TY - JOUR
T1 - If there had been no synagogue there, they would have had to invent it
T2 - The case of the Birobidzhan religious community of the Judaic creed on the threshold of perestroika
AU - Kotlerman, Ber
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/8/1
Y1 - 2012/8/1
N2 - The Birobidzhan Jewish religious community, officially registered on 15 December 1946, was the only one recognised by the Soviet authorities in the USSR's Far East. During the first years of its activity the community represented a unique case-perhaps the only case in the country-of linkage between a synagogue and the Soviet party and economic establishment on the local level. However, the persecutions of the early 1950s and several anti-religious campaigns later resulted in the Birobidzhan religious community falling into to a very sorry condition. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Regional Executive Committee even decided to cancel the registration of the community and remove it from the books. At the same time, after the 1984 large-scale celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), the central Soviet authorities found that Birobidzhan clericals could serve the purposes of the Soviet agitation and propaganda apparatus, as confirmation of the absence of any oppression of Judaism in the JAR. As a result, the chairman of the Regional Executive Committee of Russian origin was removed from his position and a new chairman of Jewish origin was appointed. Furthermore, for the first time in decades, not counting the construction of the temporary synagogue at the Olympic village in Moscow in 1980, Soviet municipal authorities took an active part in the establishment of a Jewish house of worship.
AB - The Birobidzhan Jewish religious community, officially registered on 15 December 1946, was the only one recognised by the Soviet authorities in the USSR's Far East. During the first years of its activity the community represented a unique case-perhaps the only case in the country-of linkage between a synagogue and the Soviet party and economic establishment on the local level. However, the persecutions of the early 1950s and several anti-religious campaigns later resulted in the Birobidzhan religious community falling into to a very sorry condition. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Regional Executive Committee even decided to cancel the registration of the community and remove it from the books. At the same time, after the 1984 large-scale celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), the central Soviet authorities found that Birobidzhan clericals could serve the purposes of the Soviet agitation and propaganda apparatus, as confirmation of the absence of any oppression of Judaism in the JAR. As a result, the chairman of the Regional Executive Committee of Russian origin was removed from his position and a new chairman of Jewish origin was appointed. Furthermore, for the first time in decades, not counting the construction of the temporary synagogue at the Olympic village in Moscow in 1980, Soviet municipal authorities took an active part in the establishment of a Jewish house of worship.
KW - Birobidzhan
KW - Holocaust
KW - Jews in the USSR
KW - Judaism
KW - Seventh-Day Adventists
KW - Subbotniks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84867443101&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13501674.2012.699205
DO - 10.1080/13501674.2012.699205
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SN - 1350-1674
VL - 42
SP - 87
EP - 97
JO - East European Jewish Affairs
JF - East European Jewish Affairs
IS - 2
ER -