Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

History

In 1912 the Tikhonkaya railway station appeared on the site of the future Birobidzhan, and the line through the region was completed in 1916. In 1928 the Soviet government set the area aside for Jewish settlement; the Birobidzhan National District followed in 1930 and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast on 7 May 1934. The town, planned with the help of Swiss architect Hannes Meyer, took its present name in 1931 and became a city in 1937. From the 1970s many local Jews emigrated to Israel, where more than 15,000 former residents now live.

Culture & traditions

Jews now make up less than one percent of the population, yet Yiddish is recognised as the language of the local Jewish community, and its basics and Jewish traditions are taught in schools and even a kindergarten. The Birobidzhaner Shtern newspaper still prints pages in Yiddish, and the main street is named after Sholem Aleichem. A synagogue with a community centre, museum and library opened in 2004. Since 1991 the city has hosted a festival of Jewish song and music, and it has a Jewish musical theatre, a puppet theatre and a philharmonic.

Nature

For 584 km the oblast's southern border follows the Amur, while the north rises into the Lesser Khingan and the Bureya Range, topped by Mount Studencheskaya (1,421 m). The main rivers are the Bira and the Bidzhan, tributaries of the Amur. Ten kilometres north of Birobidzhan lies the Bastak Nature Reserve, founded in 1997, with mixed forests, marshy floodplains and mountain tundra on Mount Bydyr. Roe deer, wild boar, brown and Himalayan bears, sable and the Amur tiger live here, along with 195 bird species.

Sport

Birobidzhan has the Dalselmash and Druzhba stadiums, swimming pools and halls for boxing and weightlifting. Since 1993 the city has been represented by the Nadezhda ice hockey team.

Food & drink

The region's rivers, from the Amur to the Bira and Bidzhan, are rich in fish, with dozens of species. Jewish traditions, passed on to children here from an early age, are a good reason to look out for dishes of the Jewish festive table in town.

Practical information

The nearest major airport is Khabarovsk Novy, about 200 km from Birobidzhan; the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the region, and since 2021 the Nizhneleninskoye–Tongjiang bridge has linked it with China's Heilongjiang Province. Local time is Moscow plus 7 hours (UTC+10). The climate is monsoonal, with cold, dry winters (January −21 to −26 °C) and warm, humid summers. Summer and early autumn are the best time to visit.

What to see

• Sholem Aleichem Street — Birobidzhan's main street with Yiddish signs
• Synagogue and community centre — museum and library of the city's Jewish life
• Menorah monument at the station — the first thing visitors to Birobidzhan see
• Bastak Nature Reserve — an educational trail through Ussuri forest (permit needed)
• Festival of Jewish song and music — an international event since 1991

Cities on the map

• Birobidzhan 74,791