Russia is |
Peoples of Russia
Jews
Their self-designations are Yehudim (Hebrew), Yid, Idn (Yiddish). Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jews called themselves Azhkenaz. They live in many countries of the world. Since 1948, there is a Jewish state of Israel.
Language
In this atlas, the Russian Jews are conditionally classified as belonging to the German language branch, since for a long time their native language was Yiddish – an Ashkenazi ethnolect that developed in Germany in the 10th-12th centuries on the basis of Middle High German dialects with extensive borrowing from Hebrew, Aramaic as well as Slavic languages. Currently the native language of the absolute majority of the Russian Jews is Russian. In the 2002 census, Yiddish and Hebrew (the modern Jewish language of the Semitic group of the Afrasian family) were included in a single row. There are about 30 thousand people in Russia who speak these languages (one or both).
Food
The particularities of the traditional Jewish cuisine were mostly determined by the kashrut, a system of religious food prohibitions. It is forbidden to eat meat and dairy products together, to eat pork and many seafood products. Popular dishes are stuffed fish, broth with knodels (dumplings made from shredded matso), tzimmes (carrots with dried prunes stewed in fat).
Occupations
In the Russian Empire from 1791 to 1917, the so-called Jewish Pale existed, with Jews not being permitted to settle outside of it. The lands within the Jewish Pale were those that are now mostly outside of the Russian Federation. Living outside of the Jewish Pale was permitted for merchants of the first guild, for Jews who graduated from universities, for nurses and for those who had served in the army by recruitment. Within the Jewish Pale, it was forbidden to the Jews to work in agriculture. For this reason, the percentage of craftsmen (tailors, shoemakers, etc.) and small merchants was fairly high. In the 20th century, the professional structure of the Russian Jews changed radically. A significant number of them are engineers, doctors, teachers and university lecturers, academic researchers, many found their life’s work in literature, arts, journalistsm, culture, law, etc.
