The
Subbotnik Information Exchange
(Cубботники,
Subbotniks)
....preserving
our Subbotnik heritage
Established 2005
(Last
updated June 13, 2016)
|
Welcome!
This Subbotniki.net web site is dedicated to research and information
exchange regarding the Subbotniks (Cубботники, Subbotniki):
Who are the Subbotniks?
The Subbotniks are/were Russian Christians who, after becoming literate
enough to read the Bible, became self-enlightened and broke away from
the Orthodox Church to live and worship according to the Laws of Moses
of the Old Testament. Some of these people eventually converted to
Judaism with a desire to immigrate to Palestine while those who did not
maintained their inherent Russian cultural heritage and identity.
"....
The Russian language maintains the useful distinction between Evrei, ethnic Jews,
and Judei,
followers of Judaism, simplifying the complex identity of this
religious community. Described as a “Judaizing Sect,” the Subbotniks
(“Saturday people” in Russian) were Christian Russian peasants who
dissented from Russian Orthodoxy and began to recognize Mosaic Law late
in the 18th century, observing the Sabbath, keeping kosher and
practicing circumcision."
Source: Jewish? No,
We’re Subbotniks. Welcome to Our Synagogue. Russian Sect Practices
Judaism — In a Way
Article
by By Maxim
Edwards published July 13, 2014 by The Jewish Daily Forward
|
This Subbotnik conversion phenomenon also affected Molokan Spiritual
Christian families living in the Trans-Caucasus regions of the Russian
Empire (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Eastern Turkey) in the late
19th century. Some of the Molokan families split along religious lines.
During the early part of the 20th century, many of this group of
Subbotniks immigrated to Southern California in the United States
alongside their Molokan "cousins". While living in Los Angeles, it is
reported than some additional Molokan families joind the Subbotniks. In
the late 1950's, the Los Angeles
Subbotnik congregation dissolved and ceased to exist with the remaining
membership assimilating into other faiths.
The majority of Subbotniks remained behind in Russia which morphed into
the former Soviet Union. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, most of
these Subbotniks moved back into Russia proper from the former Soviet
republics while some chose to immigrate to Israel. |
This
web site does not represent any organization, just individuals wishing
to promote knowledge and understanding about the Subbotniks. This
Subbotniki.net home page consists of an organized collection of links
to major articles and original content pertaining to Subbotniks around
the world, past and present. Please explore the
content here, and send us your comments or questions.
New material, links questions and comments are always welcomed
and appreciated.
NOTE:
The views represented by the content of external links contained or
referenced on this web site are not necessarily those of the
Subbotniki.net web site coordinators but are included only to present
the wide range of views surrounding the Subbotniki so that all this
information can be viewed in context.
|
Web Site Guide
|
Click on any of the topics to go directly to that content.
|
Purpose of this website: Prior to the launch of this web
site (April 4, 2005), there was no central source of information on the
Subbotniki, nor was information on this Russian religious sect easy to
find. As a descendant of Subbotnik and Molokan parents in America, I
have always wanted to better understand my religious and ethnic
heritage. I can remember that my Pivovaroff babunya [grandmother]
who was Subbotniki and my Babashoff babunya who was
Molokan practiced their religions in different ways and on different
days, but beyond that, there were many similarities between them.
I have been told by my Subbotnik ancestors that they did not consider
themselves to be Jews and
originally did not even call themselves Subbotniki. While
living in Russia, they met in secret in a member's basement to avoid
detection by government authorities and the Orthodox Church. They
simply referred to their group as t he
congregation that met at so-and-so's house. The moniker Subbotniki was laid
upon them by the outside community due to their observance of the
Saturday Sabbath as prescribed in the Old Testament. After immigrating
to Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th century, they referred to
themselves as Russians or Russian Americans. There was a contention
between the Subbotnik and the Jewish communities and between the
Subbotniks and the Molokans as described in my Subbotnik
Research Report.
I am pleased to present the information on this website which I
maintain with Andrei Conovaloff, who hosts a similar site about
Molokans — Molokane.org.
I am grateful for his support, without which this site could not be
launched. My goal is to promote understanding and to encourage others
to share what they may know about the Subbotniks. Since the Subbotniki
have essentially ceased to exist as organized congregations,
except in a few pockets of the former Soviet Union, I feel it is
important to document what we have found so far.
|
1. Subbotniki (Cубботники) —
An Introduction
|
Russian:
Subbotniki —
субботники.
English: Saturday
Sabbath Keepers.
Subbotniki
is the name given to a Russian Sabbath-observing sect — “Saturday
people” — "Sabbath keepers" — “the people of the Law of
Moses” — non-Jewish Russians who obey the Old Testament, hold services
on Saturday, and follow many Jewish laws and customs. They are not to
be confused with other Sabbath-keepers or Sabbatarians, like
“Seventh-Day Baptist,” Church of God, Seventh-day Adventists, etc. (See
The
Sabbatarian Context
discussion below on this web site.) Other
spellings:
"Subbotnikim"
in
Israel,
"Subotnik",
"Subbotnick",
"Sobotniki".
Several references in Russian and other source material label members
of this sect as Judaizers
as opposed to calling them Jews.
The term Judaizers
can be defined: "... predominantly a Christian term. According to the
Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions this term includes groups
such as Jewish Christians, Quartodecimans, Ethiopian Christians,
descendants of English Puritanism such as the Seventh-day Adventists
and others, who claim the necessity of obedience to the Mosaic Laws
which are found in the first five books of the Christian Old
Testament." The Russian Orthodox Church punished their heresy — Christian-
Judaizers.
Only a few Subbotniki congregations with dwindling numbers are known to
exist today in Israel, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan with some Sabbatarian congregations
found in Transylvania and Hungary. Some emigrated to Israel,
Europe and the US. See the Sekstanstvo
(Sectarian)
Bodies: Judaizing
Sects for a further discussion of the
classification of these sects.
Subbotnik
service in Vysokij,
Russia,
2005.
Subbotniki funeral in Los Angeles, USA, 1930's
See also photos in Armenia
and America.
For the purposes of discussion on this web site, members of the
Subbotniki sect can be broadly sub-categorized into two groups:
- “Molokan-Subbotniki” relates to
ethnic Russians who converted from the Molokan faith to Subbotniki,
but
- Did not adopt the Talmud as a basis of their
religious practices
- Continued to acknowledge their relationship
to the Molokan community despite of their religious differences which
sometimes divided family members
- Were not able to read, speak or understand
the Hebrew language
- Some followed the Molokans when they
emigrated to Los
Angeles around 1910. More recently, some
Molokan-Subbotniki living in the independent republics on the Former
Soviet Union have resettled near Molokan communities in Stavropol,
Russia
- “Geres / Gers” (Russian: Gery [геры])
relates to ethnic Russians who adopted all aspects of Judaism and have
closer affiliation with the Jews of Israel.
The primary focus of my research is the Molokan-Subbotniki. For a more
in-depth discussion of the Subbotniki sub-groups see the Subbotniki
(Judaizers) article by A. Shmulevich below. |
2.
The Subbotniki Research Report
|
|
The Subbotniki Research Report
with
photographs, maps bibliography and citations of additional resources
and references, by William
Abram Aldacushion (Алдакушин),
July 2000 — webmaster of this site.
Bill is a descendant of the dissolved Molokan-Subbotniki congregation
in Los Angeles.
Also available in PDF
version (2.8 MB)
|
3.
Subbotniki in Los Angeles
|
General Background and History
|
See also Chapter 6 of The
Subbotniki Research Report indexed above.
|
|
115 Subbotniki known to be buried
at Home of Peace Memorial Park
Short history of this Jewish cemetery in East Los Angeles used by the
Subbotniki congregation since 1911 with 115 deceased listed with vital
statistics, locations, comments and links to gravestone photographs.
|
The Russians in Los Angeles
By Lillian Sokoloff included in Studies
in Sociology published by the Southern California
Sociological Society, University of Southern California Press, March
1918 (Annotated by Andrei Conovaloff)
| "...Subbotniks
(Judaized
Russians)
...
are
Russians
who
have
embraced
the
Jewish
faith.
This
result
was
not
through
influence
exerted
on
the
part
of Jews, however, because the Jews do not have any form of mission work
for the purpose of conversion to Judaism; nor were there any Jews
living in that part of Russia where these religious sects developed.
The Subbotniks embraced Judaism as a result of reading the Old
Testament." |
|
In 1971, Los Angeles Subbotnik congregation dissolves, donates $800 to
UMCA
Article by Alex Tolmas, Vice President UMCA, 1971. |
The
Subbotniki: Secret Jews of Boyle Heights
Article by Rabbi William M. Kramer, PhD — Western States Jewish History,
Vol. 35, No. 2, 2000 |
Memories
and Music
Article by Roberto Loiederman — The
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, April 28, 2006
Efforts are underway to restore the Breed Street Shul
near where the Subbotniki congregation in Los Angeles once conducted
services. |
Couple
celebrates 70 years at ages 89, 92 - Daily Pilot
(Newport Beach, California), November 27, 2007 Updated June 13, 2016
Article about Morris Abram Pivaroff (son of a respected leader in the
former Los Angeles Subbotniki community) who maintained some of the
basic tenets of his religion within his family upon his marriage to his
beloved non-Subbotniki spouse Lillian.
| "Their
mothers
decided
a
few
months
before
the
scheduled
wedding
date
that
the
couple's
cultural
and
religious
differences
just
couldn't
be
ignored.
The
couple
was
young,
respectful
and
didn't
want
to
hurt
their
families,
so
they
ended their relationship. .... 'Well, here's how {we got back
together}," Lillian said. "He called me up after a couple of months and
asked me if we got married and had children, if it would be all right
if we raised them in his religion.'" |
Note: Morris passed
away in 2009 at the age of 93. He was born in Los
Angeles, graduated from Roosevelt High school, attended the University
of Southern California and served in the US Army during WWII. Morris
was a star tennis player in his day who once defeated the legendary
Bobby Riggs. His live-long for tennis culminated in the dedication of
the tennis center at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles which
bears his name. Morris' professional life included careers in banking
and real estate. See LMU Tennis Center Dedication. Lillian passed away in 2016 at the age of 98.
|
 Coach Abram "Abe" Abram Androff
Abe
Androff (May
13, 1921 - April 5, 2012) was the son of one of the founders and elders
of the Subbotniki congregation in Los Angeles and provided valuable
input and perspective for the content of this web site. His
father Abram (Sr.) was instrumental in arranging for the Subbotniki to
be buried in the Home of Peace Memorial Park as documented above. Abe
was a basketball star at Lincoln High School and the University of
Southern California, a US Army Air Corp flight instructor during WWII,
appeared in a cameo role in movie The Jackie Robinson Story,
and became a legendary basketball coach and educator at
Glendale College in California. In 2005 Abe was inducted into the Glendale College Athletic Hall of Fame.
