Some separatist fighters in the North Caucasus province of Russia have strengthened their nationalist demands with a call for jihad, or holy war. Jewish believers Suspicion is something that Jews here have had to live with for centuries, along with massive discrimination. Now the community is more institutionalized. In a sign of this normalization, the Russian Jewish Congress, an interest group similar to its American counterpart, the American Jewish Congress, was founded last year with the help of prominent Russian Jewish businessmen. Those are the Jews who stayed in Russia - about 1.5 million.
Jewish renewal is caught here in a paradox.
On the one hand, it is now possible to lead an observant Jewish life, at least in Moscow or in St. Petersburg. On the other, Russian Jews often regain their cultural heritage so as to prepare to emigrate. The renewal was spearheaded by minority Sephardic Jews from the Caucasus who have better kept traditions. The majority, European Jews, have assimilated to the point that only 9 percent of St. Petersburg's Jews define Judaism as their religion, while 25 percent say they are Christian and 50 percent say they are atheists. She keeps kosher, celebrates the high holidays, and recalls proudly how well her son Isaac read the Torah in front of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where he celebrated his bar mitzvah last summer.