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1️⃣ THE JEWISH AUTONOMOUS OBLAST: THE WORLD’S OLDEST JUDAIC POLITICAL ENTITY For the audio version of this article, go to this link ️ by Hikaru Kitabayashi ️ This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO). The JAO is 15 years older than the State of Israel. Created by Stalin, it still exists, even though immigration to Israel reduced the percentage of the population self-identifying as Judaic to 800 to 900 inhabitants, which represents well under 1% of the total population. Active Synagogue supporters make up only around 30 individuals. The JAO is, nevertheless, a federal unit listed in the constitution of the Russian Federation which makes it, more or less the equivalent of an American state. It is 36,271 km² as compared with 22,140 km² for Israel. Interestingly, the JAO is the only political entity in the world which actively promotes Yiddish as an official language. Its other official language is Russian which is the language more than 90% of the region’s inhabitants. For the JAO, Yiddish and Jewish culture do not represent either a religious or an ethnic identity. Rather, they are seen as symbols of the territorial identity of the JAO, which the people who inhabit the region have spontaneously created. Part of this identity is a steadily growing, annual, Jewish arts and culture festival, which receives active support from the overwhelmingly non-Judaic local community. It should be noted that immigrants from former Soviet Union Islamic regions in recent years has resulted in a Muslim population becoming slightly larger than the population claiming Judaic ethnicity. Even so, inter-religious relations between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity have been characterized by every researcher on the topic as being excellent. Many Judaic identifying JAO natives have claimed that they did not know what hatred of Jews just for being Jews was until they moved out of the region and that it came as a shock to them. The reason given for the immigration of the Judaic population to Israel was the total economic collapse of the Russian Federation in its transition from Communism to predatory Capitalism. In those years, the hardest hit were the regions in the Siberian Far East, of which the JAO was one. However, thanks to the positive impact of Western Sanctions and to its investment opportunity status due to its proximity with China, the strong revival of the Russian economy seems to have created an economic turn around. Reflecting this, on the 5th of November 2023, the Putin appointee as governor of the region, Mr. Rostislav Goldstein, who identifies as being of Judaic ethnicity, made the following statement: “Every life is important to us. And we are ready to receive in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast those who come in peace. Refugees from both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict can take advantage of all support measures.“ No fear of different religious beliefs or cultural practices is shown. The requirement for acceptance is seeking peace. Relevant statistics are unavailable, but commonsense would indicate that the JAO feels it can now afford to invest in population growth. There is much that peace seekers might find attractive in the JAO. And, though the Arab community in Russia is still small, it is growing. In the coming years, it could easily come to outnumber the Judaic community in the JAO and we might even see Yiddish speaking Muslim Arab Russians supporting the annual Jewish Arts Festival. After all, God does, now and then, seem to love a good joke. Join Global Depth to boost your TG Feed with my Daily Release Telegram GLOBAL DEPTH from HK This channel explores beneath the surface causation and and its above the surface effects on world events. Subscriber participation is always welcome Источник: Lord Of War