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"Papa Joe" Stalin's motivations weren't
altruistic.
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Today, Birobidzhan is undergoing
an odd transition of sorts. With pere-
stroika and the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the Jews there suddenly found
they could explore their Jewish identi-
ties in ways not permitted under
Stalin's no-less-Stalinist successors.
Today, students can take Hebrew
and Yiddish lessons, as well as Jewish
culture classes at schools and rwo insti-
tutes in town. Most of the Jewish pop-
ulation has left for Israel, Europe or
the United States, and by some esti-
mates, only 3,000 of the some 40,000
Jews who lived in Birobidzhan in its
heyday remain.
But Strom shows us a panorama of
this small community, with a young
rabbi and schoolchildren and student
teachers who are eagerly absorbing
Yiddish. (And why not? After all, it's
the official language.)
In the end, the documentary asks us
to consider whether the J.A.R. was a
Yiddish. utopia or a Jewish reservation?
and
nd his wife, EC-bairn writer-
producer Elizabeth Schwartz, think it's
both.
"It's historically significant as a
Jewish state founded on Yiddish secu-
larism," Schwartz said. "But it's also a
bit like the fake TV suburb in the film
Pleasantville, where everythin-g seems
perfect but reality starts to bleed
through."
Strom, nevertheless, maintains his
youthful fascination with what he calls
"the first Jewish state established since
70 BCE."
"These were pioneers who made
aliyah to the end of the world," he
said. I 1
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3/28
2003
72
Of SOUTHFIELD
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Lrhayirn, Comrade Stalin screens
7:30 p.m. Monday, March 31, at
MONO Pa 6B 67
BROOKDALE
the Detroit Film Theatre at the
Detroit Institute of Arts. $6.50.
(313) 833-3237.