Siberian Myth in the Jewish History: Jews of Siberia as a Religious Group

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze the religious practices of Siberian Jews in a broad Jewish context. It presents a review of the religious life of the Jews isolated from traditional centers, with a focus on the models they were guided by in developing their communal life and the ways in which they maintained their connection with the Jewish world. The research is primarily based on the analysis of Jewish periodicals and the material culture of Siberian Jews (synagogue buildings, Jewish cemeteries, and ceremonial objects). The authors contest the view of Siberian Jews as a unique group, widespread in historiography, as untenable. Siberian Jewry developed within the framework of the modernized model, common in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other cities outside the Pale of Settlement as well as among Jews in large cities of the Pale. The forms of religious observance in Siberia are similar to those typical for regions and cities with a rapid pace of modernization of the Jewish population.