"In a career that
spanned 24 years as the men’s basketball coach at Glendale College as
well as stints as the head golf coach for six years and as an assistant
coach for the football and baseball teams, Androff found success not in
wins and losses but in helping young people achieve their goals."
|
|
Relationships with Molokans
|
See also Chapter 6 of The
Subbotniki Research Report indexed above.
|
|
Judaizers
Encyclopedia
Judica
| "Simeon
Uklein
...
introduced
many
Jewish
customs
among
the
members
of
his {Molokan} sect. His disciple Sundukov called for greater
association of the sect with the Jews; this resulted in a split within
its ranks and the creation of the 'Molokan Sabbath Observers'. ... The
Judaizers succeeded particularly in the province of Saratov, where the
preacher Milyukhin won over whole villages to his faith."
|
|
A
Christianized Tribe of Jews near the Caspian Sea. Article
appearing in Sacramento Daily Union on January 9, 1873 NEW! item added July 7,
2014
| "A
peculiar sect of the Greek Catholic Church live in the neighborhood of
the Caspian Sea under Russian dominion, and bearing the name of
Shabotnics [Subbotniki]. The following account, published in the
Israelite, is the first correct and reliable statement given of them.
It is by a Subbotnik, who became a Jew: ...... in the
government of Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov and Voronezh, about 7,000
Subbotnik's are still living, of whom, however, only 2,000 to 3,000 are
descendants of the immigrants. The balance consist of original
Christians [Molokane], who joined them, as they considered the
celebration of Saturday more in accordance with the Bible."
|
|
Some
Subbotniks Immigrated to America Together with Molokans:
The
two sects shared routes, ports-of-entry and sometimes traveled together
on same ships.
Passenger List
of Molokans and Subbotniks Arriving San Francisco on August 3, 1905
aboard the SS San Juan
from Ancón, Panama
Newspaper Account
of Earlier Arrival of Molokans from the Larger Group on June 5, 1905
aboard the SS San Juan from
Ancón, Panama
Passenger List
of Molokans Arriving San Francisco on August 25, 1905
aboard the SS Newport from Ancón, Panama
|
Molokans Petition against
"American, Catholic and Subbotniki bootleggers" in Los Angeles' Flats
during Prohibition
Excerpt from doctoral dissertation: Assimilation
Problems of Russian Molokans in Los Angeles by Pauline V.
Young, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, June 1930
| "Appeal to American
Social Agencies: The Molokans realize that their
children are often the prey to undesirable city influences over which
the Colony has no control. They, therefore, attempt to secure the
cooperation of various urban social organizations which they hope might
help them in eliminating the disorganizing forces to which immigrant
neighborhoods are generally subjected. American, Italian, and
Subbotniki bootleggers have a strong hold in the Flats. The Molokans
have appealed to the district attorney's office to help them stamp out
liquor from their Colony." (September 27,
1924) |
Editor's
Note: During
Prohibition, there was an exemption granted in the Volstead Act
providing for the manufacture and consumption of so-called “ritual
wine” used in Jewish and Catholic religious observances (sacrament,
weddings, funerals, Seder/Passover dinners, circumcisions, etc.). It
was inevitable that some of this product made its way into the broader
market for general consumption. See this article posted to the American
Jewish Archives for a more in-depth discussion of this topic: "Let Them Drink and Forget Our Poverty" -
Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition by Hannah
Sprecher
|
Ocherki
po istorii russkoi kul'tury (Essays of the history of Russian
culture)
Excerpt translated from: Miliukov, P.N., Volume 2 of 3. Moscow.
Reprinted 1994. Pages 126-7. [Original published in 1942.]
|
"Especially
numerous were judaizers in the Saratov region were this
unorganized sect had its own leader / preceptor [наставник —
nastavnik], Semyon Dalmatov."
|
|
Early Jumper Leaders Criticize
Subbotniki, original Molokans and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Comments on 2 passages from the
Jumpers' Book of the
Sun: Spirit and Life.
in which the Jumper leaders scorn the Subbotniki and all other 666
false faiths. |
70 Molokan families converted to
Judaism in Saratov, Russia, before 1925.
1946 interview with Mrs. Clara Adamovna, whose
Molokan family all became Jews.
Some Molokans
converted
to Subbotnik then Judaism. They lived in Central Russia, then offered
land in South
Ukraine (Milky
Waters), then in the Caucasus. They believed that Judaism is the right
religion and that Palestine (Israel ) is the "promised land". Many fled
illegally to ancient Palestine where their descendants are probably
today. A few may have come to America. Here is very little of this
history....
|
|
The Ukrainian Stundists and
Russian Jews: a collaboration of evangelical peasants with Jewish
intellectuals in late imperial
Russia
Paper by Sergei Zhuk (Ball State University) presented by at the 5th
International Postgraduate Conference held at the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies, University
College London, 2008
|
"...At the
end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the
Subbotniki movement spread to the south, to the new regions of Russian
colonization in southern Ukraine and northern Caucasus, where their
ideas of ‘Moses law’ and ‘Hebrew rituals’ affected local Molokans and
other religious dissenters. .....Some Molokans in Ukraine accepted
Sabbatarian religious practices, which transformed the entire Molokan
movement..." |
|
4. General Background
Information and Research
|
Comprehensive Books
and Research Reports
|
|
Gentile
Reactions to Jewish Ideals - With Special Reference to Proselytes
by Jacob S. Rasin, Published Posthumously under the Editorship of
Herman Halperin, Philosophical Library, New york, 1953
 This
comprehensive and seminal work is available in many
libraries. Used copies can be found for sale on several on-line
book stores. Pages 705 -723 deal with the origin on
Subbotniki and discuss the motivation of several individuals for
converting to these beliefs.
|
"In Russia,
Judaism, or some semblance of it, made its appeal not only to a few
individuals, but to whole groups, and today there are all over the
world hundreds of thousands of former Russian Orthodox Christians who
are strict observers of the religion of Israel. .... The number of
these Yudistvuyuschy, as they called themselves, was estimated at no
less than one hundred thousand while that of the Molokane and
Subbotniki, who in most instances were on their way to complete
Judaization, was assumed to be as high as two million. The reaction
which soon set in drove many of them under cover again, but many more
left their possessions, which were sometimes considerable and with
their families sought refuge in Canada, the United States, South
America, and Palestine. Of those who emigrated to America, over a
hundred families settled at Boyle Heights near Los Angeles, California." |
Click
here to open a PDF containing a scan of some sample pages.
|
Judaism and "Jewishness" as Other
in 19th Century Russia:The Conscription/Conversion
Policy of Nicholas I (now longer
available online)
Thesis by Joey Bacal, Department of Sociology & Anthropology,
Lewis & Clark College —
July 27, 1997
(Copies
of Senior Theses can be found archived in Watzek library and in the
department office.
|
Highlanders - A Journey to the
Caucasus in Quest of Memory Book by Yo'av
Karny, New York, 2000
 In Highlanders,
Yo'av Karny offers a better understanding of a region described as a
"museum of civilizations," where breathtaking landscapes join with an
astounding human diversity. Karny has spent many months among members
of some of the smallest ethnic groups on earth, all of them living
in the grim shadow of an unhappy empire.
|
"… the gist
of my story. It is not so much their {Subbotniks} choice of God that
intrigues me, as their doing so on their own terms. The Subbotniks
broke new ground in modern Jewish history: they demonstrated the
possibility of accepting Judaism without assuming Jewishness, changing
faith without changing nation. Many Jews, possibly a majority, perceive
themselves not merely ad coreligionists but as people ….. The
Subbotniks offered an alternative. Their switch to the God of the Old
Testament was entirely self-induced – no rabbis or “conversion courts"
… were involved. … They stepped out of the church they were repudiating
and into the temple for one reason: the Israelite creed appealed to
them." |
This journey
included a
1992 and 1995 visit with the the Subbotniki communities in Yelenovka
(Sevan), Armenia and
Privolnoye, Azerbaijan which are documented in his book. Click here to
peruse preview
sections of this work on Google Books.
|
Субботники
(Иудействующие) by Abraham Shmulevich
and Mark Kipnia as it appear online in Notes of Jewish History, Number
1 (50), January 2005
Subbotniki (Judaizers)
- rough, unofficial English translation (PDF)
This article presents a concise history of the Subbotniki movement on
Russia and concludes with a classification of the various factions or
branches of Subbotniki
"....There
were various and often incompatible Subbotniki factions (sub-sects)....
{which} can be categorized into two groups:
1. Actual Subbotniki (i.e. those who converted to Judaism) and
2. Christian sects complying with certain requirements and rituals of
Judaism.
The first
group includes:
* Subbotniki in the Kuban also known as Psaltirschikami ....
* Geres, also called Talmudistami or Shapochnikami ....
* Subbotniki-Karaimity .
The
Christian factions include:
* Subbotnik-Molokans .....
* Christian Subbotniki ...." |
|
Heretics
and Colonizers: Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus
by Dr.
Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Professor of History, Ohio
State University 2005 book
 From his 1998 PhD thesis
examining how the “harmful sects” (Molokans, Doukhobors, Sabbatarians)
were resettled to the Caucasus and their interaction with each other,
often changing membership for privileges.
|
"In Heretics and Colonizers,
Dr. Breyfogle explores the dynamic intersection of Russian borderland
colonization and popular religious culture. He reconstructs the story
of the religious sectarians (Doukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks) who
settled, either voluntarily or by force, in the newly conquered lands
of Transcaucasia in the nineteenth century. By ordering this migration
in 1830, Nicholas I attempted at once to cleanse Russian Orthodoxy of
heresies and to populate the newly annexed lands with ethnic Slavs who
would shoulder the burden of imperial construction." |
|
The Historical
Parameters of Russian Religious Toleration
Paper by
Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Professor of History, Ohio
State University for The National council for East European Research -
July 27, 2001
|
"...When I
use terms such as “sectarian,” religious “dissenter,” and
“non-conformist,” I am referring to the variety of what may be called
“indigenous” Christian sects – including, but not limited to,
Dukhobortsy, Molokane (Pryguny, Obshchie, Postoiannye, Dukhovnye), and
Subbotniki (Iudeistvuiushchie) – who, in the early- to mid-eighteenth
century broke away entirely from the Orthodox Church to embrace
different forms of theology and practice. I differentiate them from
“imported” Western Protestant sects such as Mennonites, Baptists, and
Pentecostals because of their Russian origin; and from Old Believers,
who considered themselves the true practitioners of Orthodoxy and did
not challenge the authenticity and authority of the Eastern Church in
its fundamentals. The religious beliefs and practices of these
“sectarians” were distinct in many vital respects and my study is
sensitive to variations in the experiences of each sect based on their
religious faith. Nonetheless, they shared certain commonalities:
complete and intense opposition to the Orthodox Church, refutation of
the need for priests and hierarchies (or any other mediators in a
relationship with God), belief in “spiritual” baptism rather than water
baptism, and abjuration of all externalities such as icons, incense,
and churches. ..." |
|
The Subbotniks
(PDF)
Article by Velvl Chernin published by The
Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and Strengthening Jewish
Vitality, Bar Ilan University - Faculty of Jewish Studies,
2007
"The following survey is based on fieldwork conducted between the years
2003–2005. It relates only to Subbotnik converts to Rabbinic Judaism.
