Photo: Zairon

Introduction: Jews of the "City of K"

The center of Kaliningrad, where the Teutonic Castle once stood and three densely built-up districts existed as independent towns until 1724, is not particularly rich in landmarks today. The vast wasteland left in place of Königsberg's historical center after the British air raids in August 1944 is broken only by the miraculously preserved Cathedral housing the tomb of Immanuel Kant; the gray, imposing structure of the House of Soviets, unfinished since the 1980s; and the "Fish Village," built in the early 2000s in an stylized German fashion. Recently, this ensemble was joined by another structure, adding a new note to the symbiosis of Russian and German architecture in modern Kaliningrad. Today, in the pandemic era—as many residents of mainland Russia flock to the country's westernmost region seeking a European atmosphere—this massive house of worship, featuring Star of David motifs on its facade and erected on the site of East Prussia's largest synagogue, has become one of the region's most prominent symbols.

Kaliningrad holds a unique position within the Russian Federation. It is the center of a coastal exclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, with no land corridor to mainland Russia, which most Kaliningrad residents visit less frequently than neighboring foreign states. The region was partitioned in 1945 between Poland and the USSR, with the major part of the Soviet portion incorporated into the RSFSR, while the Memel Territory became part of the Lithuanian SSR.

Following the partition, the entire German population, with the exception of ethnic Lithuanians, was deported from Soviet East Prussia, which was renamed the Kaliningrad Oblast in April 1946. This measure also affected the few remaining Jews, who at the time numbered no more than several dozen individuals. These were mostly members of mixed families and their children, who had faced legal restrictions in Nazi Germany but had not been deported to death camps, though their survival had depended heavily on circumstance. The details of this precarious existence are documented in "The Sunset of Königsberg" by Michael Wieck, one of the city's last Jewish residents[1].

The pre-war Jewish population in Königsberg was estimated at over 5,000 by David Franz Kälter, author of "The Jewish School in Königsberg"[2]. The Jewish population was heavily concentrated in Vorder-Vorstadt (the Front Suburb), an area beginning on the south bank of the Pregel River near the Exchange building, which still stands today. This area developed into a Jewish quarter in the second half of the 18th century (Immanuel Kant was born in Vorstadt in 1724, before it became predominantly Jewish). Wealthier families preferred to settle in the suburbs of Hufen and Amalienau, where villas once owned by Jewish residents remain preserved.

Königsberg was home to several Jewish cemeteries, the oldest of which was established in 1703 in Tragheim, an area now adjacent to the municipal market. This cemetery, which has not survived, was the final resting place of Abraham Mapu, author of the first Hebrew novel. Two additional cemeteries were established in 1825 and 1929. In the late 1990s, the burial site of Rabbi Israel Salanter, founder of the Musar movement in Orthodox Judaism, was identified at one of these sites near the modern intersection of Litovsky Val and Gagarin Street. A memorial marker has since been installed there.

The city once had five active synagogues, notably the traditional "Old Synagogue" (destroyed in the Great Fire of 1811 and rebuilt in 1815) and the Adass Jisroel Synagogue, both located on Schnürlingstraße (later Synagogenstraße). The largest synagogue in East Prussia was the New Synagogue, built on Lomse Island opposite the Cathedral and the old university building. Erected by the liberal wing of the local community, it was renowned for its organ and cantor Eduard Birnbaum. This synagogue, opened in August 1896 and burned down by the Nazis during Kristallnacht in November 1938, has now been rebuilt.

The original building of the New Synagogue was designed by the architectural firm of Wilhelm Cremer and Richard Wolfenstein, who designed eleven synagogues across Germany, eight of which were built and subsequently destroyed during Kristallnacht. The 46-meter-high Königsberg synagogue was constructed of traditional East Prussian red brick, featuring two flanking towers and a central hexagonal dome tower decorated with large stained-glass rose windows. The current synagogue in Kaliningrad, while differing from the original in dimensions, materials, and decorative details, generally follows the silhouette of its predecessor and was designed by architect Natalia Lorens.

