Russia is a multi-national and multi-ethnic state with over 100 nationalities, 21 republics and 18 autonomous regions. Covering 6.6 million square miles, Russia has a population of 150 million, including approximately 635,000 Jews, the third largest Jewish population in the world.
Russia is undergoing a profound political, economic and social transformation. Over the past five years, Russia has been struggling in its transition to a market economy, and many democratic institutions and practices are not yet fully developed. Labor resources are shifting from industrial output, which the Soviet Union emphasized, to an output derived from a balanced amount of production, trade and services. Though incomes have been growing recently for the first time since the beginning of the transition, due to a drop in inflation and a stabilized exchange rate, income disparities have risen sharply, with about 23 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Official unemployment was 9 percent by the middle of 1996. Many strikes and other forms of civil disturbances have occurred as the result of unpaid wages, which has lowered public confidence in reform. General standards of living have declined, and organized crime is active in many areas of the economy.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Jewish communities all over Russia have been working to reestablish religious, social and cultural life, creating somewhat of a Jewish revival in the region. Many small Jewish institutions have been formed in the past few years, over fifty in Moscow alone. Overall, Russian Jewish life is not well coordinated and is dispersed around the country, though the Russian Vaad, a grassroots umbrella organization, has united many Jewish groups since the Gorbachev period. The Israeli government also has a network of aliyah centers and Jewish camps. The Chasid Lubavitch movement maintains an extensive network of rabbis, synagogues and schools.
During 1996, a new philanthropic organization formed, the Russian Jewish Congress (REK), backed by Russia's main Jewish bankers and business leaders, in particular Vladimir Gusinsky of Most Bank in Moscow. The purposes of this organization are unclear, although it has pledged to support Jewish communal life, including charity donations.
About half of all Russian Jews live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which houses one of the world's largest synagogues. In over 60 cities across Russia, smaller Jewish communities exist and are active in creating smaller-scale versions of similar Jewish institutions. Some Jewish buildings and synagogues, confiscated under Communist rule, have been returned to the community by the Russian government. For example, the largest synagogue in Siberia (in Omsk) was rededicated in May 1996.
However, a Moscow editor recently told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), "There is no [Jewish] community in Russia. The old community that was more like a ghetto has gone. A new one is not built yet." JTA reports that the median age of a Russian Jew is 50 and that intermarriage rates surpass 65 percent. According to recent surveys, only five to ten percent of Russian Jews participate in Jewish communal life. Many Jews in Russia and elsewhere in the FSU know little about Judaism. Over the past few years, many have become prey to missionary "Messianic Jews"-groups like Jews for Jesus-which have held huge festivals to convert participants to accept Jesus as the Messiah.
In April 1996, six Jewish community leaders met with President Clinton during his visit to Moscow and expressed their human rights concerns.
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