The Jewish Steppe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 The quality of this article or section may be compromised by wording which promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information.
You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms or finding content which backs the claims.
The Jewish Steppe

Crimea seen in red
Directed by Valery Ovchinnikov
Release date(s) 2001
Running time 16 min.
Language English
Official website

The Jewish Steppe is a 2001 documentary about a group of Russian Jews who, exhausted by prejudice and fearful of pogroms, left their homeland to farm the untamed Crimean Peninsula. Established in the 1920s, their Soviet agrarian commune met with a tragic end.

Contents

[edit] Summary

“Why should the Jewish people go to Palestine where the land is less productive and requires big investments?” a Jewish newspaper asked at the time of the settlement, “Who go so far if the fertile Crimean land is beckoning to the Jewish people?”

At the turn of the nineteenth century, antisemitism ran rampant in Russia. Legislation was passed that limited Jews to working only in retail and handicrafts. When these laws were finally lifted, around the time the Russian Revolution of 1917, pogroms broke out. Willing to face new challenges in order to leave their present state of oppression, approximately 30,000 Jews decided to make a new lives for themselves in the Crimean Peninsula. Unafraid of the hard work, they left their homes and all that was familiar to learn how to farm the rugged Crimean Peninsula. Full of bravery and determination, they overcame tremendous obstacles and developed into one of Russia's major agricultural providers. Rare pictures and film footage from the Russian State Film and Photo Archives are narrated in The Jewish Steppe to explain how these Soviet Jews struggled against their countrymen and nature in hopes of creating happy and productive lives for themselves.

The Jewish Steppe points to the strength of the human spirit. The Jews who relocated knew little about farming, had no machinery, no assets, and were on hilly land with extreme seasons, making it difficult to cultivate. But they were determined to survive and willing to work hard. One newspaper wrote that everyone, from the elderly to children, were competing with each other to work harder. Together they taught each other the little that they knew and eventually their farms began to flourish. In fact, in 1931 Russia faced a major famine, but the Jewish settlements continued to have a bountiful harvest that helped feed the rest of the nation during its grain shortage.

Only two years after it was settled, the area was recognized as the Soviet Union's first Jewish district. The social experiment was a success. Their farming was able to sustained them, and they went on to establish schools and two colleges.

The sense of accomplishments had a profound effect on the community's mentality. A people who had become accustomed to prejudice and hardships could begin to relax. “As a result of healthy life and labor,” a local farmer commented in a newspaper, “peace of mind is replacing the nervousness typical for Jewish people, movements have become measured, and faces have become calm.” He goes on to explain that these changes are particularly noticeable in the younger generation.

Under Stalin, all this was destroyed, leaving only archival footage and documents as their legacy. The slow-moving, poetic shots seen in The Jewish Steppe, hint at what their community was like. One shot captures an elderly couple as they pick a basket full of grapes. Once their basket brimming, they walk back home through the field together. It's clear that after distancing themselves from antisemitism and learning to cultivate the land, they've finally able to enjoy life's simple pleasures—each other's company and the grapes.

[edit] References

The Jewish Steppe. Cinema Guild. Retrieved on August 7.

[edit] See also

Other documentaries about Jews of the Diaspora:

[edit] External links