land to develop new homes. This complicated the transition for the Jewish population, as there was no significant area to claim as their own.<ref name=":2" />

Logistically and practically, settling Birobidzhan proved to be difficult. Due to inadequate infrastructure and weather conditions of the area, more than half the Jewish settlers who relocated to Birobidzhan after the initial settlement did not remain.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Skolnik |first1=Fred |title=Encyclopaedia Judaica |last2=Berenbaum |first2=Michael |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA in association with the Keter Pub. House |year=2007 |isbn=9780028659282 |location=Detroit |oclc=70174939}}</ref>

When the Stalinist purges began, shortly after the creation of Birobidzhan, Jews there were targeted.<ref name="Gessen">{{Cite web |last1=Gessen |first1=Masha |last2=Interviewed by Terry Gross |date=7 September 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 |access-date=10 September 2016 |website=Fresh Air |publisher=WHYY |format=Interview}}</ref> Following World War II, tens of thousands of displaced Eastern European Jews found their way to Birobidzhan from 1946 to 1948.<ref name="Weinberg 1998, 72-75">Weinberg, Robert (1998). ''Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland''. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 72–75. {{ISBN|978-0-520-20990-9}}.</ref> Some were Ukrainian and Belarusian Jews who were not allowed to return to their original homes.<ref name="Gessen" /> However, Jews were once again targeted in the wake of World War II when [[Joseph Stalin]] embarked on a [[Stalin and antisemitism|campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans"]].<ref name="Gessen" /> Nearly all the Yiddish institutions of Birobidzhan were liquidated.<ref name="Pipes-NRoB-27-10-16">{{Cite journal |last=Pipes |first=Richard |date=October 27, 2016 |title=The Sad Fate of Birobidzhan |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/27/the-sad-fate-of-birobidzhan/ |journal=New York Review of Books |access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref>

===Notable supporters of Birobidzhan===
[[File:The Soviet Union 1933 CPA 414 stamp (Peoples of the Soviet Union. Jews, Birobidzhan) cancelled.jpg|thumb|Jews of Birobidzhan in a 1933 "Peoples of the Soviet Union" postage stamp]]
Among Birobidzhan's proponents was [[Dudley Aman, 1st Baron Marley]]. After Lord Marley met Peter Smidovich and Jacob Tsegelnitski in August 1932, Marley became a proponent of Birobidzhan as a new homeland for Jewish workers and refugees. His visit to Birobidzhan in October 1933 was organised by Smidovich himself. Marley's assessment of the area was positive, and he became a more avid supporter of the settlement of Birobidzhan.<ref name=":1" />

Yiddish writer [[David Bergelson]] played a large part in promoting Birobidzhan, although he himself did not settle there permanently.<ref name="Gessen" /> Bergelson wrote articles in the Yiddish language newspapers in other countries extolling the region as an ideal escape from antisemitism elsewhere. At least 1,000 families from the United States and Latin America came to Birobidzhan because of Bergelson. On his 68th birthday in 1952, Bergelson was among those executed during Stalin's antisemitic campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans"<ref name="Gessen" /> following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.<ref name="Gessen" />{{rp|90}}

In the Russian language play ''Novaia rodina'' (''New Homeland'') by the Soviet playwright Victor Fink celebrated Birobidzhan as the coming together of three communities - the Koreans, the Amur Cossacks and the Jews. Each community has its own good and bad characters, but ultimately the good characters from each community learnt to cooperate and work with each other. To symbolise the unity achieved, the play ends with mixed marriages with one Jewish character marrying a Korean, another Jewish character marrying a Cossack and a Cossack marrying a Korean. Likewise, the Soviet Yiddish writer Emmanuil Kazakevich portrayed in a poem the achievement of Birobidzhan being declared the Jewish Autonomous Region on 7 May 1934 as an inter-communal event with the members of the Amur Cossack Host coming out to join the celebrations. Kazkevich's poem had a basis in reality as many members of the Amur Cossack Host hoped that Birobidzhan signalled Soviet interest in the neglected region along the banks of the Amur river.<ref>Estraikh, Gennady & Murav Harriet ''Soviet Jews in World War II: Fighting, Witnessing, Remembering'' Brighton: Academic Studies Press p.90</ref>