Karaite Subbotniks {including Molokan Subbotniki}will be referred to
only when in contact with Subbotnik converts. |
Subbotnik Jews as a sub-ethnic
group
Article by Velvl Chernin published on
the Euro-Asian
Congress web site on February 18, 2011 - The Israeli
researcher Velvl Chernin reviews the current state of the communities
that still exist in the post-Soviet space.
This article provides an update to the current status of Subbotniks
following the five-part regional breakdown of the preceding article by
the same author. This article contains a very extensive bibliography
that should be useful to any one studying this religious sect.
|
|
Государевы
вольнодумцы. Загадка Русского Средневековья,
В. Г. Смирнов, Москва, 2011
Sovereign Freethinkers. A
Riddle of the Russian Middle Ages,
by
V. G. Smirnov, V.G. Moscow, 2011.
Heresy "Judaizers" is considered one of
the most mysterious phenomena of the Russian Middle Ages. Many
historians have wondered how in such a purely Orthodox country --
Russia in the XV century -- could have a heretical movement that seized
the highest circles of power, sow confusion in the hearts of ordinary
people and culminating indicative executions in urban areas? Historian
and writer Victor Smirnov tries to impartially understand this delicate
episode of Russian history, where politics is closely linked up with
religion.
A review
of this book in Russian was posted on labrint.ru
|
"...Smirnov presented
historical events clearly .. with many interesting details. ... the
book has some serious shortcomings . Copyright biased, and ...
moderately conservative. ... treats " Judaizers " .. as conspirators
and over-throwers of Orthodoxy. The author is inclined to give his
interpretation of events as fact. For example, the author writes in
detail about the controversy of "non-possessors" and "Josephites" about
church land at the Religious Council in 1503, while historians have
reason to doubt that this controversy was real. Much of the book has
extensive boring excerpts from the works of pre-revolutionary
historians and primary sources. However, this book is like -- beauty is
in the eye of the beholder..
..."
|
|
Research by the Russian Scholar
Aleksandr L'vov
|
|
E-mail
from Dr. L'vov, June 1, 2005
Alexander L'vov
specializes in research about the religion of Jews and Subbotniki at
the Center for Jewish Studies, European University, St. Petersburg,
Russia. Alexander’s web site: Researching the Russian
Jew
“Dear Bill,“Thank you
very much for your letter and your excellent web site. Recently I've
found and downloaded a newspaper article about the village of Iudino
(Siberia) and a short but interesting record about Privolnoye in the
published letters (in the letter of 13.10.1985) of Galina Starovoytova,
a famous Russian ethnologist and public figure (see attachments) [listed
below]. They are
from the database www.integrum.ru. And have
you seen my paper Emigration
of Judaizers to Palestine?“ All the
best, Alexander”
|
- Iudino
article: "Chosen place
on a creek bank"
- Galina Starovoytova letters
(PDF, Russian)
|
Sokha i
Piaitiknizhie. Russkie Iudeistvuiushchie kak Tekstual`noe Soobshchestvo
(Russian
summary page by the author)
A Wooden
Plow and Pentateuch. The Russian Judaizers as the Textual
Community
(English
summary page by the author)
by Alexander L'vov, Publishing house of the European
University at St. Petersburg, Russia 2011.
This monograph studies cultural
traditions of Russian Judaizers (Subbotniks) in the second half of the
18th – 20th centuries. It describes the history of Old Russian sects,
the Subbotniks as well as the Doukhobors and Molokans, and analyzes the
role of textuality in Russian and Jewish cultures.
"The
sects of Russian Subbotniks (Judaizers, spiritual Molokans,
Talmudic and others) emerged in the mid-18th
century, and from the very start, they were a real nightmare
for bureaucrats in the Synod, and governmental agencies that
took care of religious sects. Later, the Russian sects
researchers had a lot of pain with them, too. Despite
common religious practices of the Judaizers, this movement was
devoid of any center, and management, and it quickly
dissolved into many trends with their peculiar rites, and dogmas.
Bureaucrats and researchers could not make sense of those
weird sect members. Were they Russian with their Old Testament
religion, or were they Jewish outside of the Judaic
mainstream? Booknik reviewer Yevgeny Levin reads the monograph
by Alexander Lvov, and tries to sort
it out."
|
"There are
many versions about the origin of Russian Judaizers. ..... L'vov come
to the conclusion that all of these hypotheses seems to be wrong. The
new religious movement arose spontaneously as a result of "talking
about the divine" that the Russian peasants of the eighteenth century
practiced in private homes. As a result of these discussions, some
participants came to the denial of the New Testament and icons, and
began to consider the Old Testament, the only divine "law,"
|
|
"....
according to L'vov, there was another another important factor to
encourage Russian Subbotniks to get closer to normative Judaism: Being
a predominantly merchants and burghers, the Russian Jews had a higher
social status than the Russian peasants. Moreover, Judaism, as opposed
to "sects", admitted the State as a legitimate religion. So, in wanting
to be "real Jews", Subbotniki, among other things, sought to improve
their social status. "
|
|
Different, but not Quite
 "Among the numerous cultural theories,
there is this: In order to come closer to understanding the essence of
culture is much more important to study its marginal manifestations,
rather than mainstream. That is why the Eshkolot
project with the support of AVI CHAI Foundation,
studied three groups, at the fringes of Judaism (Spanish Marranos,
Sabbatarians and Subbotniki). Alexandr
L'vov discussed his experience and theories about the
Subbotniki and with this project. His comments are summarized in a
report on booknik.ru
|
"The
Subbotnik movement emerged in the XVIII century, and, like many
religious movements in Russia, owes its appearance to Peter I and
Catherine II. It all started with an attempt of the religious education
of the people.....So he launched mass production of religious and
educational literature.... "
|
|
Strategies of Constructing a
Group Identity: the Sectarian Community of the Subbotniki in the Staniza Novoprivolnaia
Article by Sergey Shtyrkov, Folklore, Vol 28,
Dec. 2004, page 91
STAVROPOL,
RUSSIA — L'vov
and Panchenko assist Shtyrkov with 14 hours of interviews with
Subbotnik elders taped in September 2000. 300 Subbotniki resettled from
Azerbaijan to this village where Molokans also live. They call
themselves: "Subbotniki", "Russians of the Mosaic Law" or "people of
the Mosaic Law", not Jews.
|
|
Jews and
Subbotniks: History of impact and stereotypes of perception
Paper
by A. L'vov, presented July 24, 2002, at the 7th European Association or Jewish Studies (EAJS) Congress:
"Jewish Studies and the
European Academic World"
|
Abstract —
My paper deals with a religious sect appeared in Russia at the end of
the 18th — beginning of the 19th c.. Soon this sect was widespread
among Russian peasantry. The sectarians were called ‘zhidovstvuyushchiye’ (Judaizers) or Subbotniks in
different official documents. They identify themselves with Jews, seek
to be in touch with Jews and to read the Jewish religious literature in
Russian and in Hebrew. A few of the sectarians have been adopted by
Jews, and a few of the sectarian congregations have preserved a
specific ethno-religious identity: neither Russian nor Jewish. They
consider themselves as pupils of Jews and many Jews came to Subbotniks’
communities as teachers. This sort of inter-ethnic relations looks like
a Jewish messianic ideal, but in reality there are many difference
between them. In particular the teachers of Subbotniks were those Jews
who happened to come to Central Russia, not only Rabbis and devotees.
The ideal model and real contact experience interaction have been
reflected in some folklore texts collected during several expeditions
in recent years. My investigation considers these texts in historical
and ethnological perspectives.
|
|
Иудействовать
и молоканить недозволено
или об
особенностях народной герменевтики
Страница
Александра Львова
Judaizers and Molokans are
Unlawful or,
About the Features of the National Germenevtiki
Article by Alexander L'vov —(To be translated from Russian.)
|
Геры
и субботники — «талмудисты» и «караимы»
Страница Александра Львова
Gery and Subbotniks —
“Talmudists and Karaimy” (.pdf)
Article by Alexandr L’vov — (Translated from Russian.)
