"The Jews who are leaving this city are leaving for one reason: economics," says David Waiserman, a city administrator and author of "How it Was," a history of the Jewish Autonomous Region. "They got a call from somebody in Israel who said 'Hey, Moishe! Get over here and have a look at this place! They got nice cars here, and great food!' So the people go.
"But my parents built this city. They are lying in its graveyard. How can I just pick up and go? This is where my roots are."
All their belongings already in transit, Roma and Zina Rosenberg (above) wait for their October departure date and the beginning of a new life in Israel. Roma, an unemployed factory worker, makes no secret of why he and his family are emigrating: "It's 100% for economic reasons. I've been unemployed for six months, my wife's been unemployed for a year and a half, my son can't find work. Every second person in this city is out of work. The factories are closed.
"What else are we supposed to do?"
From the very beginning, Birobidzhan and the Jewish Autonomous Region
were places shot through with contradiction. Soviet Jews, who were suffering
through a wave of pogroms and anti-semitism, were given the land around
Birobidzhan in 1927 -- more than 20 years before the establishment of the Israeli
state (the Jewish Autonomous Region was not declared until 1934). But the land
they were given was inhospitable: unsettled territory with a very cold climate,
thousands of miles from European Russia, and with no infrastructure to speak of.