History of the Jews in Russia

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Russian Jews
היהודים הרוסיים / יהדות רוסיה
Русские евреи
Sholom Aleichem
Maya Plisetskaya
Anton Rubinstein
Marc Chagall
Golda Meir
Joseph Brodsky
Sergey Brin
Lina Stern
Mikhail Botvinnik
Lev Landau
Ayn Rand
Grigori Perelman
Abraham Goldfaden
Faina Ranevskaya
Arkady Raikin
Regions with significant populations
 Israel 900,000[1]
 USA 350,000[2]

Different estimates have been given:

    • 157,763-194,000 self-identifying core Jewish population out of perhaps 200,000/500,000 people of Jewish descent (2010 Census)(DellaPergola 2012)(Tolts,2013)[3][4][5]
 Germany 119,000[citation needed]
 Canada 50,000[citation needed]
 Australia 20,000[citation needed]
Hebrew, Russian, English, Yiddish.
Judaism, irreligious, atheist
Related ethnic groups
Ashkenazi Jews, Ukrainian Jews, Belarusian Jews, Lithuanian Jews, Latvian Jews, Polish Jews, Czech Jews, Mountain Jews, Bukharan Jews, Georgian Jews

The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world.[6] Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of antisemitic discriminatory policies and persecutions. Russian Jewry is comprised by a number of different ethnic groups, including Ashkenazi, Mountain, Karaite, Krymchak, Bukharan and Georgian.

The presence of Jewish people in the European part of Russia can be traced back to the 7th–14th centuries CE. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Jewish population was restricted to a separate quarter in Kiev. Evidence of the presence of Jewish people in Muscovite Russia is first found in the chronicles of 1471. During the reign of Catherine II, Jewish people were restricted in where they could live or immigrate to in other parts of Russia. The beginning of the 19th century was marked by the movement of Jews to Novorossiya. Alexander III escalated anti-Jewish policies. A large-scale wave of anti-Jewish pogroms swept Ukraine in 1881. A policy of discrimination banned Jewish people from rural areas and towns of fewer than ten thousand people. In 1886, an Edict of Expulsion occurred in Kiev. Most Jews were expelled from Moscow in 1891. A larger wave of pogroms broke out in 1903–06.[citation needed] More than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920, mostly to the United States

In August 1919 Jewish properties, including synagogues, were seized and many Jewish communities were dissolved. The chaotic years of World War I, the February and October Revolutions, and the Civil War were fertile ground for antisemitism. Pogroms were unleashed throughout the Russian Civil War, perpetrated by every faction. The Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew language "reactionary" and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned as early as 1919. Many Jews fell victim to the Great Purges, and there is evidence that Jews were specifically targeted by Stalin. Over two million Soviet Jews are believed to have died during the Holocaust. As a result of the persecution, both state-sponsored and unofficial, antisemitism became deeply ingrained in the society.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many Soviet Jews took the opportunity of liberalized emigration policies, with over half their population leaving, most for Israel, the United States, Germany, Canada, and Australia. Despite this emigration, the Jewish population of Russia and the nations of the former Soviet Union still constitute the largest Jewish population in Europe. In 1989, 71,000 Soviet Jews were granted exodus from the USSR. Mikhail Gorbachev allowed unlimited Jewish emigration. The government of Vladimir Putin takes an official stand against antisemitism, while some movements parties and groups are explicitly antisemitic. For many years, Russia had the highest rate of aliyah to Israel among any other country.

Early history[edit]

Jews have been present in contemporary Armenia and Georgia since the Babylonian captivity (see also: Mountain Jews). Records exist from the 4th century showing that there were Armenian cities possessing Jewish populations ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 along with substantial Jewish settlements in the Crimea.[7] The presence of Jewish people in the territories corresponding to modern Belarus, Ukraine, and the European part of Russia can be traced back to the 7th-14th centuries CE.[8][9][9] Under the influence of the Caucasian Jewish communities (see also: Mountain Jews), Bulan, the Khagan Bek of the Khazars, and the ruling classes of Khazaria (located in what is now Ukraine, southern Russia and Kazakhstan), may have adopted Judaism at some point in the mid-to-late 8th or early 9th centuries. After the conquest of the Khazarian kingdom by Sviatoslav I of Kiev (969), the Khazar Jewish population may have assimilated or migrated in part.

