Moscow – Russia’s Jewish population is at about one million, says the FJC President, Alexander Boroda.
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Speaking on a Moscow radio program, he justified this figure despite a census that puts the number at around 270,000. Communism has produced generations of Russian Jews who know little if anything, about Judaism and their heritage. It is only in the last decade or so that they have begun to uncover their Jewish roots, so that the number of identifying Jews is not reflective of real numbers, he explained.
Before the revolution, he said, “there were normally 20 synagogues in a locality with a population of 5,000, now there are only six synagogues in Moscow, and I can’t say they are packed full.”
The FJC is working to change that. Today it has centers in 426 communities in the Former Soviet Union, with 139 Jewish day schools.
I think he is making it up to collect more funds
Correct you are, Mr Smith. His donations are down since the financial crisis and really they have reached as many Jews as are actually there.
Between the emigration at the turn of the century, intermarriage and emigration from 1945 on, especially the mass emigration after Communism fell, even 270K halachic Jews in Russia sounds like a high figure.
The number does seem artificially inflated. I wonder how many those counted are shlichim from elsewhere.
I can’t help wondering the basis for all the speculation about his numbers. The ability to type out ‘It sounds high’ and to click ‘send’ doesn’t exactly qualify one as an expert statistician.
You critics are talking out of ignorance, these guys are out there in the field, I’d trust their data over yours any day.
Capitalism and freedom have also caused great losese to the Jewish people.
There are no more than 5000 identifiable foreign Jews in Russia (not counting returning emigres, businessmen and diplomats who may be Jewish and do not identify as such).
I have lived in Russia and know Boroda and his crew very well. They have many reasons to fudge data especially after the collapse of many of their local donors.
I know that even the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA, who agreed that there are more Jews than the statistics show (because those whose mothers are Jewish do not know that they are Jewish) did not come up with such a figure for Russia – his figure, pre-emigration, was perhaps 1mlo (halachic Jews) for the WHOLE Soviet Union.
The real kiruv has been done; there are few new Jews to uncover and most who do uncover themselves want to emigrate.
That is to say, they want to emigrate because they are stuck in small towns with no hope, and all of a sudden they discover a Jewish grandmother.
An uncovered Jew who really wants to be Jewish will undergo giyur if advised to do so and most such Jews came forth already. The few who have not sometimes only do a few moments before petira because they want to be buried as Jews; again this happens in small towns and villages that are mostly empty of Jews.
The phonies go to the Sochnut or the German embassy with papers that show a possibly Jewish name in their background, and sometimes they leave with emigration papers, but the situation is not as bad as it was.
I was in Moscow for Pesach three years ago. The shuls were giving away matzah and wine to anyone who came and asked for it. A brother and sister from a small village came to get Pesach supplies for their grandmother. By the time they arrived in Moscow, after an 8-hour train ride, it was already Friday night and the matzah counter was closed. My son, who was shliach, invited them to stay for Shabbos. They said their grandmother would be worried about them, so they took the train back to their village and then came back again the next day and picked up their matzah and grape juice for their grandmother. This brother and sister were not even Jewish but just look at the dedication and devotion they had for their elderly Jewish grandmother.
And was she even Jewish al pi halacha? I doubt it – unless the shaliach is a real pro which some of them are after being scammed one time too many. I also helped give away Pesach food – and had I, the pro (not a shaliach but someone who knows all too well about scammers), not been there, we would have seen half the food for sale on the street the next day.
In 1948, when Golda Meir, as the Foreign Minister of Israel visited Moscow, thousands of Jews came out to see her and wave to her. She stated to the large crowds, “Thank you for remembering that you are Jews” (in Yiddish).
Mr. Macher. Of course theyre scammers. they will steal the shirt off your back,and try to sell it back to you the next day. The problem arised when the so called jewish and goyishe russians( they call themselves Russian, not christian) all came here in the 1970’s together. Lots of them are goyim ,but they dont wear the crucifix in the open ( even though i have found some that do wear it UNDER their shirt) for fear that people will find out,and out em in public as goyim. Which makes it harder for them to get all the jewish programs. So they
act it out as jews,because most frum yidden ( including myself) think of a russian emigre as a yid. I”ve met some who look jewish and even speak a perfect yiddish,wear a hat or cap all of the time,( one of my former employees) and only years later when he died,did I find out that he was a goy. and had a goyishe burial. And i never suspected that he wasnt jewish. In short, you cant trust any russian,most of em are scammers,hell I know. I ve employed them for over 25 years,and have seen itt all. These guys perfected the art of the scam. And to the baal tshvuvas, and the frum ones, my hats off to them.kol hakavod.