Canadian Arctic explorer [[Vilhjalmur Stefansson]] was vice president of Ambijan, or the ''American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidjan,'' which was a supplementary group that was combined with [[Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia|ICOR]] in 1946. His support of Birobidzhan as a new homeland for Jewish families consisted of appearing at meetings in support of the relocation of Jews to Birobidzhan as well as advocating for families who truly wished to travel rather than those who were the most suited for the journey.<ref name=":3" />

==Jewish and Yiddish culture==
[[File:Birobidjan mainsquare.jpg|thumb|right|A menorah dominating the main square in Birobidzhan]]
The Russian Empire had the largest Jewish population in the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the majority of them were [[Ashkenazi Jews]]. Large numbers of them remained even after 2 million of them departed for other countries prior to the formation of the Soviet Union. While thousands of Jews migrated to Birobidzhan, the hardship and isolation caused most to leave. In 1939 the Jewish population made up less than twenty percent of the overall population.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Slepyan |first=Kenneth |date=1 January 2000 |title=The Soviet Partisan Movement and the Holocaust |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=1–27 |doi=10.1093/hgs/14.1.1|doi-access=free }}</ref> Shortly after World War II, the Jewish population in the region reached its peak of about 30,000.<ref name="Pipes-NRoB-27-10-16" /> As of the mid-2010s, only about 2,000 Jews remain in the region, making up about one half of a percent of the population.<ref name="Pipes-NRoB-27-10-16" />

Yiddish, at that time widely regarded as the ''lingua franca'' of the Jewish community, was meant to help integrate the Jewish population into the Soviet population. The language would ensure 'national in form, socialist in content' was being followed by the Soviet Jewry.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Weinberg |first=Robert |year=1996 |title=Jewish revival in Birobidzhan in the mirror of ''Birobidzhanskaya zvezda'', 1946–49 |journal=East European Jewish Affairs |volume=26 |pages=35–53 |doi=10.1080/13501679608577817}}</ref> Many government officials in the Kremlin were under the impression that Birobidzhan was to become the new centre for Soviet Jewish life, which is why Jewish migration to Birobidzhan was strongly pushed during the 1920s.<ref name=":02" />

The Jewish religious community in Birobidzhan was officially registered in 1946. The religious community suffered persecution in the early 1950s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kotlerman |first=Ber |date=August 2012 |title=If there had been no synagogue there, they would have had to invent it: the case of the Birobidzhan "religious community of the Judaic creed" on the threshold of perestroika |journal=East European Jewish Affairs |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=87–97 |doi=10.1080/13501674.2012.699205 |s2cid=159829874}}</ref> [[Jewish culture]] was revived in Birobidzhan much earlier than elsewhere in the [[Soviet Union]]. [[Yiddish theater]]s opened in the 1970s. Since the early 1990s, Yiddish and Jewish traditions were required components in all [[Public school (government funded)|public schools]], taught not as Jewish exotica but as part of the region's national heritage.<ref>[http://www.jta.org/2004/09/21/archive/across-the-former-soviet-union-in-stalins-former-jewish-haven-locals-say-ground-is-ripe-for-reviva Jta.org]</ref> The [[Birobidzhan Synagogue|orthodox synagogue]], completed in 2004, is next to a complex housing Sunday School classrooms, a library, a museum, and administrative offices. The buildings were officially opened in 2004 to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]].<ref>[http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=317166 FJC | News | Birobidzhan - New Rabbi, New Synagogue<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927020227/http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=317166 |date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref>

According to Israeli [[Rabbi]] [[Mordechai Scheiner]], the former [[Chief Rabbi]] of Birobidzhan and [[Chabad Lubavitch]] representative to the region, "Today one can enjoy the benefits of the [[Yiddish]] culture and not be afraid to return to their Jewish traditions. It's safe without any [[anti-Semitism]], and we plan to open the first [[Jewish day school]] here."<ref name="Wiseman2010">{{Cite journal |last=Wiseman |first=Michael C. |date=2010 |title=Birobidjan: The Story of the First Jewish State |url=http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/221/birobidjan-the-story-of-the-first-jewish-state |journal=Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse [Online] |volume=2 |issue=4 |page=1 |access-date=8 September 2016}}</ref> Scheiner also hosted the Russian television show, ''[[Yiddishkeit (TV show)|Yiddishkeit]]'' in the region.  His student, actually born in Birobidzhan, Rabbi Eliyahu Riss, has taken over the reins since 2010.