Kievan Rus'[edit]






Tsardom of Russia[edit]

Documentary evidence as to the presence of Jewish people in Muscovite Russia is first found in the chronicles of 1471. The relatively small population of were subject to discriminatory laws, they do not appear to have been enforced at all times. The Jewish people residing in Russian and Ukrainian towns suffered numerous religious persecutions. Converted Jews occasionally rose to important positions in the Russian State, i.e. Peter Shafirov, vice-chancellor under Peter the Great was of Jewish origin.

Russian Empire[edit]

Map of the Pale of Settlement, showing percentage of Jewish populations





Prior to 1827 Jewish people were not permitted to serve in the Russian army, but they were subject to double taxation in lieu of military service. In 1827 Nicholas I decreed new recruitment regulations, which extended to the Jewish community as well. About 70,000 Jews were conscripted between 1827 and 1854, a large percentage of them underage (see Cantonists).



Alexander III was a staunch reactionary and an antisemite[13] (influenced by Pobedonostsev[14]) who strictly adhered to the old doctrine of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality. His escalation of anti-Jewish policies sought to ignite "popular antisemitism", which portrayed the Jews as "Christ-killers" and the oppressors of the Slavic, Christian victims.

The victims of a 1905 pogrom in Yekaterinoslav


The repressive legislation was repeatedly revised. Many historians noted the concurrence of these state-enforced antisemitic policies with waves of pogroms[15] that continued until 1884, with at least tacit government knowledge and in some cases policemen were seen inciting or joining the mob.







About 450,000 Jewish soldiers served in the Russian army during World War I,[18] and fought side by side with their Christian fellows. When hundreds of thousands of refugees from Poland and Lithuania, among them innumerable Jews, fled in terror before enemy invasion, the Pale of Settlement de facto ceased to exist. Most of the education restrictions on the Jews were removed with appointment of count Pavel Ignatiev as minister of education.

Mass emigration[edit]

In this Rosh Hashana greeting card from the early 20th century, Russian Jews, packs in hand, gaze at the American relatives beckoning them to the United States. Over two million Jews fled the pogroms of the Russian Empire to the safety of the U.S. from 1881–1924.

Even though the persecutions provided the impetus for mass emigration there were other relevant factors that can account for the Jews' migration. After the first years of large emigration from Russia, positive feedback from the emigrants in the U.S. encouraged further emigration. Indeed more than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920. While a large majority emigrated to the United States, some turned to Zionism. In 1882, members of Bilu and Hovevei Zion made what came to be known the First Aliyah to Israel, then a part of the Ottoman Empire.

The Tsarist government sporadically encouraged Jewish emigration. In 1890, it approved the establishment of "The Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine[19] " (known as the "Odessa Committee" headed by Leon Pinsker) dedicated to practical aspects in establishing agricultural Jewish settlements in Palestine.

Political Cartoon, Russian Tsar-Stop your cruel oppression of the Jews! (1904)
Jewish emigration from Russia, 1880–1928[20]
Destination Number
Australia 5,000
Canada 70,000
Europe 240,000
Palestine 45,000
South Africa 45,000
South America 111,000
United States 1,749,000

Jewish members of the Duma[edit]




Three of the Jewish deputies, Bramson, Chervonenkis and Yakubson, joined the Labour faction, nine other joined the Kadet fraction.[22] According to Rufus Learsi, five of them were Zionists, including Dr. Shmaryahu Levin, Dr. Victor Jacobson and Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum.[24]


The Second Duma included seven Jewish deputies: Shakho Abramson, Iosif Gessen, Vladimir Matveevich Gessen, Lazar Rabinovich, Yakov Shapiro (all of them Kadets) and Victor Mandelberg (Siberia Social Democrat),[26] plus a convert to Christianity, the attorney Ossip Pergament (Odessa).[27]



Jews in the revolutionary movement[edit]



White movement propaganda poster from the Russian Civil War era (1919), depicting a caricature of Leon Trotsky as a red devil and Chinese soldiers below, wearing braids and blue and gold uniforms.



