Birobidzhan Synagogue
synagogue in Birobidzhan, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia
The Birobidzhan Synagogue, officially the Freyd Community and Beit Menachem Synagogue in Birobidzhan, is a Chabad Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 19 Lenina Street, in the city of Birobidzhan, in the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, in Russia.
According to the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, it is "the first synagogue in Russia to be built partly with state money". The Russian government allotted US$112,000 to help build the synagogue that was completed in 2004.
History
2004 opening
In 2004, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar, took part in the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Rabbi Lazar and Avraham Berkowitz, the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, led a delegation to Birobidzhan for the event. Mayor Alexander Vinnikov and Valery Solomonovich Gurevich also participated in the opening. Governor Nikolay Mikhaylovich Volkov stated that the Birobidzhan Synagogue is the Jewish Autonomous Oblast's first "kosher synagogue, according to Jewish law." Rabbi Mordechai Scheiner, the Chief Rabbi of Birobidzhan and Chabad Lubavitch representative to the region, said "Today one can enjoy the benefits of the Yiddish culture and not be afraid to return to their Jewish traditions. It is safe without any antisemitism and we plan to open the first Jewish day school here". The local Jewish community leader, Lev Toitman, also participated.
Jewish community
According to Rabbi Scheiner, there are 4,000 Jews in Birobidzhan, or just over 5 percent of the town's 75,000 population.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Birobidzhan Synagogue” as synagogue in Birobidzhan, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4916918. Authority coordinates are 48.791, 132.930. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Birobidzhan Synagogue” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.