Reflecting the variety of synagogues in Königsberg, several distinct congregations existed by the start of the Second World War. The most influential and largest was the Liberal Congregation, led by its last rabbi, Dr. Reinhold Lewin. Operating alongside it was the Orthodox community, led by Rabbi Dr. David Ochs and, following his relocation to Dresden, by Rabbi Josef Tzvi Dunner. The Adass Jisroel congregation existed independently of both. In addition to religious organizations, various national-political bodies were active, including the competing Zionist Organization and the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith.

Königsberg was the birthplace of many prominent German Jews, such as the politician Johann Jacoby and Eduard von Simson, author of the 1848 German constitution. Other notable figures born here include philosopher Hannah Arendt, composer Werner Richard Heymann, and poet Leah Goldberg. The Albertina University featured faculty members such as ophthalmologist Julius Jacobson and medical researcher Simon Samuel, as well as mathematician Hermann Minkowski; lectures were also delivered there by the founder of the Musar movement, Rabbi Israel Salanter (Lipkin). Many of the city's physicians, musicians, bankers, and entrepreneurs were Jewish. For instance, the industrial mining of amber in the region was initiated in 1875 by the Jewish businessman Moritz Becker.

Leah Rabin, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was also originally from Königsberg. It is also believed that Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg) has roots in the city. A small monument dedicated to him has been installed in Kaliningrad, a gesture reportedly received with favor by the director himself.

To some extent, Königsberg can be considered the birthplace of modern Hebrew publishing. It was here in 1783 that publication began for "Ha-Me'assef," the first periodical of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), established by Jewish students at the Albertina who belonged to the "Society of Friends of the Hebrew Language."

It is worth noting that Jewish life in East Prussia was not limited to Königsberg. Jewish communities and synagogues existed in other towns within what is now the Kaliningrad Oblast: Cranz (Zelenogradsk), Eydtkuhnen (Chernyshevskoye), Insterburg (Chernyakhovsk), Gumbinnen (Gusev), Labiau (Polessk), Zinten (Kornevo), Nordenburg (Krylovo), and Tilsit (Sovetsk). In Sovetsk, a building on the cemetery grounds (now converted into an Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity) likely served as the Beit Tahara before the war. However, these provincial communities were small, typically numbering no more than one or two hundred members.

Prior to the deportation of the German population, Soviet settlers began arriving in the Kaliningrad Oblast in 1946–1947. Among them were Jewish individuals—families of military personnel, faculty members of the Pedagogical Institute established in 1947 (reorganized in 1966 as Kaliningrad State University), specialists tasked with restoring the fishing industry, medical professionals, journalists, and theater actors. By the late 1950s, the Jewish population of Kaliningrad had nearly reached its pre-war level, numbering approximately 4,500 people.

Documents from that era contain only sparse references to Jewish religious life[3]. Naturally, after 1948, no legal avenues for religious practice existed, though rumors persisted in the late Soviet period of a local barber who held a minyan in his apartment. Similarly, a Lithuanian-born Yiddish teacher named Schwartz, residing in Svetlogorsk (formerly Rauschen), offered private language lessons. In the pre-perestroika years, performances by the Chamber Jewish Musical Theater at the local "Fishermen's Palace of Culture," featuring Yuri Sherling's production of "The Black Bridle for a White Mare" and traditional Yiddish folk songs, served as a revelation for many local Jews. Witnesses recall how significant these guest performances were for a city where the majority of the Jewish population possessed little to no knowledge of their own history and culture.

Two Pillars

Formal Jewish activity in Kaliningrad began in 1989 amidst the broader revival of national movements across the USSR. Geographically adjacent Baltic republics served as models, particularly Lithuania, where Jewish cultural life had begun to flourish as early as 1988. Viktor Shapiro, the current head of the Adat Israel community in Kaliningrad, recalls how inspiring it was for several Kaliningrad representatives to attend the founding congress of the Jewish Cultural Society of Lithuania. Speaking from the stage of the Vilnius Palace of Trade Unions, writer Grigory Kanovich later noted: "Even in God-forsaken Kaliningrad, where one hears little more than military commands, I was asked whether one ought to emigrate."[4]

One of the early leaders of the Kaliningrad Jewish community was Matvey Ilyich (Motl Peysakhovich) Gurants, a native of Vilnius who had attended a Jewish gymnasium before the war. Gurants became an active communist in independent "bourgeois" Lithuania and from the late 1940s worked at a factory in Kaliningrad, contributing as a freelance correspondent to local newspapers and occasionally publishing in the Warsaw-based "Folks-Shtimme." He was also known as an active member of the local hiking song club, a connoisseur of Yiddish, and an admirer of the poet Moyshe Kulbak. In the late 1980s, under his initiative, local restaurants were first rented for collective celebrations of Jewish holidays, and matzah began to be brought into the city ahead of Passover.