In March 1919, Vladimir Lenin delivered a speech "On Anti-Jewish Pogroms"[30] on a gramophone disc. Lenin sought to explain the phenomenon of antisemitism in Marxist terms. According to Lenin, antisemitism was an "attempt to divert the hatred of the workers and peasants from the exploiters toward the Jews". Linking antisemitism to class struggle, he argued that it was merely a political technique used by the tsar to exploit religious fanaticism, popularize the despotic, unpopular regime, and divert popular anger toward a scapegoat. The Soviet Union also officially maintained this Marxist-Leninist interpretation under Joseph Stalin, who expounded Lenin's critique of antisemitism. However, this did not prevent the widely publicized repressions of Jewish intellectuals during 1948–1953 (see After World War II) when Stalin increasingly associated Jews with "cosmopolitanism" and pro-Americanism.

Such actions, along with extensive Jewish participation among the Bolsheviks, plagued the Communists during the Russian Civil War against the Whites with a reputation of being "a gang of marauding Jews"; Jews were a majority in the Communist Central Committee, outnumbering even ethnic Russians. At the same time, the vast majority of Russia's Jews, much like their non-Jewish Russian neighbors, were not in any political party.



In August 1919 Jewish properties, including synagogues, were seized and many Jewish communities were dissolved. The anti-religious laws against all expressions of religion and religious education were being taken out on the Jewish population, just like on other religious groups. Many Rabbis and other religious officials were forced to resign from their posts under the threat of violent persecution. This type of persecution continued on into the 1920s.[32]



Pogroms were unleashed throughout the Russian Civil War, perpetrated by virtually every competing faction, from Polish and Ukrainian nationalists to the Red and White Armies.[33] 31,071 civilian Jews were killed during documented pogroms throughout the former Russian Empire; the number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000. Majority of pogroms in Ukraine during 1918–1920 were perpetrated by the Ukrainian nationalists, miscellaneous bands and anti-Communist forces.[34]

Perpetrator Number of pogroms or excesses Number murdered Murder in each pogrom[34]
Hryhoriiv's bands 52 3,471 67
Directory 493 16,706 34
White army 213 5,235 25
Miscellaneous bands 307 4,615 15
Red Army 106 725 7
Others 33 185 6
Polish army 32 134 4
Total 1,236 31,071 25

Soviet Union[edit]

Before World War II[edit]





Yet, according to Jewish historian Zvi Gitelman: "Never before in Russian history—and never subsequently has a government made such an effort to uproot and stamp out antisemitism."[42]

At the same time, the economic position of the Jewish population in USSR was not good. Soviet laws offered hardly any economic independence to artisans, and none whatever to traders. For many Jewish artisans and tradesmen, Soviet policies led to loss of their property and trade.

According to the census of 1926, total number of Jews in USSR was 2,672,398—of whom 59% lived in Ukrainian SSR, 15,2% in Byelorussian SSR, 22% in Russian SFSR and 3,8% in other Soviet republics.


Jewish Autonomous Oblast on the map of Russia


The Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew language "reactionary" since it was associated with both Judaism and Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the Narkompros (Commissariat of Education) as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education.[45] Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests in the West,[46] teachers and students who attempted to study the Hebrew language were pilloried and sentenced for "counter revolutionary" and later for "anti-Soviet" activities.

Yiddish, rather than Hebrew, would be the national language, and proletarian socialist literature and arts would replace Judaism as the quintessence of culture. Despite a massive domestic and international state propaganda campaign, the Jewish population in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast never reached 30% (in 2003 it was only about 1.2%[47]). The experiment ground to a halt in the mid-1930s, during Stalin's first campaign of purges. Jewish leaders were arrested and executed,[citation needed] and Yiddish schools were shut down.

In his January 12, 1931 letter "Antisemitism: Reply to an Inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States" (published domestically by Pravda in 1936), Stalin officially condemned antisemitism:




The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact—the 1939 non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany—created further suspicion regarding the Soviet Union's position toward Jews. According to the pact Poland, the nation with the world's largest Jewish population, was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939. While the pact had no basis in ideological sympathy (as evidenced by Nazi propaganda about "Jewish Bolshevism"), Germany's occupation of Western Poland was a disaster for Eastern European Jews. Evidence suggests that some, at least, of the Jews in the Eastern Soviet zone of occupation welcomed the Russians as having a more liberated policy towards their civil rights than the preceding antisemitic Polish regime.[49] Jews in areas annexed by Soviet Union were deported Eastward in great waves; as these areas would soon be invaded by Nazi Germany, this forced migration, deplored by many of its victims, paradoxically also saved the lives of a few hundred thousand Jewish deportees.