The [[Birobidzhan Synagogue|orthodox synagogue]] opened in 2004.<ref>[http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=166969 FJC | News | Far East Community Prepares for 70th Anniversary of Jewish Autonomous Republic<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518041740/http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=166969 |date=May 18, 2011 }}</ref> Rabbi Scheiner says there are 4,000 Jews in Birobidzhan, just over 5 percent of the town's population of 75,000.<ref>[http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=525676&cid=84435&NewsType=80052 FJC | News | From Tractors to Torah in Russia's Jewish Land<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130411050518/http://fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=525676&cid=84435&NewsType=80052 |date=April 11, 2013 }}</ref> The Birobidzhan Jewish community was led by [[Lev Toitman]], until his death in September, 2007.<ref>[http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=566776&scope=6218&NewsType=80052 Far East Jewish Community Chairman  Passes Away] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605150006/http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=566776&scope=6218&NewsType=80052 |date=June 5, 2008 }} Federation of Jewish Communities</ref>

Concerning the Jewish community of the [[oblast]], Governor [[Nikolay Mikhaylovich Volkov]] has stated that he intends to "support every valuable initiative maintained by our local [[Jewish]] organizations".<ref>[http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=221939 Governor Voices Support for Growing Far East Jewish Community] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518042318/http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=221939 |date=May 18, 2011 }} Federation of Jewish Communities</ref> In 2007, the Birobidzhan International Summer Program for Yiddish Language and Culture was launched by Yiddish studies professor Boris Kotlerman of [[Bar-Ilan University]].<ref>[http://www.2all.co.il/web/Sites/yiddishproject/ 2all.co.il]</ref> The town's main street is named after the [[Yiddish language]] author and humorist [[Sholem Aleichem]].<ref>[http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255450652192&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Back to Birobidjan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813161029/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255450652192&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |date=August 13, 2011 }}. By Rebecca Raskin. ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]''</ref>

For the [[Chanukah]] celebration of 2007, officials of Birobidzhan in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast claimed to have built the world's largest [[Menorah (Hanukkah)|menorah]].<ref>[http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/105713.html Breaking News - JTA, Jewish & Israel News<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605221624/http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/105713.html |date=June 5, 2008 }}</ref> A November 2017 article in ''[[The Guardian]]'', titled, "Revival of a Soviet Zion: Birobidzhan celebrates its Jewish heritage", examined the current status of the city and suggested that, even though the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia's far east is now barely 1% Jewish, officials hope to woo back people who left after Soviet collapse.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/27/revival-of-a-soviet-zion-birobidzhan-celebrates-its-jewish-heritage FJC | The Guardian | Russia | Revival of a Soviet Zion: Birobidzhan celebrates its Jewish heritage | 27-September-2017  <!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Rabbi Eli Riss has set out to return the Jewish culture to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. The current slogan is "make Birobidzhan Jewish again". The people want this to include teaching Yiddish in the school systems again as well as celebrating the variety of Jewish holidays. Riss' parents were originally residents of Birobidzhan, but moved to Israel in the 90's along with a large majority of the Jewish population from the Oblast. He came back as the Chief Rabbi with plans of reinvigorating the Jewish culture. There are already plans for a kosher restaurant, supermarket, and [[mikveh]]. Riss is trying to make Birobidzhan a 'safe place for Jews' and has already stated that it is one of the few places he has been where he has not experienced any antisemitism.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Muchnik |first=Andrei |date=2017-11-10 |title=The Other Jewish Homeland at the End of the World |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-other-jewish-homeland-at-the-end-of-the-world-1.5464481 |access-date=21 February 2012}}</ref>

==Administrative and municipal status==
Birobidzhan is the [[administrative center]] of the [[autonomous oblasts of Russia|autonomous oblast]] and, within the [[subdivisions of Russia#Administrative divisions|framework of administrative divisions]], it also serves as the administrative center of [[Birobidzhansky District]], even though it is not a part of it.<ref name="Ref715">Law #982-OZ</ref> As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the '''[[city of federal subject significance|town of oblast significance]] of Birobidzhan'''—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the [[administrative divisions of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast|districts]].<ref name="Ref715" /> As a [[subdivisions of Russia#Municipal divisions|municipal division]], the town of oblast significance of Birobidzhan is incorporated as '''Birobidzhan Urban Okrug'''.<ref name="Ref718">Law #226-OZ</ref>