Matvey Gurants passed away in the summer of 1990, a year after the registration of Kaliningrad's first Jewish organization. The initiative for its creation came from Gurants himself, alongside Viktor Shapiro, an editor at the Kaliningrad Philharmonic, and Iosif Kleiner, a programmer and researcher at the Atlantic Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography. In 1989, they proposed to the regional party committee the establishment of a "Society for Jewish History and Culture" under the Kaliningrad branch of the Soviet Culture Fund. Following official approval, a meeting was held, attended by approximately fifty Jewish residents and several plainclothes security officers. Shapiro, Kleiner, and Gurants spoke from the stage. Kleiner, who had taught himself Hebrew using articles from the Soviet Encyclopedia, the Israeli communist Yiddish newspaper "Der Weg," and other similar sources, asked the audience in Hebrew: "Who understands what I am saying?" When no hands were raised, the decision was made to open an ulpan, with Kleiner serving as its first teacher. By then, he spoke about eight languages, including Arabic, which assisted him in teaching Hebrew. The ulpan operated in the cafeteria of School No. 23, whose long-term director was Lazar Fukson, an active member of the local community.

Iosif Kleiner attended the first congress of the Vaad of the USSR in December 1989 as the representative of the community, but emigrated to Israel with his family the following year, leaving Viktor Shapiro to represent Kaliningrad at the second congress.

Following the death of Gurants and the departure of Kleiner, Viktor Shapiro became the de facto leader of the Kaliningrad community. Under his leadership, the children's choir "Shofar" was established, engaging some forty boys and girls, many of whom now reside in Israel.

Emigration to Israel from Kaliningrad was highly active throughout the 1990s. For several years, Masha Shor, a representative of the Israeli Consulate in St. Petersburg, regularly visited the city to conduct consular sessions. Concurrently, recruitment was held for Israeli youth programs such as "Naale," candidates were prepared for the psychometric exams required for Israeli universities, and courses from the Open University of Israel were organized. The local branch of the Jewish Agency (Sokhnut) was led at the time by Svetlana Elokhina, who now directs the "Hesed Kaliningrad" charitable foundation, funded by the Joint Distribution Committee. Over the years of active emigration, the Jewish population of Kaliningrad decreased to approximately 1,500 people.

For a long period, the organization led by Viktor Shapiro lacked its own premises. Meetings were held either at his home or in rented apartments. However, the regular influx of visitors drew complaints from neighbors, prompting the need to rent dedicated space. This was eventually secured at Kindergarten No. 39 "Ivushka," which came to house both the Cultural Society and Hesed.

The dissolution of the USSR and administrative challenges regarding the legal registration of the "Society for Jewish History and Culture" (officially liquidated in 2011) led Viktor Shapiro to establish the Kaliningrad Regional Public Fund "Shofar" in 1998, registered in 2003 and still active today. In 2000, the religious Jewish community "Adat Israel" was established, which, like "Shofar," was registered at Shapiro's residential address.

The first rabbi of Kaliningrad was Reuven Resnik. An American trained in Soviet studies, Resnik spoke fluent Russian and adhered to Conservative Judaism. Sponsored by the Joint, he was dispatched to Kaliningrad in 1993 by the World Union of Jewish Students. The city's first rabbi actively worked to establish an ulpan, a student union, a kindergarten, and school classes with Hebrew instruction, but his tenure was brief. After marrying a member of the Lithuanian musical ensemble "Kinor," he immigrated to Israel shortly thereafter.