Osip Mandelstam after his first arrest
Poet Boris Pasternak, spared by Stalin with the words "Let this cloud dweller be!"[50]






By 1941, it was estimated that the Soviet Union was home to 4.855 million, or around 30% of all Jews worldwide. However, the majority of these were residents of rural western Belarus and Ukraine—populations that suffered greatly due to the German occupation and the Holocaust. Only around 800,000 Jews lived outside the occupied territory, and 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 Jews were eventually evacuated eastwards.[51] Of the 3 million left in occupied areas, the vast majority is thought to have perished in German extermination camps.

The Holocaust[edit]






"The Hitlerist bandits committed mass murder of the Jewish population. They announced that on September 29, 1941, all the Jews were required to arrive to the corner of Melnikov and Dokterev streets and bring their documents, money and valuables. The butchers marched them to Babi Yar, took away their belongings, then shot them."

"The Hitlerist bandits brought thousands of civilians to the corner of Melnikov and Dokterev streets. The butchers marched them to Babi Yar, took away their belongings, then shot them."

Stalinist antisemitic campaigns[edit]





The Soviet Union and Zionism[edit]





In a 14 May 1947 speech during the UN Partition Plan debate, published in Izvestiya two days later, the Soviet ambassador Andrei Gromyko announced:






A Soviet birth certificate from 1972 indicating the person's parents' ethnicity as "Jewish" (Rus. "Еврей"); the practice of indicating ethnicity in documents has been discontinued.









Glasnost and end of the USSR[edit]

In 1989 a record 71,000 Soviet Jews were granted exodus from the USSR, of whom only 12,117 immigrated to Israel. At first, American policy treated Soviet Jews were refugees and allowed unlimited numbers to emigrate, but this policy eventually came to an end. As a result, more Jews began moving to Israel, as it was the only country willing to take them unconditionally.


Russia today[edit]

Jews make up about 0.16% of the total population of Russia, according to the 2002 census. Most Russian Jews are secular and identify themselves as Jews via ethnicity rather than religion, although interest about Jewish identity as well as practice of Jewish tradition amongst Russian Jews is growing. The Lubavitch has been active in this sector, setting up synagogues and Jewish kindergartens in Russian cities with Jewish populations. In addition, most Russian Jews have relatives in Israel.

Since the dissolution of the USSR, democratization in the former USSR has brought with it a good deal of tragic irony for the country's minorities, especially the Jewish population. The absence of Soviet-era repression exposed the remaining Jews to a resurgence of antisemitism in the former Soviet Union. However, there has not been a return to mass antisemitic incidents in Russia or anywhere else throughout the former Soviet Union.


A linguistic distinction remains to this day in the Russian language where there are two distinct terms that correspond to the word Jew in English. The word еврей ("yevrey" - Hebrew) typically denotes a Jewish ethnicity, as "Hebrew" did in English up until the early 20th century. The word иудей ("iudey" - Judean, etymologically related to the English Jew) is reserved for denoting a follower of the Jewish religion, whether ethnically Jewish or not; this term has largely fallen out of use in favor of the equivalent term иудаист. For example, according to a 2012 Russian survey, евреи account for only 32.2% of иудаисты in Russia, with nearly half (49.8%) being ethnic Russians (русские),[62] although many of these ethnic Russians could be Subbotniks of entirely non-Jewish background. An ethnic slur, жид (borrowed from the Polish Żyd, Jew), also remains in widespread use in Russia.


Antisemitism is one of the most common expressions of xenophobia in post-Soviet Russia, even among some groups of politicians.[63] Despite stipulations against fomenting hatred based on ethnic or religious grounds (Article 282 of Russian Federation Penal Code),[64] antisemitic pronouncements, speeches and articles are not uncommon in Russia, and there are a large number of antisemitic neo-Nazi groups in the republics of the former Soviet Union, leading Pravda to declare in 2002 that "Anti-Semitism is booming in Russia".[65] Over the past few years there have also been bombs attached to antisemitic signs, apparently aimed at Jews, and other violent incidents, including stabbings, have been recorded.