==Economy, infrastructure and transportation==
The chief economic activity is light industry, including textile and footwear. The city also has a vehicle repair factory, a furniture factory, a quicklime production factory, and several foodstuff factories. [[Khabarovsk]] is the closest major city to Birobidzhan and provides the closest major airport access to it, which is [[Khabarovsk Novy Airport]] (KHV / UHHH), 198&nbsp;km from the center of Birobidzhan.

==Education==
The [[Sholem Aleichem Amur State University]] works in cooperation with the local religious community. The university is unique in the [[Russian Far East]]. The basis of the training course is study of the [[Hebrew language]], history and classic [[Jewish]] texts.<ref>[http://www.eao.ru/eng/?p=365 Religion<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806140814/http://www.eao.ru/eng/?p=365 |date=August 6, 2011 }}</ref> The town now boasts several state-run schools that teach Yiddish, as well as an Anglo-Yiddish faculty at its higher education college, a Yiddish school for religious instruction and a kindergarten. The five- to seven-year-olds spend two lessons a week learning to speak Yiddish, as well as being taught Jewish songs, dance and traditions.<ref>[http://www.kulanu.org/links/birodidzhan.html Kulanu: Birobidzhan: Soviety-era Jewish homeland struggles on<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807174013/http://www.kulanu.org/links/birodidzhan.html |date=August 7, 2007 }}</ref> It is a public school that offers a half-day Yiddish and Jewish curriculum for those parents who choose it. About half the school's 120 pupils are enrolled in the Yiddish course. Many of them continue on to Public School No. 2, which offers the same half-day Yiddish/Jewish curriculum from first through 12th grade. Yiddish is also offered at Birobidzhan's Pedagogical Institute, one of the only university-level Yiddish courses in the country.<ref>[http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/091304JTA_Birobid.shtml#0916 NCSJ - Profiles: Birobidzhan Jewish Community<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112143851/http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/091304JTA_Birobid.shtml |date=January 12, 2008 }}</ref> Today, the town's fourteen public schools must teach Yiddish and Jewish tradition.