|
Русские
иудействующие: проблемы, источники и методы исследования
Страница
Александра Львова
Russian
Judaizers: Problems, sources and methods of research (rough
English translation)
Article by Alexander L’vov
|
Subbotniki
Beliefs and Religious Practices in 19th Century Russia
|
|
|
Personal Reminiscences and
Impressions of historian N. Kostomarov while exile in Saratov
as published in The
Russian Peasantry: Their Agrarian Condition, Social Life and Religion
by S Stepniak, 1905
(See section starting on bottom of page 324}
|
"
... At last I was introduced ... to a Sabbatarian teacher ...In his religious views {he} was
a strict Unitarian. He recognized in Jesus Christ a great prophet, a
man inspired by God, as Isaiah and others had been. He believed in his
miracles, and even in his resurrection, but emphatically rejected the
dogma of his divinity. .... Of the Jewish law he recognized only the
written one. The posterior superstructure of Judaism was exceedingly
distasteful to him. He called the Talmud 'a collection of foolish
ravings.' .... "
|
|
The Sabbatarians of Hungary
by W. Bacher, The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890
|
"
... {They} observe the Sabbath and had their children circumcised. The
performance of Divine service, and the execution of other religious
practices they entrusted to the oldest and most learned men selected
from their own body. They deny the divinity of Christ, reject the
belief of the Holy Ghost, recognize no saints, and condemn the
reverence to images as idolatry. Their worship consists of readings the
Bible and singing the Psalms. For purpose of public service they
assemble in a dwelling-room, which they call "shool" (schola)......" |
|
BIBLE:
Russian and Ukrainian,
Jewish Virtual Library
|
"The
so-called Judaizing sects of the 15th century gave the strongest
impetus to the codifications of the Bible. Adherents of the sects in
Novgorod were in possession of a complete Russian Bible, and this moved
the archbishop Gennadi to compare the texts of the Greek Orthodox Bible
(Septuagint) with those of the Judaizers. .. Gennadi's great
achievement was to produce, for the first time in the annals of Church
Slavonic literature, a complete and unified text of the Bible
unconnected with the liturgy of the Orthodox church. .. The first
printed Psalter in Russian appeared in 1564–68. " |
|
Holy Dissent: Jewish and Christian Mystics
in Eastern Europe
By Glenn Dynner, 2011
|
"
.... The Subbotniki, like Jews, await the arrival of the Messiah, who
will collect all of them together in Palestine, where he will usher in
his Jewish kingdom [tsarstvo],
and himself be the tsar, making the rest
of the people the slaves of the Jews. ... " |
|
Miscellaneous References to Origins
of the Subbotniki
|
|
The Sabbatarians of Hungary
by W. Bacher, The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890
"As
regards the Russian Sabbath-observers, the so-called Sobotniki or
Subbotniki, we have to depend for an account of their origin and
present condition, on a few extremely scanty notices. They belong to
the Russian sect, Molokane or Milk-drinkers, one of the various sects
that arose, during the
sixteenth century, in those provinces of Southern Russia which were at
that time under the supremacy of the Polish crown, all of
which sects displayed a Judaizing tendency, a marked leaning towards
the Mosaic law. The Molokane, so runs the account given by a Russian
chronicler,1...."
1
Quoted by Hermann Sternberg,
History of the Jews in Poland (Leipzig, 1878), Ch. 23,
from which most of the information here adduced from Russian and
Polish sources is taken.
|
|
Judaizers
Encyclopedia
Judica
|
"JUDAIZERS:
persons who without being Jews follow in whole or in part the Jewish
religion or claim to be Jews..... During the second half of the 18th
century, sects of Judaizers and Sabbath observers appeared in the
interior provinces of Russia, as well as in the Volga provinces and the
northern Caucasus. Among the most prominent was the Molokan sect, which
broke away from the Doukhobors. .....The government even emphasized, in
special circulars issued by the ministry of the interior, that the
Sabbath observers were not to be regarded as Jews, and that the special
laws directed against the Jews did not apply to them."
|
|
The Ukrainian Stundists and
Russian Jews: a collaboration of evangelical peasants with Jewish
intellectuals in late imperial
Russia
Paper by Sergei Zhuk (Ball State University) presented by at the 5th
International Postgraduate Conference held at the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies, University
College London, 2008
|
“A
return to the Hebraic origins of the Christian faith and an emphasis on
the Jewish roots of Christian theology was a prominent feature of the
entire European Reformation. From medieval times Russian religious
radicals shared the same interest in the Judaic religious background of
the first Christian communities described in the book of the Acts of
the Apostles. So-called ‘Judaizers’ (‘Zhidovstvuiushchie’) of medieval
Russia emphasized the Judaic traditions of their Christian beliefs,
including the celebration of the Sabbath rather than Christian Sunday. Later on, during
the eighteenth century in central provinces of European Russia, their
ideas and religious practices laid a foundation to the religious
movement of ‘Subbotniki’ (‘Sabbatarians’), who changed their holiday
from Sunday to Saturday, introduced circumcision and denied the
universal authority of the Orthodox Church hierarchy..
”
|
|
Sekstanstvo (Sectarian)
Bodies: Judaizing
Sects
A classification of sectarian bodies that appears on the The
Byzantine
Forum
- Discussing the
Christian East sponsored by the Byzantine
Catholic Church in America. posted on July 13,
2008.
|
“Judaizing Sects
describes the bodies that rejected trinitarianism and looked to the Old
Testament for inspiration in formulating their dogma, doctrine, and
praxis. .... While the labels attached to these sects suggest influence
by Jews or an effort to turn their adherents toward Judaism, most
adherents had little or no real-life exposure to the religious
observances of the Jews, and, instead, relied on the Bible as a
guidebook to craft a religious (and sometimes secular) lifestyle that
was reminiscent of such. ... ”
|
|
A Crash
Course on the Subbotniki
Article by Anne Herschman in Kulanu, Volume 9,
Number 3, Autumn 2002, page 13. (PDF)
|
“...there
are
now
about 10,000 to 15,000 Subbotniki left in the Former Soviet Union. Most
of them are elderly and they are unfortunately a dying breed. There is
a community that lives in Yitav, the Jordan valley (Israel), which has
about 30 families. ... ”
|
|
Where
Is the True Church? Information on Churches and Sectarianism
Part
II: Sects and Heresies in Russia, by Bishop Alexander
(Mileant)
|
Another
secret sect was 'Jewish-like.' ... The preaching of Skaria attracted
many people ... this sect was outlawed and its followers were scattered
into various prisons. From surviving members of this sect grew a new
sect under the name of "Saturday People." [who]... appeared in the 18th
century; they celebrated Saturday, instead of Sunday and acknowledged
only the Old Testament. Some even practiced circumcision according to
Jewish tradition. Emperor Nicholas I banished them all to the Caucasus
[sic] Mountain region."
|
|
|
|
The Sabbatarian Context
|
|
General Background Information on
Sabbatarianism
The
term Sabbatarian
generally refers Christians who observe the Sabbath from sundown Friday
to sundown Saturday rather than Sunday and/or those who follow of the
Mosaic laws and traditions as a dominant part of the group's religious
practices and observances. This section of the Subbotniki Information
Exchange web site is dedicated to exploring and understanding general
information relating to Sabbatarianism in order to place the Subbotniki
within this context. |
The weekly Sabbath: is it to be
Saturday or Sunday? From the ReligiousTolerance.org
website managed by the Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Since the name or label given to the Subbotniki is derived from the
Russian word for Saturday to highlight the difference in their
observance of the Sabbath from the Russian Orthodox Church, this web
article provides a useful background perspective on this distinguishing
issue of religious observance.
| "
...There appears to be no consensus on whether Jesus, his disciples, or
apostles celebrated the Lord's Day on Sunday. There seems to be no
internal evidence that would justify the Christian church changing the
day from that commanded in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old
Testament). However, in later centuries, moving from Saturday
to Sunday certainly was beneficial if for no other reason than to
improve the security of Christians by distancing Christianity from
Judaism in the eyes of the government..." |
|
5.
Subbotniki Around the World
|
| Armenia |
- Sevan
(formerly know as Yelenovka)
[north shore of Lake Sevan, population 23 in 2001]
|
|
Highlanders
- A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory
Book
by Yo'av Karny,
New York, 2000
In Highlanders, Yo'av Karny offers a better understanding of a region
described as a "museum of civilizations," where breathtaking landscapes
join with an astounding human diversity. Karny has spent many months
among members of some of the smallest ethnic groups on earth, all of them living
in the grim shadow of an unhappy empire.
This journey
included visits
in 1992 and 1994 with the the Subbotniki community living in Yelenovka
(now called Sevan), Armenia.
| "They were
all ethnic Russians, with Russian looks and Russian names, they spoke
only Russian, and their prayer books were exclusively in Russian. The
entire scene would have been indistinguishable from that of any other
group of peasants gathered in a Russian Orthodox church on a Sunday –
but not for the fact that the day was Saturday, and no crucifix or
icons of Russian saints were to be seen, and the man and women prayed
only to the father, never to the son."
|
|
The
Last of the Saturday People
Article by Frank Brown, The
Jerusalem Report. Nov. 19, 2001. pg. 72 |
Jews in Armenia:The Hidden Diaspora
(PDF)
Thesis/article
by Vartan
Akchyan
Summary of
page 83: “The
People of the Sabbath” relocated in the 1730s from central
Russia (Tambov, Saratov, and Voronezh) to build their own town of
Yelenovka, now Sevan, on Lake Sevan. This was 100 years before Molokans
and Doukhobors came. Their beliefs are based only on the Torah though
they are ethnically and linguistically Russian. Ancestors had their own
synagogue, rabbi, and prayer books which were translated from Hebrew to
Russian. Their song melodies are similar to Molokan-Jumpers.”
|
|
Jews in
Armenia: The Hidden Diaspora
Thesis/film
by Vartan
Akchyan 2002, DVD/video, 25 minutes, $46
|
History and
existence of the Jewish community in Armenia. Made in the summer of
2001 in Armenia, Israel, and the US. — Includes 3.5 minutes of
interviews and services with the Subbotnik congregation and leaders in
Sevan, Armenia (formerly: Yelenovka village). Subtitles: English,
Russian, Hebrew, Armenian, English
|
|
Small community in Armenia
strives to preserve its heritage
"Round the Jewish World" article by Yasha Levine, JTA. Sept
7, 2006.
| SEVAN,
Armenia —
"Mikhail Zharkov, the 76-year-old leader of Armenia’s tiny Subbotnik
community, says only 13* of the 30,000
people living in his small alpine town of Sevan are Subbotniks. There
are three men and 10 women, and all are nearing the age of 80." [*Down from 23 in 2001, see
above.] |
|
Jewish? No,
We’re Subbotniks. Welcome to Our Synagogue. Russian Sect Practices
Judaism — In a Way
By Maxim Edwards Published July 13, 2014 by The Jewish Daily Forward
| ".... The
Russian language maintains the useful distinction between Evrei, ethnic
Jews, and Judei, followers of Judaism, simplifying the complex identity
of this religious community. Described as a “Judaizing Sect,” the
Subbotniks (“Saturday people” in Russian) were Christian Russian
peasants who dissented from Russian Orthodoxy and began to recognize
Mosaic Law late in the 18th century, observing the Sabbath, keeping
kosher and practicing circumcision....Scholar Nicholas Breyfogle noted
the unusual situation whereby Jews, as members of a recognized — albeit
repressed — religious minority, were allowed to maintain places of
worship. But the Subbotniks, regarded as a heretical sect, saw their
worship houses closed down regularly under czarist law forbidding the
activities of such groups." See
Breyfolge's work referenced on this web page
|
| " .... They
{the Subbotniks} were joined there {Armenia} by two dissenting
Christian groups with earlier origins — the Doukhobors and the
Molokans...... A few thousand Molokans live in tight-knit agricultural
communities in Armenia to this day, sharing their story of exile with
the Subbotniks. 'On the Sabbath, our day of rest, the Molokans would
bring us fresh milk,' one Subbotnik recalled. 'On Sunday we returned
the favor.'....."
|
| " ....