In 1998, the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia (KEROOR) dispatched David Shvedik, the former rabbi of Rostov, to Kaliningrad. Shortly after the creation of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) in 1999, Shvedik aligned himself with this new organization. The institutional rivalry within Russia's Jewish leadership, characterized by the competition between KEROOR and FEOR, subsequently strained relations between the new rabbi and the leadership of the existing community structure.

At Shapiro's request, KEROOR dispatched another rabbi, Ephraim Silbermann, to Kaliningrad in 2000. With his involvement, the "Adat Israel" organization was established as an alternative to the "Jewish Community of the City of Kaliningrad" registered by Shvedik in 1998. However, after failing to establish influence among the local business elite and congregation, Silbermann left the city a few years later. He briefly served as a rabbi in Penza before being dismissed by the KEROOR Rabbinical Council for unsatisfactory performance, after which he joined FEOR and was appointed by Berl Lazar as rabbi in Ryazan.

David Shvedik proved to be significantly more active and ultimately more successful than his competitor. He established a regular minyan of local elderly residents, secured premises for a prayer house, and gained recognition from both local Jewish business circles and the regional administration. Through his efforts, the newspaper "Simcha" was established, which continues to be published today with a circulation of 500 copies. Viktor Shapiro also briefly published his own newspaper, "Shofar: Herald of Jewish History and Culture," though it ceased publication shortly thereafter.

Initially, relations between Shvedik's congregation and "Adat Israel" were highly complex. A primary source of tension was the shared use of the rented kindergarten premises. Shvedik's congregation occupied the ground floor, while "Shofar" and Hesed occupied the second floor. Elderly beneficiaries of the charitable foundation were forced to use an external fire escape to reach the upper floor. This dispute was eventually resolved when "Shofar" relocated from "Ivushka" to another kindergarten building located on the site of a former hotel where, notably, the English mathematician and writer Lewis Carroll had stayed during his visit to Königsberg. In 2010, the "Adat Israel" community, alongside Hesed and the Jewish Agency, rented a floor in an old German building on Kopernika Street, where they remain to this day, despite attempts by the municipal administration to auction the building in 2012.

The "Jewish Community of the City of Kaliningrad" was also eventually forced to vacate the "Ivushka" building due to its planned demolition. Until the opening of the New Synagogue, Sabbath services and other events were held on Cherepichnaya Street, where this entity remains registered. Even during periods of strained relations, the communities co-hosted major public events, often with representatives of the city and regional administrations. For example, every January, the "March of Life" is held near the settlement of Yantarny (formerly Palmnicken) to commemorate the victims of the Palmnicken massacre and the Holocaust.

Notably, Kaliningrad is the only city in modern Russia where the pogroms of Kristallnacht took place. Every year on this anniversary, community members gather at the building of the former Jewish orphanage, which was ransacked in November 1938 along with the adjacent New Synagogue.

At the close of the last century, several events took place in Kaliningrad that connected its modern Jewish history more closely to its pre-war past. Historical research conducted by Viktor Shapiro led to the identification of the approximate location of Israel Salanter's grave by 1999. A notable event in this regard was the visit of Rabbi Josef Tzvi Dunner, the last rabbi of the Orthodox community of Königsberg who had emigrated to London in 1938. He visited Kaliningrad as part of an rabbinical delegation searching for Salanter's grave. Leah Rabin, the widow of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had lived in Königsberg until 1933, was unable to visit the city due to illness but addressed the local public via a television broadcast on the "0112" program.

In August 2000, the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art opened the exhibition "Jews in East Prussia," prepared by the Museum of East Prussia in Lüneburg. While the museum administration had feared antisemitic protests—similar to those during a prior visit by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, when the building was defaced with antisemitic leaflets—the exhibition proceeded without major incident.

Nonetheless, manifestations of antisemitism were not uncommon during the 1990s. On one occasion during Purim celebrations in the cafeteria of School No. 23, which was attended primarily by elderly women and veterans, members of the far-right group Russian National Unity arrived marching in black uniforms. Notably, during the subsequent review of the incident by the municipal administration, officials focused primarily on whether the school director had violated regulations by permitting a religious gathering on school property. During the same period, extremist groups openly distributed lists of local Jewish residents, causing understandable concern. In recent years, organized antisemitic demonstrations have not occurred in Kaliningrad, though acts of vandalism at the Jewish cemetery where Israel Salanter is buried remain relatively common. Since no replacement rabbi was appointed for "Adat Israel" following Rabbi Silbermann's departure, local religious life naturally consolidated around David Shvedik.