The government of Vladimir Putin takes an official stand against antisemitism, while some movements parties and groups are explicitly antisemitic. In January 2005, a group of 15 Duma members demanded that Judaism and Jewish organizations be banned from Russia.[66] In June, 500 prominent Russians, including some 20 members of the nationalist Rodina party, demanded that the state prosecutor investigate ancient Jewish texts as "anti-Russian" and ban Judaism. An investigation was in fact launched, but halted after an international outcry.[67][68]

In Russia, both historical and contemporary antisemitic materials are frequently published. For example a set (called Library of a Russian Patriot) consisting of twenty five antisemitic titles was recently published, including Mein Kampf translated to Russian (2002), which although was banned in 2010,[69] The Myth of Holocaust by Jürgen Graf, a title by Douglas Reed, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and others.

Antisemitic incidents, mostly addressed to extremist and nationalists groups, have ranged from random acts of violence against Jews and vandalism acts against Jewish institutions to the detonation of explosives in Jewish communities. Most of the antisemitic incidents are against Jewish cemeteries and building (community centers and synagogues) such as the assault against the Jewish community's center in Perm on March 2013[70] and the attack on Jewish nursery school in Volgograd on August 2013.[71] Nevertheless there were several violent attacks against Jews in Moscow in 2006 when a neo-Nazi stabbed 9 people at the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue,[72] the failed bomb attack on the same synagogue in 1999.[73]

Hasidic rabbi Berel Lazar meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin

Attacks against Jews made by extremist Islamic groups are rare in Russia although there has been increase in the scope of the attacks mainly in Muslim populated areas. On July 25, 2013 the rabbi of Derbent was assassinated and badly injured by unknown person near his home, most likely by a terrorist. The incident sparked concerns among the local Jews of further acts against the Jewish community.[74]


The Jewish Autonomous Oblast continues to be an autonomous oblast of the Russian state.[78] The Chief Rabbi of Birobidzhan, Mordechai Scheiner, says there are 4,000 Jews in the capital city.[79] Governor Nikolay Mikhaylovich Volkov has stated that he intends to "support every valuable initiative maintained by our local Jewish organizations".[80] The Birobidzhan Synagogue opened in 2004 on the 70th anniversary of the regions founding in 1934.[81]




The Georgian Jews numbered about 35,700 in 1964, most of them living in Georgia.[84]



Historical demographics[edit]

Demographic data for Russian Empire and Soviet Jews
Year Jewish population (including Tats) Notes
1914 More than 5,250,000 Russian Empire
1926[87] 2,672,499 First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union