86-year old Maria Solovyova remembered well, when some 2,000 Subbotniks
lived in Sevan. {during 1920's}.... {She} recognizes only Russian names
for Jewish festivals: Purim is termed the Festival of Mordechai; Yom
Kippur the Day of Forgiveness. Passover for Subbotniks was doubly
significant — a communal reminiscence of their ancestors’ arduous
journey to Armenia from Central Russia, as well as the Jews’ departure
from Egypt. Hanukkah, however, is irrelevant. 'We never celebrated it,”
Solovyova said. “The story of Hanukkah concerns ethnic Jews — and we
are Russians. We are Subbotniki.'....”
|
|
|
Australia
|
|
Editor's note: Although the Australian community
organization referenced in his section uses the name "Subbotnik,"
participation is notexclusive to Subbotniki as defined in the rest of this
web site, and there is no evidence that Subbotniki actually participate or not. The
items are included here only for general information and completeness.
Subbotniks Melbourne
Community
"Welcome to Subbotnik
Melbourne Community introducing monthly Shabbat Dinners for the
Russian-Speaking (and Russian-feeling) Jews in Melbourne!"
|
|
A
Russian Shabbat
Article by Sarah Bendetsky
in J-Wire (
Jewish Online News from Australia, New Zealand and world-wide) — April
27, 2015
"Over 75
people have participated in the very first communal Shabbat Dinner for
Russian-speaking Jews in Melbourne called Subbotnik* Held at
the Yeshivah Centre building in East St Kilda, the volunteer-driven
Shabbat Dinner united families and singles, children and seniors,
religious and secular, and everyone else in between.......
*Subbotnik –
a Russian term for volunteering action commonly held on Saturdays."
|
|
Azerbaijan
|
- Privolnoye
& Navtlug [south],
Kuba [north]
|
|
Expedition
to Azerbaijan in June 1997
Article by V.A.Dymshits — Petersburg
Judica. Analysis of 2 Jewish-like villages in
Azerbaijan — 1997
Improtex Travel
- a private group tour operator in Azerbaijan offering ethnographic
excursion in settlements of former Russian immigrants-sectarians:
Chukhur Yurd, Hilmilli and Astrakhanovka / Gizmeydan / - Molokans, and
also in Nagarakhana / Maryevka, Kirovka / - Subbotniks and
baptists.
|
Highlanders - A Journey to the
Caucasus in Quest of Memory
Book
by Yo'av Karny,
New York, 2000
In Highlanders, Yo'av Karny offers a better understanding of a region
described as a "museum of civilizations," where breathtaking landscapes
join with an astounding human diversity. Karny has spent many months
among members of some of the smallest ethnic groups on earth, all of them living
in the grim shadow of an unhappy empire.
This journey included a 1995 visit with the the
Subbotniki community living in Privolnoye, Azerbaijan.
| "The
Subbotniks of the Caucasus were by no means a cohesive group. Having
come to life spontaneously, they often evolved independently of each
other, at times entirely unaware of each other’s existence.
Accordingly, their degree of immersion in the new faith, or
renunciation of the old varied. The Subbotniks of Yelenovka {Armenia – see above} remained
staunchly Russian, and as a result were often confused with the
Molokans or even referred to as a Molokan subgroup. Those of Privolnoye
moved farther: there the division was not between Subbotniks
and Molokans but between Subbotniks and geyrim (Hebrew for
“coverts’) – that is, Subbotniks who decided to go all the way to
Judaism. Their embrace of Jewish law went beyond the Bible to include
Talmudic law, and in some cases it led to emigration to Palestine. The geyrim I met,
however, were Jewish only in a religious sense."
|
|
Село Привольное в нашей памяти (in Russian) Web site Links:
Includes personal video of a walk through the village of Privolnoye in 2007 including a visit to the cemetery/
|
|
Improtex Travel
- a private group tour operator in Azerbaijan offering ethnographic
excursion in settlements of former Russian immigrants-sectarians:
Chukhur Yurd, Hilmilli and Astrakhanovka / Gizmeydan / - Molokans, and
also in Nagarakhana / Maryevka, Kirovka / - Subbotniks and
baptists. |
|
Strategies
of Constructing a Group Identity: The Sectarian Community of The
Subbotniki in the Staniza Novoprivolnaia
by
Sergey Shtyrkov of Minsk, Belarus.
The article appears as a PDF on the Estonian
Folklore web site. The paper considers mechanisms of identity
constructions based on field recordings made in 2000 with members of
the Subbotniki community from Privolnoye and Navtlug, Azerbaijan after
they emigrated and resettled in the Stavropol region of southern
Russia.
| "In the
last decades of the 20th century some Subbotniki came back to Southern
Russia and organised their communities in larger poly-confessional
villages where they made up a minority. In these new circumstances the
Subbotniki recognise their identity as an uncertain one regarding their
ethnicity as well as religiosity – they are both Russian and Jewish,
neither Russian nor Jewish. To escape this uncertainty Subbotniki try
to find “others” who can confirm the particular identity of their
group."
|
|
|
Belarus
|
- Kosachevka,
Rodion and Kostyukovka,
Yekaterina: Two villages that were once in Belarus, Mogilovskaya
Oblast, Klimovicheskiye Rayon. Now in Russia, Smolenskaya Oblast
Roslavl Rayon.
|
|
The
Ageyev Family
Web link contributed site by Ilan
Guy (Ageyev), Ashdod, Israel
|
"I
am a descendant of a Russian family who converted to Judaism in 1921
and moved to Palestine together with a few more families. I am very
much interested to investigate the reasons and the events which made my
grandfather Rodion Trafimovich Ageyev decide to make such a change in
his life. I have created this Internet site which tells
the story of my Russian family......" {click
link above to read more}
|
|
Researching
Family History in Subbotniki Communities of Kemerovo or Bolotnoye,
Russia
| Brisbane,
Queensland Australia — "My name is Olga Savina-Taylor.... I
would love to ask anyone who knows any ... details about the Subbotniki
community in Kemerovo, or in Bolotnoye please to let me know. Also any
personal accounts on travelling through Kirghiz Steppes to reach
Siberia would be much appreciated......{My grandfather's} name is Savin
Elisey (or Elisei) Ivanovich. He was born .... very close to the Polish
or Belorussian border. He came from a Subbotnik family." See full
article for more details |
|
The
Kalmyk-Cossack Subbotniki: "The Khan's Warriors" convert while living
in Belarus
Contributed by Dror Vaikhansky, Mishmar Haemek,
Israel dvi@mh.org.il
November 2013
|
"My name is
Dror Vaikhansky/Voikhansky, and I would like to know if you have heard
about the Kalmyks who converted to Judaism in Belarus during the early
19th century? I am a descendant of such a Kalmyk family, and I think
that their conversion was part of the phenomenon of the
Subbotniks. I am in the midst of the investigation of
this amazing story....." {click link above to read more}
|
|
|
Bulgaria
|
|
|
|
The Sabbatarians of Hungary
by W. Bacher, The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890
"..It
appears that during the persecutions of the first half of this century,
numerous Subbotniki wended their way westwards and settled on the
Bulgarian banks of the Danube. Dr. Bares, Imperial Ottoman Physician
for Quarantine, writes from Tultscha,under date 29th May, 1869 (in
Phillippsohn'As llgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 28th year, p. 398):
'In
the vicinity of Silistria live many Sobotniki, partly scattered, partly
together in considerable numbers; here in Tultscha reside several
families, who were formerly Sobotniki, but who have since become Jews.
In their homes they use the Russian language, and they speak
Jiidish-Deutsch very imperfectly. Most of their wives are born Jewesses
(daughters of Jewish Poles), a few are born Sobotniki, who have
embraced Judaism'"
|
|
|
France
|
|
Vichy Law and the Holocaust in
France
written by Richard H. Weisaberg in 1996.
{Vichy refers
to the puppet government that administered the parts of France that
were not formally occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. The
Vichy government attempted to follow some form of constitutional law
when it came to determining who was to be considered Jewish for
purposes of exclusion and eventual deportation. }
Four
Subbotniki were living in France at the time of the start of World War
II. The Vichy Council General on the Question of Jews (CGQJ) first had
considered them to be Jews. A CGQJ official named Ditte maintained that
|
“...These
little ‘Mosaic’ groups could not be distinguished one from the other,
at least not in a manner convincing to his agency...”
|
A lawyer listed as LaPaulle represented the Subbotniks in an appeal to
keep the Subbotniks from being considered Jews although they practiced
the Jewish religion. In making his case, Lawyer LaPaulle cited the
precedent of Russian law that had exempted Subbotniks from Soviet
anti-Semitic measures although acknowledging that the group had
"Judaizing tendencies.” His argument stressed the religious
distinctions between Subbotniks and Jews. LaPaulle professed:
|
"....The
best proof that Subbotniks are in no way a Mosaic sect is that they
accept the New Testament, which is totally rejected by the Jewish
religion....”
|
|
|
Georgia
|
|
|
|
The
Sabbatarians of Hungary
by W. Bacher, The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890
|
"....
