Purim may be rainy or sunny in Israel and even snowy in the northern United States, but the 15,000 Jews in Birobidjan in Russia’s Far East celebrate Purim knee-deep in snow. The Jewish Agency’s emissary in Birobidjan organized a Purim party, and the Agency’s emissary Pavin Girin reported that one child dressed up as Avigdor Lieberman, the Russian-born Knesset Member and leader of the Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu) with a sign in Russian declaring, “Da Lieberman.”
The Jewish Agency oversees activities for the Jewish community in Rusia's Far East. Ever since the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, Jewish Agency emissaries have worked with local Jews wanting to make Aliyah (immigrate to Israel). Its first-ever synagogue was opened in 2004 in a building that includes a Sunday school.
The Birobidjan community began in the 19th century and flourished at the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century when the Trans-Siberian railway was built, with Jews being expelled to labor camps in the area.
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s nationality policy in the 1930s allowed for the Jewish population to receive the territory in which to pursue its Yiddish cultural heritage and established the "Jewish Autonomous Region," a "homeland" for Soviet Jews. It was the modern world's first administered territory designated for the Jewish people.