==Climate==

Birobidzhan experiences a harsh, monsoon-influenced [[humid continental climate]] ([[Köppen climate classification]] ''Dwb'') that is typified by very large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and severely cold (and dry) winters. January has never had an above-freezing temperature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ESTIMATION OF CLIMATIC RESOURCES FOR SUMMER SPORT RECREATION IN THE JEWISH AUTONOMOUS REGION OF RUSSIA |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237329339 |access-date=2019-02-04 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}}</ref>
{{Weather box
|width=auto
|location=Birobidzhan
|metric first=yes
|single line=yes
|Jan high C=-15.6
|Feb high C=-10.9
|Mar high C=0.2
|Apr high C=9.5
|May high C=18.2
|Jun high C=24.5
|Jul high C=26.8
|Aug high C=24.3
|Sep high C=18.1
|Oct high C=8.5
|Nov high C=-4.1
|Dec high C=-14.2
|year high C= 7.0
|Jan mean C = -22.2
|Feb mean C = -16.5
|Mar mean C = -6.4
|Apr mean C =  5.4
|May mean C = 13.0
|Jun mean C = 18.9
|Jul mean C = 21.1
|Aug mean C = 19.2
|Sep mean C = 12.8
|Oct mean C =  3.9
|Nov mean C = -9.2
|Dec mean C = -18.8
|year mean C = 1.9
|Jan record high C = -0.4
|Feb record high C =  5.9
|Mar record high C = 18.4
|Apr record high C = 29.8
|May record high C = 33.7
|Jun record high C = 37.1
|Jul record high C = 39.9
|Aug record high C = 36.8
|Sep record high C = 32.7
|Oct record high C = 26.9
|Nov record high C = 16.1
|Dec record high C =  5.2
|Jan record low C = −43.7
|Feb record low C = −39.9
|Mar record low C = −34.1
|Apr record low C = −19.7
|May record low C = -3.9
|Jun record low C =  1.5
|Jul record low C =  5.9
|Aug record low C =  3.7
|Sep record low C = -3.9
|Oct record low C = -19.8
|Nov record low C = −33.6
|Dec record low C = −37.9
|Jan low C= -27.4
|Feb low C= -26.4
|Mar low C= -16.5
|Apr low C= -3.4
|May low C=  5.0
|Jun low C= 12.5
|Jul low C= 15.1
|Aug low C= 13.4
|Sep low C=  5.9
|Oct low C= -1.3
|Nov low C= -16.9
|Dec low C= -26.6
|year low C = -3.6
|precipitation colour=green
|Jan precipitation mm = 6
|Feb precipitation mm = 5
|Mar precipitation mm = 13
|Apr precipitation mm = 35
|May precipitation mm = 61
|Jun precipitation mm = 108
|Jul precipitation mm = 147
|Aug precipitation mm = 154
|Sep precipitation mm = 88
|Oct precipitation mm = 35
|Nov precipitation mm = 19
|Dec precipitation mm = 11
|Jan precipitation days = 2
|Feb precipitation days = 2
|Mar precipitation days = 4
|Apr precipitation days = 6
|May precipitation days = 10
|Jun precipitation days = 12
|Jul precipitation days = 13
|Aug precipitation days = 13
|Sep precipitation days = 10
|Oct precipitation days = 5
|Nov precipitation days = 4
|Dec precipitation days = 3
|source 1 = [[World Meteorological Organisation]] (UN) <ref name="WMO">{{Cite web |title=World Weather Information Service – Birobidzan |url=http://worldweather.wmo.int/107/c01047.htm |access-date=December 31, 2010 |publisher=United Nations}}</ref>
|date=December 2010
|source 2 = [www.retscreen.net/ru/home.php NASA RETScreen Database]
}}

==Sports==
The [[bandy]] club [[Nadezhda Birobidzhan|Nadezhda]]<ref>[http://hcnadezhda.narod.ru/ Hcnadezhda.narod.ru]</ref> has been playing in the 2nd highest division, the [[Russian Bandy Supreme League]], until the 2016–17 season.<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ru:"Надежда" Биробиджан |url=http://www.rusbandy.ru/club/38/ |access-date=20 July 2015 |publisher=rusbandy.ru |language=ru}}</ref> However, in 2017–18 the team did not play in the league.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Высшая лига. Календарь игр III группы - Архив новостей - Федерация хоккея с мячом России |url=http://www.rusbandy.ru/news/11157/}}</ref>

==Twin towns – sister cities==
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Russia}}

Birobidzhan is [[Sister city|twinned]] with:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Города-побратимы, дружественные города |url=http://www.biradm.ru/about_b/inernatact/ |access-date=2020-02-05 |website=biradm.ru |publisher=Birobidzhan |language=ru |archive-date=February 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205102903/http://www.biradm.ru/about_b/inernatact/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
*{{flagicon|USA}} [[Beaverton, Oregon|Beaverton, OR]], United States
*{{flagicon|JPN}} [[Niigata (city)|Niigata]], Japan
*{{flagicon|CHN}} [[Hegang]], China
*{{flagicon|CHN}} [[Yichun, Heilongjiang|Yichun]], China
*{{flagicon|ISR}} [[Ma'alot-Tarshiha]], Israel
*{{flagicon|ISR}} [[Nof HaGalil]], Israel
{{div col end}}

== In popular culture ==
*''[[Soviet Zion]]'', a contemporary opera set in 1930s Birobidzhan
*''[[In Search of Happiness]]'', a documentary about modern-day Birobidzhan

== Notable people ==
* [[Nataliya Gumenyuk]], journalist, teacher

==See also==
*[[Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia|Organization for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union (IKOR)]]
*[[History of the Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast]]
*[[New Jerusalem]]
*[[Beit T'shuva]]
*[[Boris Kaufman (rabbi)|Boris "Dov" Kaufman]]
*[[Yoel Razvozov]], an [[Israel]]i [[judoka]] and member of Parliament, born in Birobidzhan

