11 Facts About Birobidzhan

Birobidzhan is a town and the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway, near the China–Russia border.

Birobidzhan is named after the two largest rivers in the autonomous oblast: the Bira and the Bidzhan.

Birobidzhan was planned by the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer, and established in 1931.

The placement of the Jews in Birobidzhan was meant to serve as a buffer to dissuade any Chinese or Japanese expansion.

Birobidzhan's visit to Birobidzhan in October 1933 was organized by Smidovich himself.

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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-many members of the Amur Cossack Host hoped that Birobidzhan signalled Soviet interest in the neglected region along the banks of the Amur river.

Many government officials in the Kremlin were under the impression that Birobidzhan was to become the new center for Soviet Jewish life, which is why Jewish migration to Birobidzhan was strongly pushed during the 1920s.

Birobidzhan's student, actually born in Birobidzhan, Rabbi Eliyahu Riss, has taken over the reins since 2010.

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.

Birobidzhan came back as the Chief Rabbi with plans of reinvigorating the Jewish culture.