1 Compare also a communication
from B. Schewzik in 'he Jewish Chronicle of 5th April, 1889. In the
Judisrtees Literaturblatt of Dr. Rahmer (1890, page 22). I found the
notice that three hundred Sobotniki families live in Tiflis. capital of
Georgia and Caucasus; they possess a beautiful synagogue,administered
by a Rabbi named Krawcow..."
|
|
Iran
(Persia)
|
|
|
|
Light
Through the Shadows: The True Life Story of Michael Simonivitch
Beitzakhar
Excerpts about Subbotniki and Molokans in Persia/Iran
Translated and Edited by Daniel V. Kubrock [from Beitzakhar's Russian
manuscript] — 1953.
|
Israel
|
|
- Beit
Shemesh [20 miles west of Jerusalem]
- Hula
Valley (to 1980s) [south end, 10 miles north of Sea of
Galilee, 2 miles west of Golan Heights]
|
|
- Tel
Adashim
- Yesod
Hama'alah (early 1900s) [Galilee]
- Yitav
[6 miles north of Jericho]
|
|
|
Russian Jews who don't drop out
(PDF)
Article by Carl Alpert in The
New Jersey Jewish Standard— July 31, 1987
|
"In recent
years only two out of every ten Jews leaving the Soviet Union
have been coming to Israel. The remainder drop out at Vienna
and proceed for the most part to the US. There is one exception to
this. The descendants of Russian converts to Judaismism,
some of them third- or fourth- generation Jews, who succeed in getting
out of Russia come straight to Israel - all of them. There has not been
a single case drop-out, among the dozens who have reached this country,
and all of them appear to have been absorbed and integrated
successfully." |
|
Cheese
to Please
Article by Ava Carmel in The
Jerusalem Post — Jerusalem, Aug 9, 1991
|
"Ten years ago the second
generation moshavniks would never have imagined that one day they would
be producing authentic French cheeses. Avi's grandparents, who came
from Russia and Yemen, had the honor of being among the first "mixed"
marriages in Israel. [Michal Brakin] is a physiotherapist, whose
Subbotnik grandparents walked to the Holy Land from their native
Russia, then converted to Judaism."
|
|
A time to remember: The
Subbotniki of Russia (PDF)
Article by David C Gross in The
Jewish Week — NY, Aug. 23-29, 1991
|
"Among
the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who have immigrated to Israel
in recent years are a purportedly tiny number of descendants of the
Subbotniki, a sect of Russians dating back to the 18th century....Some
Subbotniki a century ago joined the early Zionist pioneers in Galilee
colonies; over time they were completely absorbed by the
Jewish population. Probably the same thing will happen to the
new Subbotniki arrivals in modem Israel."
|
|
An
Early Russian Immigrants' Farm: Subbotniks Brave Malaria in Hila Swamp
Article by Aviva Bar-Am in The
Jerusalem Post — Jerusalem, Sept. 26, 1991 |
Rejected
Article by Yossi Klein Halevi in The
Jerusalem Report — Aug. 21, 1997
|
Subbotniks
were hated and beaten in Russia, but after moving to Israel their
Jewishness was questioned.
|
|
Abandoned
in the Jordan Valley
Article by Ari Ben Goldberg in The
Jerusalem Report.— Nov. 19, 2001
|
Subbotniki
were moved from Russia to Israel and placed in the West Bank where the
Palestinians hate them and they get no help from the Israeli government.
|
|
The
Dubrovin Farm: The Subbotniks
Gems in Israel: Spotlighting Israel's Lesser Known Tourist Attractions
and Travel Sites, the Gems April/May 2000. Map
|
SOHULA
VALLEY — “The Dubrovin family came .. from the Astrakhan region of
Russia in the early 1900's. They were Subbotniks (Hebrew: sobotnikim)
... After their conversion, they took Hebrew names; ...Yo'av and his
wife, Rachel. They dug a well, began farming the land and were quite
successful, ... most of their children succumbed to malaria from the
nearby Hula swamps. ... Yo av, was 104 at the time of his death — and
the family never left the site. The last family member to live on the
farm, Yitzhak, gave the farm to the Jewish National Fund, which
restored the site and opened it as a tourist attraction [in 1986].
There is a reconstruction of the Dubrovin's living rooms, kitchen, ...
An audiovisual program in English. ... a working potter, a blacksmith
display and a non-kosher restaurant, ...”
|
Joyce Bivin, a Molokan-Armenian who lives in Israel reports:
|
“Around
the 1920's, a group of Subbotnikim came to Israel [from Russia] and
settled in the Hula Valley.” This is the farm of one family.
|
She also says:
|
“Years
ago when I shopped at a certain supermarket, nearly all the cashiers
were Russian and lived in Beit Shemesh (...30 minutes west of
Jerusalem). I asked one of the girls if they knew about the Molokans
(some have vague ideas) and after I described who they were, she said
there were a group of Subbotnikim living in Beit Shemesh and described
them having blond hair (why that was unusual, I don't know as most of
the Russian immigrants are blond anyway). I was very excited to hear
this but never followed up not knowing which section of Beit Shemesh
they lived. ... I'll start asking again.”
|
|
Subbotnik prayer book from Beit Shemesh
NEW! added February 11, 2016 |
Israel
takes up the repatriation of "Subbotniks"
News agency Cursor:
News of day — Mar. 22, 2005
Израиль
приступает к репатриации «субботников»
Информационное агентство Cursor: Новости дня
— Обновлено 22.03
20
Subbotnik families from Vysokij will be "repatriated" by Israel
according to Michael
Freund.
|
*
Vysokij is a vilage in
Voronezh Oblast, Russia and is highlied in a separate Vysokij section below.
|
Saving
Russia’s Subbotnik Jews
Jewish World
— May 22, 2005:
|
"Over
a dozen Subbotnik Jews from Vysokij, Voronezh] moved to Israel
last month and settled in the Beit Shemesh area outside of Jerusalem."
|
|
Panel: Bring in 10,000 Subbotniks
Article by Nina Gilbert in The
Jerusalem Post — June 21, 2005
| Members
of the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee called on Interior
Minister Ophir Paz-Pines on Monday to use his authority to allow into
the country some 10,000 "Subbotniks" |
|
Russia's New Refuseniks
Blog entry on Think-Israel Blog-eds Posted by Michael Freund, October
3, 2007
|
The Plight of Subbotniks
— Jewish Russian
Telegram, November 25, 2008
|
The
Jews left behind in Russia Thousands of
Subbotnik Jews being refused permission to move to Israel
by
Michael Freund Nov 27, 2008 in Israel
Opinion
| "Nearly
20 years may have passed since the fall of the Iron Curtain, but it
appears that there are still plenty of people who would like to
continue to apply some of the more dubious policies employed by the
Soviets. Throughout Russia, there are thousands of Subbotnik Jews being
refused permission to make Aliya. Only this time, it is none other than
the government of Israel that is refusing to permit them to immigrate." |
|
Retracing
the journey of Russian Jewish converts to Israel Article by Eli Ashenazi
appearing on Haaretz.com
on January 30, 2012
Descendants of a
group of Russian Christians who converted to Judaism and immigrated to
Israel 110 years ago remember their ancestors' path.
|
"In
September Stepman-Shmueli organized a meeting of about 100 descendants
of Subbotniks from the Russian village of Solodniki*. Since then they
have begun to plan a journey to the village from which the "Kurakin
convoy" set out for Israel, leaving behind its Christian past, devoutly
adopting Judaism and moving to a new country. Now, after many years
"which were characterized mainly by silence about the past," according
to Stepman-Shmueli and her partner in the project Eitan Kurakin, "a
strong longing has awakened to return to the village and to see where
it all began."
|
* Solodniki
is a town belonging to the community of Astrakhanskaya
Oblast, Russia |
Landver: Russia’s Subbotnik
community should make aliya
Article by Sam Sokol appearing in the The Jerusalem Post - March 10,
2014. Link submitted by Gavin
Archard who lives in Israel.
|
"Immigration
and Absorption Minister Sofa Landver pledged to promote the aliyah of
members of the Russian Subbotnik community during an interview with
Israel Radio on Sunday. .... Landver’s words come on the heels of a
similar statement by Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, who told
attendees at last month’s Ashdod Aliya Conference that 'the State of
Israel must hold its doors open to those who wish to join the Jewish
people.'"
|
|
Fundamentally
Freund: Here come the Subbotnik Jews Article by Michael
Fruend, The Jerusalem
Post, March 10, 2014 NEW!
added April 10, 2014
|
 Meet the Subbotniks - from Russia to Israel
Article appearing in Arutz Sheva
on December 26, 2014. Article includes link to video describing the
background of Subbotniki in Russia and focuses on a group of
Subbotniks now living in Beit
Shemesh near Jerusalem. The video displays several
photographs of Subbotniki living in Russia in early ot mid 20th
century..
|
Poland
|
|
The Sabbatarians of Hungary
by W. Bacher, The Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1890
"As
regards the Russian Sabbath-observers, the so-called Sobotniki or
Subbotniki, we have to depend for an account of their origin and
present condition, on a few extremely scanty notices. They belong to
the Russian sect, Molokane or Milk-drinkers, one of the various sects
that arose, during the
sixteenth century, in those provinces of Southern Russia which were at
that time under the supremacy of the Polish crown, all of
which sects displayed a Judaizing tendency, a marked leaning towards
the Mosaic law. The Molokane, so runs the account given by a Russian
chronicler,1...."
1
Quoted by Hermann Sternberg,
History of the Jews in Poland (Leipzig, 1878), Ch. 23,
from which most of the information here adduced from Russian and
Polish sources is taken.
|
|
The
Jewish Community in Subotniki
by Kazimierz Niechwiadowicz translated by Jan Sekta
|
Russia
|
- Bondarevo
/ Iudino
[Khakassia, 1800s]
Borisogleb Raion [Voronezh, 1964]
- Essentuki
and Prohlodnensk [Caucasus
before WWII]
|
- Staniza
Novoprivolnaia
[population: 300, Stavropol' territory]
- Rasskazovo
and Michurinsk [Tambov,
1959]
- Staraia
Zima [Siberia before WWII]
|
|
|
History
of Religious Sectarianism in Russia (1860s-1917),
A. I. Klibanov. 1966. (translated 1979)
|
"The
population of was primarily sectarian — Molokan, Subbotnik, and
Kristovover — and this village had a reputation of being 'the sectarian
capitol'." (pages 397-8) "My encounter with Subbotniki in Rasskazovo
Raion of Tambov Oblast during 1959 and in Borisogleb Raion of Voronezh
Oblast during 1964 confirmed my opinion that we are dealing with
followers of Judaism who give primary importance to its rituals and
customary side." (page 46)
|
|
Субботники
(Иудействующие) Added
Sept. 27, 2005
Авраам Шмулевич, Марк Кипнис — КЕЭ, том 8, колонка 635-639
(To be
translated from Russian.) |
Современное
Состояние Сектантства в Советской России,
English: A modern Condition of
Sectarianism in the Soviet Russia,
Н.А. Струве.
