History of the Jews in Russia
The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, the largest Jewish museum in Russia. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Israel | 1,500,000 |
| US | 350,000 |
| Germany | 178,500 |
| Russia | 83,896 according to the 2021 census |
| Australia | 10,000–11,000 |
| Languages | |
| Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism (31%), Jewish atheism (27%), Non-religious (25%), Christianity (17%) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Ukrainian Jews, Belarusian Jews, Lithuanian Jews, Latvian Jews, Czech Jews, Hungarian Jews, Polish Jews, Slovak Jews, Jews in Siberia, Serbian Jews, Romanian Jews, Turkish Jews, Crimean Karaites, Krymchaks, Georgian Jews, Mountain Jews, American Jews | |
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| Jews and Judaism |
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The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world. Within these territories, the primarily Ashkenazi Jewish communities of many different areas flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of antisemitic discriminatory policies and persecution, including violent pogroms.
Many analysts have noted a "renaissance" in the Jewish community inside Russia since the beginning of the 21st century; however, the Russian Jewish population has experienced precipitous decline since the dissolution of the USSR which continues to this day, although it is still among the largest in Europe.