Jewish Heritage in Russia: Faith, Persecution, and Revival

Introduction: A Faith Reemerging

In the past two decades, the former Soviet Union has gone through many significant changes, the greatest being the dismantling of its government and the slow process of rebuilding from the ground up. Under the Soviet system, strict rules governed nearly every aspect of life, and the heavy hand of Communism was felt throughout the state. Among the things most heavily restricted was the freedom of religion. The Jewish faith encountered severe opposition in the Soviet Union for many years, and all but the most stubborn adherents had been driven out or forced underground long before the state collapsed. With the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the question of religious freedom again raised its head, and the Russian Jewish heritage is once more at a turning point. After a century of being attacked, ignored, oppressed, and punished, it is beginning to come alive and be recognized as a growing, active faith among Russian residents who are Jewish.

Currently it is estimated that there are about 2 million Jewish followers living in the former Soviet Union. Wearing yarmulkes and prayer shawls, they approach people at metro stations near synagogues with pamphlets emblazoned with Stars of David. They hold Sabbath services in churches, rent concert halls or movie theaters, where they recite Hebrew prayers and bring out a Torah. For four generations, Jewish followers were denied any open and free education in or practice of their faith, and the new ability to worship without fear is spreading rapidly.

Ninety-nine percent of Russian Jews have no religious education. This has made many of them easy targets for a group called Jews for Jesus, which seeks to convert Russian Jews to Christianity. As the long struggle for freedom comes to an end, Jewish people are coming out of hiding and learning things about their faith that they never knew before. The road to this current freedom has been long and hard, with many sacrifices along the way.

Early Jewish Heritage in Russia

The heritage of the Russian Jewish population dates back to the 8th century according to historical records. Religious persecution caused many Jews to flee from Greek colonies and settle in Russia. The kingdom of the Jewish Khazars is referred to in ancient Russian literature as the "Land of the Jews," and warriors of Russian epic poetry wage war against the Jewish warrior, the "zhidovin." According to one tradition, Prince Vladimir of Kiev conversed with Jews on religion before accepting Orthodox Christianity. At the same time, Jews were living in Kiev, and ancient Russian sources mention the "Gate of the Jews" in that city. The Jews lived in the town under the protection of the prince until the inhabitants rebelled against Prince Vladimir II Monomachus.

Jews were constantly being persecuted in Russia, and in the area of Moscow they were simply not tolerated. The attitude in Russia toward foreigners was harsh and unaccepting, and that attitude extended to Jewish residents who had lived there for many centuries. Jews were considered enemies of the state as well as heretics, and were often accused of stirring up trouble with other enemies of the state — whether or not this was true.

Czarist Persecution and Legal Exclusion

By the 15th century there was an active movement to seek out and convert Jews to Christianity in Russia. This was also a period when being Jewish was effectively declared illegal, and Jewish immigrants had to enter the country secretly and hide with family and friends who had similarly concealed their identity. When Czar Ivan IV Vasilievich ("the Terrible"; 1530–84) temporarily annexed the town of Pskov to his territory, he ordered that all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity should be drowned in the river. For the next two centuries, Jews were afraid to come publicly forth with their religious beliefs and continued to enter the country illegally, keeping as low a profile as possible to avoid capture and prosecution.

The Russian government attempted to "smoke out" Jews through several economic mandates. It ruled it illegal for Jewish merchants to operate, and also prosecuted anyone suspected of doing business with a Jewish merchant — regardless of the type of business or its location. This meant that if someone traveled to the border towns where Jews had settled and conducted any business with a Jewish merchant, they too could face persecution upon returning to Russia. Russia's strong-armed tactics succeeded in many economic areas of Jewish life, and many Jews lost their businesses and their ability to support their families.

Small Jewish communities existed during the early 18th century in the region of Smolensk. In 1738, a Jew named Baruch b. Leib was arrested and accused of having converted the officer Alexander Voznitsyn to Judaism. Both were burned at the stake in St. Petersburg. In 1742, Czarina Elizabeth Petrovna ordered the expulsion of the few Jews living in her kingdom.

When Catherine II came to power, the question of Jewish entry for trading purposes was again brought to the forefront. Doing business with a Jewish merchant was considered tantamount to benefiting from enemies of Christ, which formed the legal and moral basis for the ban. Catherine initially leaned toward allowing Jews to enter the area for trade, reasoning that they were not only merchants who could bring goods and services to her people but also consumers from whom her people could profit. This idea was met with such strong public opposition that she reversed her decision, and Jews were once again banned from Russia.

Some Jews nevertheless penetrated into Russia during this period, and the authorities did not disturb those living in territories conquered from Turkey in 1768 — namely Crimea and the Black Sea shore — and even unofficially encouraged additional Jewish settlement in those regions. The broader question of Jewish presence within the borders of the empire was ultimately decided by historical circumstance: at the close of the 18th century, hundreds of thousands of Jews were placed under the dominion of the czars as a result of the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795).

The Jews who settled in these areas faced widespread poverty. Jewish communities struggled to maintain their lives within narrow geographic boundaries, without access to public employment or the ability to earn money openly. Many merchants refused to trade with them, considering them enemies of both Christ and the Russian nation. These conditions drove the Jewish population into severe poverty. When they came under Russian rule, many communities were already heavily in debt. Economic difficulties, the burden of taxes — in particular the meat tax — and social tensions drove many Jews to abandon the small townlets and settle in villages or on the estates of noblemen.

During these years, the Russian rulers and government continued to view the Jewish population as "the Jewish problem" and constantly debated how to address it. After the end of Polish rule, Russia spent five decades handling Jews much as before — largely by ignoring their existence and squeezing their ability to survive as tightly as possible. A decree of 1791 confirmed the right of residence of Jews in the territories annexed from Poland and permitted their settlement in the uninhabited steppes of the Black Sea shore and in the provinces to the east of the Dnieper River (Chernigov and Poltava) only.