("Вестник РСХД", 1960 г.) (To be translated from
Russian.) by N.A.Struve. (Bulletin RSHD,
1960); translated in Religion
in the USSR, Munich, July 1960, Series 1, No. 59
|
Before
WWII
Subbotnik worship was marked in Siberia (Staraia Zima), in the Caucasus
(Essentuki, Prohlodnensk) and in the Western Kazakhstan. Subbotniki
exist in a small numbers in Tambovschina (30 in the city of Rasskazov,
15 in Michurinsk). The number of Subbotniki was not great before the
Revolution (37,173 in 1900).
|
|
ASTRAKHAN OBLAST (PROVINCE)
|
- Astrakhan',
Golossov
(1918)
- Astrakhan',
Liman
[north shore of Caspian Sea]
- Aleksandrov,
Astrakhan guberniya (1810's)
|
Jewish community of Astrakhan
FJC—The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
|
ASTRAKHAN,
RUSSIA — “... a large group of Gers ... Molokan
Subbotniks... who .. came to adopt Jewish practices ...converted to
Judaism. ... The Gers owned a mill and lived prosperously ... By 1880,
there were ... about 2000 Gers. In 1905, Gers established a prayer
house and a mikvah. ... In the late 1940s, many Gers suffered from the
state repression and their prayer house was closed in the 1950s. The
Gers reside in the village of Liman until this very day and sometimes
visit the Ashkenazi Synagogue. Despite their relative poverty, they
always bring gifts for the synagogue. ..”
|
|
Hebrews of the Russian Steppes
Article by Eliezer Schindler
in the United
Israel World Bulletin, Union, NY Mar-Apr, 1947. The writer
of this article, Eliezer Schindler, while a prisoner of war during the
first World War, came in close contact with many converts to Judaism
of the Kirghiz Steppes in whose midst he spent the greater part of his
forty months in Russia.
|
"The
majority ... reside in the Kirghiz-Steppes along the banks of the Volga
and the Caspian Sea. ... steppes of the Saratov-Astrakhan provinces.
... the Caucasus and in Siberia. Nearly all ... are agriculturists,
smiths, carpenters and plumbers. Only a few are merchants and traders."
|
|
From Astrakhan to Galilee,
by Yoav Regev, published in Hebrew by Ahiasaf, 2009
 A review
of this book A review of this book appeared on booknik.ru
(no longer available online)
"One day in
September 1997, Israeli news began with a terrible message. During the
operation, Marines in Lebanon, IDF, Israeli commandos approached the
subject of terrorists, "Hezbollah", hit a minefield. In the explosion
and died in a shootout twelve men, including commander of the
operation, Colonel Yossi Kurakin. The unusual name of the officer who
had displayed in his last fight exceptional heroism, has attracted
worldwide attention. It quickly became clear that Kurakin - comes from
a family of Russian Subbotniks who joined the Jewish people, and moved
to Eretz Yisrael more than a hundred years ago."
|
Of
the 29 first families in Galilee, four were Gere families (among them
part of the family Kurakins) in Beit-Gan lived thirteen representatives
of Russian families (the other branch Kurakins, Nekrasov, Egorova,
Filippova, Sazonova, Grodnyanskie, Dubrovin and others); .... They were
known as hardworking, stubborn in a good and brave people. ..... But
the main thing - to realize the dream of the old Kurakin: he and his
descendants have become part of the Jewish people.."
|
|
The
Kalmyk-Cossack Subbotniki from Astrakhan: "The Khan's Warriors" convert
while living in Belarus NEW!
item added December 27, 2013
Contributed by Dror
Vaikhansky, Mishmar Haemek,
Israel
|
"My name is
Dror Vaikhansky/Voikhansky, and I would like to know if you have heard
about the Kalmyks who converted to Judaism in Belarus during the early
19th century? I am a descendant of such a Kalmyk family, and I think
that their conversion was part of the phenomenon of the
Subbotniks. I am in the midst of the investigation of
this amazing story....." {click link above to read more}
|
|
The Historical
Parameters of Russian Religious Toleration
Paper by
Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Professor of History, Ohio
State University for The National council for East European Research -
July 27, 2001
| "......The
case of Subbotniks living in the town of Aleksandrov, Astrakhan
guberniya, in the early 1810s reflects the legal and social problems of
multi-confessional living. Half of the merchants and lower-middle-class
townspeople in Aleksandrov were Subbotniks. The Caucasian provincial
administration complained in the 1810s that because they held to the
law of Moses, the Subbotniks “refused to fulfill community duties on
Saturdays, such as the transport t of state provisions, the sending of
convicts in stocks, the giving of wagons, etc.,” and refused to swear
oaths of allegiance to the Tsar." |
|
SIBERIA
& RUSSIAN FAR EAST
|
- Bondarevo
/ Iudino
[Khakassia, 1800s] Subbotniki
founded Iudino
village (now Bondarev),
Khakassia territory. In about 1800s settlers from Voronezh, including
the most famous Subbotnik: Timofei
M. Bondarev who wrote a book, corresponded with Tolstoy,
and was honored with the village name and in 2005 with a monument.
- Staraia
Zima [Siberia before WWII]
|
Святая, как хлеб, деревенька моя: К 80-летию
Бейского района и 175-летию села Бондарево
ХАКАСИЯ
Республиканская газета
KHAKASIYA Republic
Newspaper, Feb. 2004
|
Избранное место на берегу речки
Красноярсий
рабочий ; 27.02.2004 ; 36 ; Нина БОГДАНОВА.
by Nina
Bogdanova, The
Krasnoyar Worker, 27 Feb. 2004, page 36
|
Bondarev and Tolstoy
Excerpts from: Leo
Tolstoy and the Canadian Doukhobors: an historical relationship,
by Andrew Donskov, University of Ottawa, 2005
" .... The
text of Tolstoy′s treatise Tak chto
zhe nam delat′? [What
then must be done?] (1886) includes a powerful call for moral
regeneration. He wrote:
'Over my
whole lifetime two Russian thinking people had a profound moral
influence on me; they enriched my thought and clarified my world-view.
These people were not Russian poets, scholars or preachers — they were
two remarkable men who are still alive today, having lived their whole
lives by the sweat of their brow — the peasants Sjutaev and Bondarev.'.
..... It is
also significant that the two peasants mentioned were both sectarians:
Vasilij K. Sjutaev (1820—1892) was well known to Tolstoy and
contemporary writers, while Timofej M. Bondarev (1820—1898), who
belonged to the Sabbatarians (a splinter group of the Molokans, which
had earlier broken away from the Doukhobors) carried on an extensive
correspondence with Tolstoy from 1885 until his death in 1898."
|
|
Юлия
Улыбина, СМ Номер
один, Иркутск,
№22 от
9 июня 2005 года
(Link contributed by Sergey Petrov -
Dept. of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in
Mar. 2006.)
|
...
representatives were directed to Zima with the mission to find out what
relationship Subbotniks there have to Judaism and how they observe
Judaic traditions.....Irahmielju Nemzer, a participant in the
expedition, does not know what conclusions were made by the Jewish
Agency. However from her understanding of religious law, it was not
possible to prove that these Subbotniks are a part of Judaism.
|
|
В
селе Бондарево Бейского района состоялось открытие памятника Тимофею
Бондареву
Москва, 06 октября 2005, НИА-Хакасия
Dedication of a monument to
Timofei Bondarev took place in Bondarev village, Beisk region
(English translation) Moscow, 6 October 2005, NIA-Khakasiia |
Толстой
и Иудино, Илбек Хакасстан — 27 Май 2009 (4 письма
Толстого к
Bonderev и 10 заметок)
Tolstoy and Iudino,
By Ilbek Hakasstan — May 27, 2009 (4 letters from Tolstoi to Bonderev
and 10 notes
|
Researching
Family History in Subbotniki Communities of Kemerovo or Bolotnoye,
Russia
| Brisbane,
Queensland Australia — "My name
is Olga
Savina-Taylor.... I would love to ask anyone who knows any
... details about the Subbotniki community in Kemerovo, or in Bolotnoye
please to let me know. Also any personal accounts on travelling through
Kirghiz Steppes to reach Siberia would be much appreciated......" See full
article for more details |
|
Политические репрессии в Аскизском районе
Хакасии (1920-1950) 7. «Иудинское дело»
From the Krasnoyarsk Memorial Society, Russian Federation (memorial.krsk.ru)
| " .... The
Assistant Attorney General of Krasnoyarsk (krai) Territory supported
the accusations ... while the defenders... are 12 men who are active
and irreconcilable enemies of the socialist system. One of them is a
bandit, and all the others are kulaks. All 12 men are sectarians of the
'subbotnik' sect. ..."
|
| " .....E.D.
Bogdanov (a collective farm shepherd, had 4 children from 1 to 17 years
old) was charged with 'spreading anti-Soviet propaganda in
the form of counter-revolutionary limericks (chastushki) in most
obscene and offensive manner against the leaders of the All-Union
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Soviet government.'...."
|
|
История села
Бондарево
Использована
работа Байкаловой Н.И. (ученицы Бондаревской СОШ) 
|
Бондарев Тимофей Михайлович - Сибирский
философ и просветитель.
|
3000 Subbotnik Jews in Irkitsk? Article by Brian Bloom appearing on Shavei Israel websiste on October 12, 2015
"Of Irkutsk’s 30,000 residents, it is believed that at least ten percent
of them are Subbotnik Jews or their descendants."
|
|
| Kalmyk
proselyte women living with Jewish husbands in Russian Siberia
- Information and links provided by Kevin Brook
Editor's note:
Although there is no data to substantiate the extension of
this
phenomenom to other religious exiles, it may indeed be applicable to
Subbotniks, Molokans and other sectarian males who found themselves in
similar circumstances while living in Siberia.
Eastern
Siberia
Article
by Anna E. Peck on page 241 of The Modern Encyclopedia of Religions in
Russia and the Soviet Union, Volume 7 edited by Paul D. Steeves,
Academic International Press, 1997
| "As
with many other minority religious groups, there was a surplus of
males in the population. This created legal and religious problems
regarding the creation of families. In 1817 the governor general of
Siberia, Ivan Pestel, received approval from Petersburg to permit the
importation of non-Christian women from Asian frontier countries and to
allow their conversion to Judaism so that they could become wives of
Jewish men. In practice it was mostly Kalmuk women who were bought,
converted, and married."
|
Siberia
Article in Encyclopaedia Judaica (2008 edition) by Yehuda Slutsky,
| "Since
Siberia was outside the *Pale of Settlement, convicts continued to
constitute the main Jewish element settling there throughout the 19th
century. Due to the scarcity of Jewish women in Siberia at the
beginning of the 19th century, Jews were allowed in 1817 to buy Kalmyk
women, to make proselytes of them and marry them...." |
Article by
Irena Vladimirsky,
| "In
April 1817, the government issued a special decree by which all the
new inhabitants of Siberia, including Jews, were permitted to marry
women from the native population on the condition that they converted
to either Christianity or Judaism. ...." |
| "We find
that in 1825, the Jews who lived in Kansk (Western Siberia)
petitioned the government for permission to build a synagogue. In the
same year another, rather curious, petition, was submitted by the Jews
of Kansk, who owing to the lack of Jewish women, pleaded for permission
to convert Calmuk Women to Judaism, so that they could marry according
to Mosaic law. This request was granted...." |
| "...A
very special contingent of Jewish settler is the so called Subotniki, a
sect of real Russians who had been converted to Judaism as a result of
their careful study of the Bible. These sturdy peasants became real
martyrs of their convictions. The official Russian Church persecuted
them, but they, like true Jews, endured all hardships f0r the sake of
their new Faith. Ultimately in the year 1800, they were banished into
Eastern Siberia where they are concentrated along the present
Trans-Siberian Railroad, in the province of Irkursk. Their main
settlement in at Zima...."
|
For more
information aboiut the background and tracking of the genetic
legacy of these mixed marriages in the Askennazic Jewish populations
see Kevin Brook's web pages"
|
VOLGOGRAD,
RUSSIA
|
| Volgograd Region [Leninsk,
Primorsk, Tsarev, Zaplavnoye] |
Субботний исход: В
начале прошлого века жители Заплавного, Царева и Ленинска уходили в
Палестину, недела городa,
16 декабря 2004
(Link contributed by Sergey
Petrov — Dept. of Religious Studies, Univ. of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada in Mar. 2006. Annotated map site contributed by Ilan Guy
(Ageyev), Ashdod, Israel) (Original
site no longer available; Translation in-progress)
The Saturday Outcome: Article
in Nedelya-Gorodo
Newspaper, Dec. 14, 2004
In the
beginning of the last century inhabitants Zaplavnogo, Tsareva and
Leninsk in the Volgograd region emigrated
to Palestine where the Messiah was expected soon.
|
|
What
is happening in Misrad ha Pnim (again)?
