search
Siberia
A group of Jews from Irkutsk inside the synagogue. (Eli Itkin/ Dorit Wagner/The Jewish Community of Irkutsk)
November 17, 2018, 3:51 am
Jews of former Cossack fort Irkutsk mark 200 years of prosperity and persecution
Founded by a band of liberated Jewish Cantonist soldiers in 1818, this small Siberian community has donated to communal causes worldwide — and been threatened with expulsion
By Rossella Tercatin
Smoke rises above a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia on March 25, 2018. (Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations photo via AP)
March 26, 2018, 5:29 pm
Russian shopping mall fire kills 64 including children
Investigators said emergency exits were blocked, security guard turned off PA system, fire alarms remained silent
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA
Russian chief rabbi Berel Lazar, right, with Baruch Ramatsky, holding the Torah scroll Ramatsky's family has kept hidden for the last 90 years, inside the synagogue of Tomsk, February 1, 2018. (Courtesy Chabad of Tomsk)
March 16, 2018, 2:00 pm
In frozen Siberia, a small Jewish community is unthawed
On the day an ancient synagogue is returned to the Jews of Tomsk by the Russian government, the caretaker’s grandson reveals the Torah scroll his family kept secret for 90 years
By Yaakov Schwartz
The Soldiers Synagogue in Tomsk Russia in January, 2018 (Cnaan Lipshiz/JTA)
February 1, 2018, 2:46 pm
Siberian synagogue built by former child soldiers returned to Jewish community
Chief rabbi of Russia to hold ceremony in Tomsk completing transfer of one of the only wooden synagogues worldwide
By Cnaan Liphshiz
A view of Surgut, Russia, in 2009 (CC-BY SA Mariluna/Wikipedia)
August 19, 2017, 4:57 pm
IS claims Siberia stabbings, but Russia skeptical
Islamic State says attacker who wounded 7 is one of its fighters, but officials say he was a local resident
By AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin sunbathes during his vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. (AFP Photo/Sputnik/Alexey Nikolsky)
August 5, 2017, 7:09 pm
Putin cultivates strongman image in Siberia
In latest feats of manliness, Russian president fishes in camouflage wetsuit, rafts and even catches some rays while on holiday
By AFP
From left: Iya Rott, Valentin Chernykh, Vadim Chernykh, Svetlana Chernykh, Vladislav Chernykh, Petr Chernykh, Vladimir Rott, Taisya Chernykh in Jerusalem, May 2017. (Renee Ghert-Zand/TOI)
May 24, 2017, 11:53 am
Why did a Russian Orthodox family restore a Siberian Jewish cemetery?
After memorializing the Jews who once lived just north of the Mongolian border, the Chernykh family is brought to Israel by Toronto Jews as token of thanks
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Illustrative photo of a Russian Ilyushin plane, similar to the one that crashed in Russia on Monday, December 19, 2016. (CC-BY SA, Kirill Naumenko, Wikimedia Commons)
December 19, 2016, 9:59 am
16 Russian soldiers injured in Siberia plane crash
Three of the wounded said to be in critical condition; harsh weather conditions believed to have downed plane
By AFP
In this photo dated Tuesday, Nov, 29, 2016 the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with the Progress MS-04 cargo ship is installed on a launch pad in Baikonur, Kazakhstan/ (Oleg Urusov/ Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service photo via AP)
December 1, 2016, 10:57 pm
Russian unmanned space ship burns up after launch
Third botched space launch by Russia in past two years; cargo ship was intended for International Space Station
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA
Moses Breaking the Tables of the Law (1659) by Rembrandt. (Wikipedia)
April 22, 2016, 6:14 pm
Moses statue gets cold shoulder from Siberia rabbi
Chabad envoy Eli Riss, who serves as Birobidzhan’s chief rabbi, denies backing plan he says violates halachic ban on idols
By JTA
Illustrative visualization of a long-extinct animal known as the Siberian unicorn, or the Elasmotherium sibiricum (YouTube screen cap)
March 30, 2016, 7:39 pm
Humans, ‘unicorns’ may have walked Earth together
Elasmotherium sibiricum was thought to have vanished 350,000 years ago, but discovery of well-preserved skull indicates more recent extinction
By AFP
In this March 6 , 2014 file picture, the Berlin Philharmonic has named Siberian-born conductor Kirill Petrenko as its next chief conductor one of the most prestigious posts in the world of classical music.(Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP,file)
June 28, 2015, 11:05 pm
Berlin’s new Jewish conductor met by anti-Semitism in German press
One website calls Russian-born Kirill Petrenko, philharmonic’s first Jewish conductor, ‘the tiny gnome, the Jewish caricature’
By JTA and AP
The synagogue in Omsk, Russia (photo credit: JTA/ Ezra Nathan)
September 3, 2014, 11:49 pm
Russia orders Siberian Chabad rabbi out of country
Asher Krichevsky has 15 days to leave, accused of illegally selling alcohol; others claim political motivations
By JTA
Mabel Dwight, 'Danse Macabre,' lithograph, c. 1933–34. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 1995.5. Hitler is depicted in the suit of armor.
June 8, 2014, 4:23 pm
Northwestern U. exhibit draws on Birobidzhan propaganda
The folio of Jewish artists’ works that helped promote the controversial Russian Jewish homeland is on view till June 22
By Menachem Wecker
Diving instructor Nikolai Brodskii, a member of the Jewish community in Irkutsk, Russia, whose Malaysia Airlines flight to China went off the radar early Saturday morning. (photo credit: Sval Diving Club)
March 9, 2014, 8:19 pm
Chabad reaches out to family of missing Malaysia passenger
Irkutsk resident Nikolai Brodskii, married father of two, among those feared dead after flight MH370 disappears
By Yifa Yaakov and AP
Load More
Join us!
A message from the Editor of Times of Israel
David Horovitz

For as little as $6 a month, you can help support our independent journalism — and enjoy an ADS-FREE experience, as well as special benefits and status as a Times of Israel Community member!

Read more

The Times of Israel covers one of the most complicated, and contentious, parts of the world. Determined to keep readers fully informed and enable them to form and flesh out their own opinions, The Times of Israel has gradually established itself as the leading source of independent and fair-minded journalism on Israel, the region and the Jewish world.

We've achieved this by investing ever-greater resources in our journalism while keeping all of the content on our site free.

Unlike many other news sites, we have not put up a paywall. But we would like to invite readers who can afford to do so, and for whom The Times of Israel has become important, to help support our journalism by joining The Times of Israel Community.

So join now - and for as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel website ADS FREE on desktop and mobile, as well as special benefits and status as a Times of Israel Community member.

* The ADS-FREE experience will still show sponsored content. It will become available on the TOI smartphone app in the near future.

Join the times of israel community Join our community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this