Early Settlement
In May 1928 the first group of Jewish settlers from cities and villages in Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia arrived in the region that became the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. These individuals settled in many different areas of the autonomous oblast, some in Birobidzhan and others in various rural settlements.
In 1934, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast was formed in the Russian Far East to show that, like other national groups in the Soviet Union, Russian Jews could receive a territory in which to pursue cultural autonomy in a socialist framework. The JAO's capital city was in Birobidzhan, and Yiddish was its official language. Jewish life was revived in Birobidzhan much earlier than in other regions of the Soviet Union. Yiddish theatres began opening in the 1970s.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Jews In The Jewish Autonomous Oblast
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