In the third session of the Jewish Peoples Schule, we discussed the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of the Soviet Union, the first Jewish state formed in the 20th Century. We looked at the history of the tsarist (czarist) repressions and pogroms against Jews in the Russian Empire and the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast as a homeland for Jewish culture to develop and flourish. With all the current violence and misery in the Middle East, Birobidzhan reminds us that it is possible to have a Jewish homeland without Zionism.
The Jewish Peoples Schule is sponsored by the United Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order. The Schule aims to share and relate the historical struggles of the Jewish people to other peoples’ struggles against oppression.
