Birobidzhan

American  

[bir-oh-bi-jahn] / ˌbɪr oʊ bɪˈdʒɑn /

Or Birobijan

noun

1. the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, in E Siberia, in the SE Russian Federation in Asia, W of Khabarovsk.

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Birobidzhan British  

/ birəbidˈʒan /

noun

1. a city in SE Russia: capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Pop: 77 250 (2002)

2. another name for the Jewish Autonomous Region

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Example Sentences

Birobidzhan City Court records contain no information about a criminal case against him, though there is a record of a non-criminal case of “petty hooliganism” submitted on 20 June.

From BBC • Aug. 24, 2024

Much later on, he takes a look around Russia’s oblast, or province, of Birobidzhan, “nothing less than the modern world’s first Jewish homeland.”

From Washington Times • Nov. 9, 2015

Judah also travels to Birobidzhan, the improbable Soviet Jewish homeland on the border with China, and finds no sign of a feared Chinese demographic invasion.

From Newsweek • Feb. 28, 2015

In Birobidzhan, close to the Chinese border, Judah finds the Chinese are already farming Russian land.

From The Guardian • Jun. 27, 2013

Last month French Journalist Serge Groussard asked Khrushchev about reports that even in Stalin's old Jewish colony of Birobidzhan in eastern Siberia, Yiddish signs, schoolbooks and newspapers are no longer to be seen.

From Time Magazine Archive