Over time, relations between the two Jewish communities improved, with Shvedik overseeing religious affairs and Viktor Shapiro continuing to manage historical and cultural initiatives.

The circle of active community members also expanded. For example, World War II veterans and spouses Anna (Chana) Itman and Yakov Sukhovolsky worked to identify former concentration camp survivors and those who had lived through the occupation, helping them secure assistance from the Claims Conference. The 92-year-old Yakov Sukhovolsky personally donated one million rubles to fund the installation of the entrance doors for the New Synagogue.

Educational initiatives in the early 2000s were managed by Diana Shtok, a former vocalist of the "Shofar" choir. In addition to the choir, a Sunday school was established with the support of the Israeli Embassy, and in the autumn of 1998, a Jewish kindergarten group opened with assistance from the Lauder Foundation. In the mid-1990s, an attempt was made to establish a dedicated Jewish class at School No. 23, modeled on the existing German classes sponsored by the Kaliningrad German-Russian House. A Hebrew teacher was brought in through the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a group of ten students was formed, though the teacher departed shortly thereafter, and enrollment in Jewish classes was only resumed years later.

A particularly prominent role in Jewish cultural life at the turn of the century was played by the local literary and musical intelligentsia, notably the poet and translator Sam Simkin, writer Oleg Glushkin, and poet Boris Bartfeld. Viktor Shapiro himself is widely recognized beyond Kaliningrad for his poetry and translations of Königsberg Jewish authors, such as Gertrud Marx.

For many years, the German-Russian House provided active support to Jewish cultural initiatives, along with other ethnic programs, until its closure in 2017 following pressure from activists opposing "creeping Germanization." Operating under a new name, this entity now focuses primarily on business matchmaking between Russian and German entrepreneurs rather than cultural programs. This shift in leadership from the creative intelligentsia to the business elite in the 2010s was mirrored within the Jewish community itself.

The Road to the Synagogue

For the first two decades, organized Jewish life in Kaliningrad was supported primarily by foreign philanthropic organizations. This was particularly true for the programs of the "Shofar" fund and the "Adat Israel" community, which operated in close cooperation with Hesed and the Jewish Agency. By contrast, the "Jewish Community of Kaliningrad," aligned with FEOR's institutional model, actively sought to engage local entrepreneurs in addition to utilizing its own external resources.

In the 1990s, a regional branch of the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), then led by Vladimir Gusinsky, was established in Kaliningrad. Leonid Plitman, owner of the major construction company Baltic GmbH, was elected chairman of the regional branch. Simultaneously heading the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community, Plitman participated in the activities of both organizations, supporting both Viktor Shapiro's initiatives and Rabbi Shvedik's work. Since the late 1990s, financial support for the "Jewish Community of the City of Kaliningrad" has been provided by Vladimir Katsman, an entrepreneur and founder of the popular "Kaliningrad City Jazz" festival, who relocated to the city with his family from Grozny in 1992. Katsman would subsequently become the primary benefactor for the reconstruction of the New Synagogue, an effort for which he received FEOR's "Fiddler on the Roof" award in 2018. However, in the late 1990s, when the opening of a synagogue was first proposed, the two communities could not reach an agreement on which entity would oversee its construction.

A significant milestone in the history of the local community occurred in 2011 with the installation of a ten-meter monument designed by Frank Meisler in Yantarny, commemorating the victims of the January 1945 "death march." The dedication ceremony for the memorial, funded by Vladimir Katsman, was attended by representatives of the regional administration and Russia's Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar of FEOR. This high-profile event, which received extensive media coverage, triggered a reaction from local extremists. Shortly after its unveiling, the monument's pedestal was defaced with paint, and shortly prior to that, a plaque commemorating Kristallnacht on the former Jewish orphanage was defaced with offensive graffiti and swastikas.

Nonetheless, in 2011, following approval from the regional administration, plans for the construction of the synagogue were formally announced, and a foundation stone was laid at the site of the original New Synagogue.

