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(JTA) — An exodus of Jews from Russia since President Vladimir Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine has drawn widespread consideration over the past 12 months. However based on statistics launched lately by Russia’s official statistics bureau, the nation’s Jewish inhabitants had fallen sharply lengthy earlier than the tanks started rolling.
The statistics, revealed final month by Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service, confirmed that simply 82,644 folks recognized themselves as Jews on the nationwide census, carried out in 2021.
One other almost 2,000 folks recognized with associated classes reminiscent of Mountain Jews (from Azerbaijan and the Caucasus Mountains), Israelis residing in Russia, Georgian Jews, Bukharian Jews (from Uzbekistan and Central Asia), Karaites and Krymchaks (from Crimea), based on the Russian-Jewish information outlet Lechaim.
In distinction, Russia’s earlier census, carried out in 2010, confirmed almost 160,000 individuals who recognized as Jews or belonging to the the associated teams — suggesting a decline by greater than half over the past decade. Throughout the identical interval, Russia’s whole inhabitants grew by 3.5%.
The one Jewish teams that did see an increase, based on Lechaim.ru, have been Karaites — a seventh-century breakaway sect from rabbinic Judaism — and Krymchaks. Each populations have been traditionally concentrated within the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, that means that they might not have been a part of the 2010 census in any respect.
The numbers don’t account for the mass exodus of Russian Jews because the onset of the battle in Ukraine, estimated to be greater than 20,000 within the first six months after the invasion. The exodus means that Russia’s Jewish inhabitants might whole fewer than 60,000 folks.
A majority of the Russian Jews who left seem to have emigrated to Israel. Based on the Jewish Company, which facilitates immigration to Israel, some 66,800 Russians made aliyah between 2010 and 2019. The group is dealing with sanctions over its work within the nation, as a part of Putin’s crackdown on foreigners in retaliation for Russia’s isolation on the world stage since initiating the unprovoked battle.
The flood of Russians and Ukrainians making their technique to Israel within the final 12 months has triggered a battle there over immigration guidelines that let anybody with a Jewish grandparent to say citizenship. These guidelines imply that not all the new immigrants from Russia have been more likely to have recognized as Jewish on the nation’s census.
There could possibly be different Russian Jews who weren’t captured by the census. Lechaim famous that 17 million folks left their nationality clean or recognized themselves as having no nationality — a transfer that Jews, whose nationwide id could be difficult in no matter nation they reside, is likely to be inclined to make in a rustic with a comparatively latest historical past of state antisemitism.
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