1939[88] 3,028,538 A result of natural growth, emigration, assimilation and repressions
1959 2,279,277 See the Holocaust and immigration to Israel.
1979 1,830,317 Decline for the same reason as for 1970
1989 1,479,732 Soviet Census (1989). Final census in the entire Soviet Union. Decline for the same reason as for 1970.
2000[89] 460,000 A result of mass emigration, natural population decline, and assimilation.
Jewish population in each SSR and former SSR by year (using 1989 SSR borders)[90][a]
SSR 1897 1926 1939 1959 1970 1979 1989 2002[91] 2010[92]
Russian SFSR/Russia 250,000[93] 539,037 891,147 880,443 816,668 713,399 570,467 265,000 159,348
Ukrainian SSR/Ukraine 2,680,000[94] 2,720,000[95] 2,700,000[96][97][c] 840,446 777,406 634,420 487,555 100,000 71,500
Byelorussian SSR/Belarus 690,000[98][c] 150,090 148,027 135,539 112,031 24,300 12,926[99][d]
Moldavian SSR/Moldova 250,000[100] 95,108 98,091 80,193 65,933 5,500 4,100
Estonian SSR/Estonia 4,309[101] 5,439 5,290 4,993 4,653 1,900 1,800
Latvian SSR/Latvia 95,675[102][b] 95,600[101] 36,604 36,686 28,338 22,925 9,600 6,454[103][e]
Lithuanian SSR/Lithuania 263,000[101] 24,683 23,566 14,703 12,398 3,700 3,050[104][e]
Georgian SSR/Georgia 30,534 42,300 51,589 55,398 28,315 24,834 5,000 3,200
Azerbaijan SSR/Azerbaijan 59,768 41,245 46,091 49,057 44,345 41,072 7,900 9,100[105][d]
Turkmen SSR/Turkmenistan 2,045 3,037 4,102 3,530 2,866 2,509 600 200
Uzbek SSR/Uzbekistan 37,896 50,676 94,488 103,058 100,067 95,104 6,000 4,500
Kirghiz SSR/Kyrgyzstan 318 1,895 8,632 7,687 6,879 6,012 900 600
Kazakh SSR/Kazakhstan 3,548 19,240 28,085 27,676 23,601 20,104 4,500 3,700
Historical Russian Jewish population
Year Pop. ±%
1897 250,000 —    
1926 539,037 +115.6%
1939 891,147 +65.3%
1959 880,443 −1.2%
1970 816,668 −7.2%
1979 713,399 −12.6%
1989 570,467 −20.0%
2002 265,000 −53.5%
2010 159,348 −39.9%
Source: [93][90][91][92]
Jewish population in each SSR and former SSR by year (using 1989 SSR borders) as a percent of the total population[90][a]
SSR % 1926 % 1939 % 1959 % 1970 % 1979 % 1989 % 2002[91] % 2010[92]
Ukrainian SSR/Ukraine 6.55%[107][c] 2.01% 1.65% 1.28% 0.95% 0.20% 0.16%
Byelorussian SSR/Belarus 6.55%[108][c] 1.86% 1.64% 1.42% 1.10% 0.24% 0.14%[99][d]
Estonian SSR/Estonia 0.38%[101] 0.45% 0.39% 0.34% 0.30% 0.14% 0.13%
Latvian SSR/Latvia 5.19%[102][b] 4.79%[101] 1.75% 1.55% 1.13% 0.86% 0.40% 0.31%[103][e]
Lithuanian SSR/Lithuania 9.13%[101] 0.91% 0.75% 0.43% 0.34% 0.10% 0.10%[104][e]
Azerbaijan SSR/Azerbaijan 2.58% 1.29% 1.25% 0.96% 0.74% 0.58% 0.10% 0.10%[105][d]

b^ The data is from 1926.
c^ The data is from 1941.
d^ The data is from 2009.
e^ The data is from 2011.

Russian Jewish diaspora[edit]


Year TFR
2000 1.544
1999 1.612
1998 1.632
1997 1.723
1996 1.743
1995 1.731
1994 1.756
1993 1.707
1992 1.604
1991 1.398
1990 1.390

The largest number of Russian Jews now live in Israel, not in Russia. Israel is home to a core Russian-Jewish population of 900,000 and an enlarged population of 1,200,000 (including halachically non-Jewish members of Jewish households, but excluding those who reside in Israel illegally).[110][not in citation given] The Aliyah in the 1990s accounts for 85–90% of this population. The population growth rate for Former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrants were among the lowest for any Israeli groups, with a Fertility rate of 1.70 and natural increase of just +0.5% per year.[111] The increase in Jewish birth rate in Israel during the 2000–2007 period was partly due to the increasing birth rate among the FSU immigrants, who now form 20% of the Jewish population of Israel.[112][113] 96.5% of the enlarged Russian Jewish population in Israel is either Jewish or non-religious, while 3.5% (35,000) belongs to other religions (mostly Christians) and about 10,000 messianic Jews.[114]

The Total Fertility Rate for FSU immigrants in Israel is given in the table below. The TFR increased with time, peaking in 1997, then slightly decreased after that and then again increased after 2000.[111]

In 1999, about 1,037,000 FSU immigrants lived in Israel, of whom about 738,900 immigrated after 1989.[115][116] The second largest ethnic group (Moroccans) numbered just 501,000. From 2000–2006, 142,638 FSU immigrants moved to Israel. While 70,000 of them emigrated from Israel to countries like the U.S. and Canada, bringing the total population to 1,150,000 by 2007 January (Excluding illegals).[1] The natural increase was around 0.3% in late 1990s. For example 2,456 in 1996 (7,463 births to 5,007 deaths), 2,819 in 1997 (8,214 to 5,395), 2,959 in 1998 (8,926 to 5,967) and 2,970 in 1999 (9,282 to 6,312). In 1999, the natural growth was +0.385%. (Figures only for FSU immigrants moved in after 1989).[117]