In July of that year, the "Foundation for the Construction of the Synagogue in the City of Kaliningrad" was established, with Vladimir Katsman serving as its primary donor. Initially, the project was designated on its official website as the "New Königsberg Synagogue," a name Katsman personally favored. However, following public debate on social media and at Rabbi Shvedik's urging, the building was officially designated the "New Synagogue of Kaliningrad."

Initial progress on the project was slow. The foundation did not accumulate funds as quickly as anticipated, leaving Katsman to provide the bulk of the financing. An additional obstacle was the presence of a circus tent that had operated on the historic site for many years. The legal dispute over land rights proved lengthy, and while the circus eventually vacated the site, the investor had to cover the costs of its relocation.

This was not the only legal challenge faced by the community. In 2013, the design passed state technical inspection, but construction was unexpectedly opposed by the Kaliningrad municipal administration, then led by Mayor Aleksandr Yaroshuk, currently a deputy of the State Duma. The planned construction site was adjacent to the former Jewish orphanage—one of the few historical buildings to survive the war—which the authorities cited as a formal objection. Meanwhile, the municipal administration routinely overlooked similar preservation issues when authorizing the conversion of historical German churches into Russian Orthodox parishes.

A similar pattern had occurred in Kaliningrad when the local Muslim community spent years unsuccessfully seeking permission to construct a mosque, suggesting a high risk that the synagogue project might be permanently halted. However, due to the persistence of the project's organizers, and particularly its architect Natalia Lorens, efforts to secure permission continued, and in 2015, a court ruled that the municipality's objections were legally unfounded.

Construction accelerated after the Board of Trustees decided to align the opening of the synagogue with the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht on November 8, 2018. While there had been hopes that President Putin would attend the ceremony, interior finishes were not completed by the designated date. Ultimately, neither the President, the regional Governor, nor the Mayor attended the opening. The regional government was represented by then-Vice Premier Harry Goldman, who, alongside local politician Solomon Ginzburg, served as a prominent representative of the Jewish community in local political circles. Leonid Yakubovich attended on behalf of the Russian Jewish Congress, and the ribbon was formally cut by Rabbi Berl Lazar.

At present, all construction and registration issues have been resolved. By February 2021, the synagogue had received approximately seven thousand visitors, despite the fact that, according to the latest census, the Jewish population in the city of half a million stands at no more than 1,300. Following the long-standing division between the two local congregations, the New Synagogue—historically a center of liberal Judaism before the war—was formally transferred to the "Jewish Community of Kaliningrad" and placed under the authority of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, which represents Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism in the country. FEOR's oversight is managed by Aron Gurevich, the chief rabbi for Russia's law enforcement and military structures, who regularly visits the city to participate in memorials for Russian and Soviet soldiers who fell in East Prussia during both World Wars.

Sabbath services are conducted at the New Synagogue by David Shvedik, a kosher cafeteria operates throughout the week, and weekday evening classes are held by the Kolel Torah program. Viktor Shapiro uses the space to host lectures, poetry readings, and art exhibitions. On all days except Saturday, the central hall hosts paid tours and concerts. There is also a proposal under consideration to install an organ, similar to the instrument that existed in the original building before the war. It was initially planned that the spacious building would house all active Jewish organizations in the city, including the Jewish Agency and Hesed. However, the leadership of these organizations has been hesitant to relocate their offices, expressing concern over potential institutional dependence on FEOR, whose expansionist policies have drawn criticism from some of the early founders of the local community.

General management of the new facility is overseen by Vladimir Katsman's brother, Mark. Vladimir Katsman himself plans to expand the project; construction is currently underway on an adjacent plot for a large hotel complex with underground parking. The long-term vision includes the development of an entire Jewish quarter complete with dedicated infrastructure and a pedestrian zone. Notably, since 2018, Oktyabrsky Island (formerly Lomse), where the synagogue stands, has been designated a Special Administrative Region, offering offshore-style tax benefits similar to Russky Island in Vladivostok.

Russia's Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar maintains a close interest in the region. Last year, he visited several local enterprises producing kosher goods, including the Korat fish cannery near Pionersky (formerly Neukuhren), which exports canned tuna to Israel, and the processing plants of the Sodruzhestvo Group.

