Valdgeym (russian: Валдгейм; yi, װאלדהײם, ; german: Waldheim) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Birobidzhansky District of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Valdgeym was the place where the first

collective farm Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member ...

was established in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.Stalin's Forgotten Zion
/ref> As of 1992, Valdgeym was the largest

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

ing

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

in the region.

Etymology

History

Valdgeym was founded in 1928 by a group of Jewish settlers from the areas of modern

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. In 1929, Valdgeym's first school was established with all subjects taught in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

. Among the founders was L. Geffen, who, with his family, fled a small shtetl near

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

. In 2004, his son Zyama Geffen, age 83, still lived on the Valdgeym collective farm that his father founded. Zyama was six years old when his father moved to the area in 1928. In 1980, a Yiddish school was opened in the settlement. During the early 20th century,

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Chairman of the Central Executive Committee Mikhail Kalinin desired that Valdgeym and other localities of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast become new centres of Jewish life of the Soviet Union.Khrushchev on the Withering Away of the Jewish National Home
/ref>

Etymology

History

References

See also