Jewish Peoples Schule – Rosh Hashananah 5785 (2024) Jewish Autonomous Oblast and Birobidzhan

Shanah Tovah friends, for us, Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) represents the passing of the old and the coming into being of the new. We will reflect on the misery of the old outdated systems and push forward for new systems free of economic exploitation, anti-Semitism, and Racism. In the third session of the Jewish Peoples Schule, we will discuss the first Jewish state formed in the 20th Century. We will look 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 class was on October 5th, 2024.