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
*{{RussiaBasicLawRef|yev|birobidzhan}}
*{{RussiaAdmMunRef|yev|adm|law}}
*{{RussiaAdmMunRef|yev|mun|law|birobidzhan}}

==Further reading==
*S. Almazov, ''10 Years of Biro-Bidjan.'' New York: ICOR, 1938.
*Srebrnik, H. (2002). [[doi:10.25071/1916-0925.19957|"Such Stuff As Diaspora Dreams Are Made On: Birobidzhan and the Canadian-Jewish Communist Imagination."]] ''Canadian Jewish Studies Études Juives Canadiennes'', 10. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-0925.19957</nowiki>
*Henry Frankel, ''The Jews in the Soviet Union and Birobidjan.'' New York: American Birobidjan Committee, 1946.
*{{Cite book |last=Gessen |first=Masha |title=Where the Jews Aren't: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region (Jewish Encounters Series) |publisher=[[Schocken Books]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0805242461 |author-link=Masha Gessen}}
*{{cite web |last1=Bell |first1=Tom |title=Exodus |url=https://peopleofthetiger.com/2021/05/25/exodus/ |website=People of the Tiger |access-date=17 January 2024}}
*Nora Levin, ''The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival: Volume 1.'' New York: New York University Press, 1988.
*James N. Rosenberg, ''How the Back-to-the-Soil Movement Began: Two Years of Blazing the New Jewish "Covered Wagon" Trail Across the Russian Prairies.'' Philadelphia: United Jewish Campaign, 1925.
*Jeffrey Shandler, "Imagining Yiddishland: Language, Place and Memory," ''History and Memory,'' vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2003), pp.&nbsp;123–149. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/his.2003.15.1.123 In JSTOR]
*Henry Felix Srebrnik, ''Dreams of Nationhood: American Jewish Communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan Project, 1924-1951.'' Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010.
*Robert Weinberg, "Purge and Politics in the Periphery: Birobidzhan in 1937," ''Slavic Review,'' vol. 52, no. 1 (Spring 1993), pp.&nbsp;13–27. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2499582 In JSTOR]
*Robert Weinberg, ''Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland: An Illustrated History, 1928-1996.'' Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.
*{{Cite book |last=Srebrnik |first=Henry Felix |title=Dreams of Nationhood: American Jewish Communists and the Soviet Birobidzhan Project, 1924-1951 |date=2010 |publisher=[[Academic Studies Press]] |isbn=9781618116871 |location=Boston |doi=10.2307/j.ctt1zxsj1m |jstor=j.ctt1zxsj1m|url=https://openresearchlibrary.org/ext/api/media/2485a23b-d876-4a2f-baee-64c0c9ca974e/assets/external_content.pdf }} {{open access}}

==External links==
*[http://www.biradm.ru/ Official website of Birobizhan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024181416/http://www.biradm.ru/ |date=October 24, 2014 }} {{in lang|ru}}
*[https://birobidzhan.jsprav.ru/ Birobidzhan Business Directory] {{in lang|ru}}
*[https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=Birobidzhan Photos of Birobidzhan]
*[https://soundcloud.com/fiddler-9/x0gpfturl9od Song about Birobidzhan]
*[https://www.npr.org/2016/09/07/492962278/sad-and-absurd-the-u-s-s-r-s-disastrous-effort-to-create-a-jewish-homeland 'Sad And Absurd': The U.S.S.R.'s Disastrous Effort To Create A Jewish Homeland (National Public Radio on September 7, 2016)]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbGKhY8iQbA "Birobidzhan Jewish autonomous region"] (''RT'', 2009)
*[https://plus61j.net.au/jewish-world/never-know-really-accepted-playing-role/ ‘We never know if we are really accepted, or if we are playing a role'], [[Mati Shemoelof]] interview in April 2021 with the Israeli-Berliner writer who wrote a novel on Birobidzhan, [[Plus61J]]

{{Jewish Autonomous Oblast}}
{{Russian Far East}}
{{Jews in the Soviet Union}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Birobidzhan| ]]
[[Category:Cities and towns in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast]]
[[Category:Russian Far East]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1931]]
[[Category:Historic Jewish communities in Asia]]
[[Category:Yiddish culture in Russia]]
[[Category:1931 establishments in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Koryo-saram communities]]
[[Category:Korean communities in Russia]]