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In Russia's Far East, a Jewish Revival
(Los Angeles Times) David Holley - Josef Stalin encouraged settlers in the Jewish Autonomous Region in the late 1920s to develop a community that would keep alive traditions such as the Yiddish language and Jewish songs and dances. But the religion itself was stamped out. Today, as religion makes a resurgence across Russia in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, this region along the Chinese border has become an important center of Jewish life. Out of the 190,000 people in the autonomous region, only about 5,000 are Jewish. But Birobidzhan, a city of 77,000, has a Jewish flavor that belies its small Jewish population.