An estimated 45,000 illegal immigrants from the Former Soviet Union lived in Israel during the end of 2010, but it is not clear how many of them are actually Jews.[118]

Currently, Russia has the highest rate of aliyah to Israel among any other country. In 2013, 7,520 people, nearly 40% of all olim, immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union.[119][120]


United States[edit]



Most noticeable Russian and former Soviet Jews in the U.S. are Leonard Blavatnik, Sergey Brin, Joseph Brodsky, Sergei Dovlatov, Anthony Fedorov, Maxim Frank-Kamenetskii, Vladimir Horowitz, Gregory Kaidanov, Avi Kaplan, Jan Koum, Mila Kunis, Leonid Levin, Eugene Mirman, Dmitry Salita, Yakov Sinai, Mikhail Shifman, Regina Spektor, and Arkady Vainshtein.

Large Russian-Jewish communities include Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay in the Brooklyn borough of New York City; Fair Lawn and nearby areas in Bergen County, New Jersey; Bucks and Montgomery counties near Philadelphia; Pikesville, Maryland, a predominantly Jewish suburb of Baltimore; Washington Heights in the Sunny Isles Beach neighborhood of South Florida; and West Hollywood, California.


The fourth largest Russian-Jewish community exists in Germany with a core Russian-Jewish population of 119,000 and an enlarged population of 250,000.[121][122][123]




The fifth largest Russian Jewish community is in Canada. The core Russian Jewish population in Canada numbers 30,000 and the enlarged Russian Jewish population numbered 50,000+, mostly in Montreal and Toronto.[126] Notable Russian Jewish residents include Mark Berger and the musical group Tasseomancy.




Hundreds of Russian Jews have moved to Finland since 1990 and have helped to stem the negative population growth of the Jewish community there.[128] The total number of Jews in Finland have grown from 800 in 1980 to 1,200 in 2006. Of all the schoolgoing Jewish children, 75% have at least one Russian born parent.

Other countries[edit]

Ida Rubinstein, actress, dancer, and Belle Époque figure


See also[edit]


  2. ^ a b http://www.ajcrussian.org/atf/cf/%7B66BD09D8-5251-4553-8C19-5FC7BEAF0E76%7D/russian_jews_in_america.pdf
  4. ^ Mark Tolts,'Sources for the Demographic Study of the Jews in the Former Soviet Union,' in Uzi Rebhun (ed.) The Social Scientific Study of Jewry: Sources, Approaches, Debates, Institute of Contemporary Jewry. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Oxford University Press, Vol. XXV11 2014 pp.160-177, p.170.
  5. ^ Vladimir Ruvinskiy, 'Russian census to find large Jewish drop, expert sasys,' Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 24 October 2010.
  6. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901–1906 [1]
  7. ^ "Armenia". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2011-03-22. 
  8. ^ "Belarus: Virtual Jewish History Tour". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 1991-04-25. Retrieved 2013-04-14. 
  11. ^ Guide to the YIVO Archives. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-04-14. 
  14. ^ "Czar Alexander III". Fortunecity.com. Retrieved 2011-03-22. 
  15. ^ A History of Russia by Nicholas Riasanovsky, p. 395
  17. ^ The Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 25, 1915, pp. 11
  18. ^ "The Jewish Agency for Israel Timeline". Jafi.org.il. 2005-05-15. Retrieved 2013-04-14. 
  19. ^ "The Hovevei Zion in Russia-The Odessa committee 1889-1890". Zionistarchives.org.il. 1935-04-18. Retrieved 2013-04-14. 
  20. ^ Jewish Emigration from Russia: 1880 - 1928 (Beyond the Pale)
  24. ^ Learsi, Rufus (2007). Fulfillment - The Epic Story of Zionism: The Authoritative History of the Zionist Movement from the Earliest Days to the Present Time. Read Books. p. 444. ISBN 978-1-4067-0729-8. 
  25. ^ "4 year review". American Jewish Yearbook (1910-1911). 
  28. ^ "Ossip. Y. Pergament dead. Leader of Jews and Duma Member, He Was Under Indictment" (PDF). New York Times. May 30, 1909. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
  30. ^ Lenin's March 1919 speech On Anti-Jewish Pogroms («О погромной травле евреев»: text, About this sound audio )
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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]