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Most of the kids applying were atheists or agnostics. They were Jews by ethnicity, not by religion.
by kirillkh 9y ago
Most of the kids applying were atheists or agnostics. They were Jews by ethnicity, not by religion.
- k__ 9y agoI thought every ethnicity had jews
- kirillkh 9y agoThis is a source of major confusion. Ultimately, it boils down to how one identifies him- or herself or, alternatively, how one is identified by others. Jews in USSR were officially considered an ethnicity like any other, based on blood. The Judaism as a religion was suppressed under the Communist rule. But even before that, there was a lot of assimilation and secularization going on. Ultimately, in the 1970's there were very little Judaism practitioners left. The word "Jew" ("Yevrey") in Russian usually refers to the ethnicity. They use a different word ("Iudjey") when they want to describe someone as a Judaism practitioner.