A few months ago, 23-year-old Chabad emissary Avraham Deitch was appointed as a rabbi in Kaliningrad. Born in Israel, Deitch speaks fluent Russian, having spent time at a yeshiva in Moscow in addition to his studies in Israel, Germany, and the United States. Raised in a strictly religious environment, he possesses neither a Soviet nor an anti-Soviet background. It remains to be seen how the arrival of this young rabbi, who has yet to establish significant local influence, will affect the position of David Shvedik. Nonetheless, his appointment clearly marks the beginning of a new chapter in the city's religious life.

Beyond the Community

The construction of the synagogue, combined with a broader public interest in the region's history and Jewish heritage, has expanded this discourse beyond purely communal boundaries. This interest is shared by researchers at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU).

For instance, Associate Professor Ilya Dementiev and former IKBFU student Elena Vorobyeva contributed to the volume "In the Reflection of Kristallnacht: The Jewish Community of Königsberg, the Persecution and Rescue of European Jews"[5]. In 2019, IKBFU scholars of Russian philosophy and nationalism Andrey Teslya and Vladas Povilaitis hosted a roundtable discussion featuring Professor Vasily Schedrin of Queen's University, a prominent historian of Russian Jewry. Following the discussion, Schedrin recorded a series of educational videos on Jewish studies specifically for IKBFU, which are available on the university's "Philoso FAQ" YouTube channel.

The local Museum of History and Art also actively promotes Jewish historical themes. In 2017, the museum hosted the exhibition "Jews of East Prussia," developed in collaboration with historian Ruth Leiserowitz. Historians Michael and Ruth Leiserowitz have spent many years researching the region's Jewish history, organizing exhibitions and academic seminars. They founded the society "Jews in East Prussia" (Juden in Ostpreußen), which maintains a multi-lingual web portal at http://www.judeninostpreussen.de as well as active social media pages in Russian, German, and Polish. The couple is currently developing a permanent historical exhibition for the New Synagogue of Kaliningrad dedicated to the history of Königsberg Jewry.

When discussing modern Jewish life in Kaliningrad, one cannot overlook its direct, though increasingly fragile, link to the pre-war era of East Prussian Jewry. Until relatively recently, Josef Tzvi Dunner (1913–2007), the last rabbi of the Orthodox community of Königsberg, maintained contact with his home city until his death. In March of this year, Michael Wieck (1928–2021), author of the memoir "The Sunset of Königsberg," passed away in Stuttgart from COVID-19 complications. His memoir served as the basis for the prominent Moscow Teatr.doc production "Kantgrad," which faced controversy for its candid portrayal of the Soviet administration's actions in occupied Königsberg.

For the synagogue's opening in 2018, Nechama Drober (born Hella Markowsky in Königsberg in 1927), a classmate of Michael Wieck, traveled to Kaliningrad. Now an Israeli citizen, she lived in Chisinau after the war prior to her emigration, where she was known as Nina Pavlovna. She retains remarkable mental clarity and memory, serving as one of the last living witnesses to the era when the Jewish community of the "City of K" played a significant role in global Jewish history.

From the General to the Specific

What conclusions can be drawn regarding the experiences of the Jewish community in the former capital of East Prussia? Is Kaliningrad typical of the Russian provinces in this regard? The answer is both yes and no.

On one hand, the development of the organized Jewish community in the city closely mirrored trends across the Russian Federation. In the late 1980s, the "Society for Jewish History and Culture" was established under the aegis of the Vaad, followed by the opening of a regional branch of the Russian Jewish Congress, the Jewish Agency, and Hesed. Demographic trends also aligned with national patterns, with a sharp rise in emigration during the 1990s leading to a significant reduction in the local Jewish population.

Following the establishment of KEROOR in 1993, the first rabbi was appointed to Kaliningrad. The creation of FEOR in 1999 led to institutional divisions within the Kaliningrad community, resulting in disputes that have since been resolved by FEOR establishing effective oversight over local communal life, reflecting a broader national trend. As the Kaliningrad case demonstrates, this outcome was driven not only by FEOR's close relations with federal authorities, but also by the initiative of its local representatives. By 2015, as national tensions between FEOR and KEROOR subsided, a similar normalization occurred between the two Kaliningrad congregations. The transition from foreign philanthropic funding to reliance on local Jewish business sponsors is also typical of the Russian provinces.