Blog by Paul about previous article, Feb. 17, 2005
| "..the
Ministry's attitude on this issue puzzling. It raises, of course, the
philosophical-ideological question of the attitude of the Jewish people
and of the State of Israel to not-quite-Jews who really, really, want
to be part of our nation, our people and our religion ..."
|
|
| VORONEZH PROVINCE - ILYINKA, RUSSIA |
| Ilyinka [population
100, Voronezh province, 1991] |
The Last
Jews of Ilyinka
The
Jerusalem Report — Feb. 14, 1991
VORONEZH,
RUSSIA — "...about
100
mostly elderly Jewish residents; within a decade, only the graves will
remain of this unusual Jewish community." Maps added
|
|
Daas Torah
- an online forum to clarify some of the issues of Jewish Identity.
Subbotnik
Jews of Ilyinka are Jews
The particular forum thread started on February
11, 2009 explores pro and counter arguments to the principle that all
Russian Subbotniki are Jewish and therefore deserve to right to
emigrate to Israel. Some sample comments:
| "......I
humbly suggest that in light of this, your headline to the effect that
"Subbotniks are not Jewish" warrants correction." |
| ......If some
Subbotnik's aren't Jewish, such as those in Vyskoij, and some
Subbotnik's might be Jewish, such as the Jews of Ilyinka, then clearly
Subbotnik is not a term that implies Jewishness." |
| ....
Subbotniks is to general a term, since there are different groups of
Subbotniks. So the title should read "Some/most/many Subbotniks are not
Jewish" or something along those lines..." |
|
VORONEZH
PROVINCE - VYSOKIJ, RUSSIA
|
Vysokij or Высокий
(meaning “tall” or "high") is a village in the Talovskij district of
Voronezh province of Russia. The village is located 700 km south of
Moscow (See Google map). Vysokij has a
population of around 7,000 and is the home of a Subbotniki
congregation. The city’s name has also been written in English as Vysokii, Vyshoi or Vysokiy.
|
Путешествие в Высокий
От Раисы Минаковой,
Под редакцией Билла Алдакушина
 Brief Family History and
three Photo Albums taken
during Raisa's journeys to the village of Vysokij and visits with her
friends and family living there.
- Йом-Кипур
/ Yom Kippur
- Деревенские сцены / Village Scenes
(including cemetery)
- Музей
истории / History Museum
|
The
Forsaken Converts of Russia
An account of a visit with the Subbotniki in Vysokij by Eli
Bardenstein, Ma'ariv
(Sof-shavua Weekend Supplement), November 28, 2008
| "..Vysoki was
not like other villages. On a wooden gate at the end of the village, a
light blue Star of David was emblazoned. Behind it were buried Jewish
villagers. On a portion of the gravestones, some of them very old, a
Star of David was engraved, and in some cases there were even Hebrew
letters. On every Sabbath and Jewish holiday and sometimes on Mondays
and Thursdays as well – the days on which the Torah is read – small
minyans (quorums of ten required for group prayer) still take place
with old people wrapped in prayer shawls. The only Sefer Torah (Torah
scroll) that remains in the village was at the center of the last
Simchat Torah holiday celebration. On the doorposts of some of the
homes Mezuzahs are affixed, containing ancient pieces of parchment. On
the “Tenth Day”, as Yom Kippur is known in the village, most of the
older residents still fast. Several years ago, they would bake matzah
for Passover and no bread would come into the village during the
holiday. ..."
|
|
Израильского раввина
послали учить субботников
An
Israeli rabbi has been sent to {Russia} to learn about Subbotniki
(link to rough
English translation) Article appearing on izrus.com web site Dec. 17,
2008
| "Rabbi David
Vinnits from Jerusalem – the new representative of the organisation
"Shavej Israel" in Russia: he will conduct work with Subbotniki in
settlement Vysokij in the south of the country. He has been the rabbi
of the city of Irkutsk and all Eastern Siberia and worked as the
assistant at Judaism Institute."
|
|
Russia's
Subbotnik Jews get rabbi Article
appearing on Ynetnews.com on
December 9, 2010
| "Rabbi Shlomo Zelig Avrasin
's mission to focus primarily on community of Vyskoij in southern
Russia, to include teaching Hebrew and Judaism, organizing prayer
services and conducting range of diverse educational activities for
Jewish youth" |
|
Cleaning a Jewish Cemetery in Southern
Ruussia Article by Brian Blum, May 29,
2012
| "Every year,
on the Jewish holiday of L’ag B’Omer, the Subbotnik Jews of Vyskoij,
Russia, have a tradition to clean up the local Jewish cemetery." |
|
A
Subbotnik Jewish wedding in Moscow
by Brian Blum, November 11, 2012
| "As
they stood under the wedding canopy in the Archipova synagogue in
Moscow, Fania and Shmuel Bograshov were fulfilling a dream they have
cherished for years. It’s not the first time they’ve been married. But
it is their first time in a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. ....
Fania and Shmuel are Subbotnik Jews from Vyskoij, a central town in
southern Russia....."
|
|
Subbotnik
Jews make aliya Article and video appearing on Ynetnews.com
on November 21, 2013
| "Their forefathers, who were
Christian peasants, embraced Judaism some 200 years ago, and they have
stuck to it to this very day. Now, two of 500 members of Subbotnik
community from village of Vyskoij in southern Russia decide to
immigrate to Promised Land" |
|
Ukraine
|
| |
|
The
Ukrainian Stundists and Russian Jews: a collaboration of evangelical
peasants with Jewish intellectuals in late imperial Russia
Paper by Sergei Zhuk (Ball State University) presented by at the 5th
International Postgraduate Conference held at the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies, University
College London, 2008
|
“...At the
end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the
Subbotniki movement spread to the south, to the new regions of Russian
colonisation in southern Ukraine and northern Caucasus, where their
ideas of ‘Moses law’ and ‘Hebrew rituals’ affected local Molokans and
other religious dissenters. .....Some Molokans in Ukraine accepted
Sabbatarian religious practices, which transformed the entire Molokan
movement..." |
|
Subbotniki
carrying out 'good works' in Transcarpathia Article
by Bonne A. Rook, The
Journal - News of the Churches of God, May, 2004
|
“....The
Subbotniki keep all the Ten Commandments, including the Fourth, and
hold to the faith of Abraham, the father of all faithful.
.... Some Subbotniki live in Transcarpathia, a region in the
southwest of Ukraine. They have lived there since centuries before the
Protestant Reformation and have practiced their faith under severe
hardships..... With the breakup of the Soviet Union, their
situation changed from suppression to allowance and--in the small town
of Vynogradow, not far from the border with Hungary and Romania--even
to acceptance and respect. This is because of their good works."
|
|
Visit with Subbotnik family in Krivoi Rog Article
by Michael Freund, Jerusalem Post , January 27, 2016 NEW! added February 11, 2016
|
“....Indeed,
while the snow in Krivoi Rog may be kneedeep, blocking roads and
turning thoroughfares into slippery escapades, that doesn’t seem to
deter the small local community of Subbotnik Jews from faithfully
trudging to their modest synagogue, where they continue to turn their
hearts and their hopes toward Zion."
|
|
Uruguay
|
|
|
|
Russians in Uruguay
Since 1900 hundreds of thousands of Russians fled their homeland and
resettled around the world. Many were members of religious groups that
rejected the official Orthodox faith and were harassed and punished.
This is a summary index of the ethno-religious groups that relocated to
Uruguay from Russia — New Israel, Molokans, Jumpers (Maksimists),
Sabbatarians, Sons of Freedom, Old Believers, and German Mennonite
Brethren. Each has separate villages and religions.
|
Uzbekistan
|
- Kibrai
district, Tashkent region
|
|
UZBEKISTAN:
Believers are not even allowed to visit each other
Article
by Igor Rotar, Forum
18 News Service — Oct. 27, 2005
"The
Subbotniki
live in the Kibrai district
of Tashkent region [capital of Uzbekistan], 15 kilometers (10
miles) north-east of the capital, and every week police come to
community members and warn them that it is illegal to hold meetings in
private apartments. On 9 August [2005] the police even forbade the Subbotniki from
holding a religious ritual for one of the community's members who had
just died."
"We are a
Christian web and e-mail initiative to report on threats and actions
against the religious freedom of all people, whatever their religious
affiliation, in an objective, truthful and timely manner. The name
Forum 18 comes from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, and we are based in Oslo, Norway. We have been mainly
concentrating up to now on the states of the former Soviet Union... I
would be happy to arrange for you to receive our weekly e-mail news
summary every Friday."
|
|
6. Other Subbotniki-related Websites
|
|
Subbotniks
on English version of Wikipedia.com
Subbotniks
on French version of Wikipedia.com
Russian History Encyclopedia:
Judaizers on Answers.com |
7. Contact Information
|
NOTE:
The views represented by the content of external links contained or
referenced on this web site are not necessarily those of the
Subbotniki.net web site coordinators but are included only to present
the wide range of views surrounding the Subbotniki so that all this
information can be viewed in context.
William
A. Aldacushion
Fairfax County, Virginia USA
|
|
Passenger List
of Molokans and Subbotniks Arriving San Francisco on August 3, 1905 