At the same time, several distinctive features unique to Kaliningrad remain. This is particularly evident in how local Jewish residents engage with the region's historical legacy.

Virtually none of the current residents have personal family roots tied to the pre-war history of the region. The population of Kaliningrad consists of descendants of settlers from various parts of the former USSR. While federal and local authorities actively reinforce cultural and historical links to mainland Russia to discourage potential regionalist sentiments inherent in an exclave, younger generations of local residents increasingly identify with the region's historical past. Figures such as Kant, Hoffmann, and the Teutonic Knights have effectively become local cultural symbols. While the majority of residents undoubtedly identify with Russian culture, they also experience nostalgia for the region's Soviet-era symbols, such as the House of Soviets in the city center, whose planned demolition sparked significant public debate.

This complex cultural dynamic naturally influences local Jewish residents, whose Jewish identity is shaped by several distinct sources.

First is the historical connection to Russian and Soviet Jewry, of which all modern Jewish residents of the region are a part. For the older generation, this remains a primary component of identity, where Soviet cultural heritage often takes precedence over religious practices.

Second is the connection to broader Jewish history and religious tradition, a link that the "Jewish Community of Kaliningrad" and its two rabbis actively work to strengthen. However, despite its symbolic importance, this religious aspect directly engages only a relatively small portion of the local Jewish population.

Third is the connection to the State of Israel, where many local residents have family members. While this connection strongly reinforces Jewish identity, it is a feature shared with Jewish communities throughout Russia.

The fourth source, however, is unique to Kaliningrad. This is the intellectual and emotional connection to the pre-war German-Jewish heritage. For the local Jewish intelligentsia, it is natural to view figures such as Hannah Arendt, Leah Goldberg, and Eduard Birnbaum as their historical predecessors. Memorial ceremonies are increasingly held at the historic Jewish cemetery, which contains no post-war graves. Similarly, local Holocaust commemoration focuses primarily on events that occurred on this territory, such as the Palmnicken massacre and Kristallnacht.

Consequently, the identity of Kaliningrad's Jewish residents represents a unique synthesis of these diverse elements. The physical manifestation of this synthesis is the rebuilt New Synagogue, which, despite its modified appearance and contemporary name, serves to bridge the dual heritages of the community: Königsberg and Kaliningrad.

1 | Wieck, M. The Sunset of Königsberg: Testimony of a German Jew. translated into Russian by Yu.A. Volkov; edited by Renate von Maydell and M. Bezrodny; introduction by V. Chaly. — Kaliningrad: Pictorica Publishing, 2016.

2 | David Franz Kälter, “Die Judische Schule in Königsberg / Pr. Ein Gedanke und seine Verwirklichung”, Leo Baeck Institut Bulletin 4 (1961), Nr. 14. S. 145-166. Translated into Russian by Viktor Shapiro: https://berkovich-zametki.com/2006/Zametki/Nomer10/VShapiro1.htm

3 | Maslov, E. A. "The Non-Orthodox Population of the Kaliningrad Oblast in the Religious and Political History of the Region, 1948–1958," National and Religious Minorities in the Baltic Region: Collected Papers / Eastern Europe Research Club. — Kaliningrad: KGU Publishing, 2004. — Vol. 2. — p. 30.

4 | Shapiro, V. "Where are you, 'Synagogenstrasse'?," Evreysky Kamerton, Tel Aviv, June 26, 1998, pp. 14-15.

5 | See Dementiev, I. "Limits of the Local Perspective: The Fate of the Königsberg Jewish Community in Modern Western Historiography"; Vorobyeva, E. "The Jewish Community of Königsberg in 1933–1939" in: In the Reflection of Kristallnacht: The Jewish Community of Königsberg, the Persecution and Rescue of European Jews // Proceedings of the 8th International Conference "Holocaust Lessons and Modern Russia." Edited by I.A. Altman, J. Carlebach, and K. Feferman — Moscow, 2014. — 248 p.