(WMR)—Chabad Lubavitch Jews from Israel and the United States are moving in to the Jewish Autonomous Republic of Birobidzhan to build up the numbers, as well as economic and political power of the region’s current Jewish population of 4,000, which is only 2 percent of the republic’s overall population.
Birobidzhan, a Jewish homeland creation of Joseph Stalin and also known as the “Jewish Autonomous Republic,” was largely abandoned by Zionists after the creation of Israel. However, with plans by Japan to help finance a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline from Russian Far East fields to the port city of Vladivostok, the Chabadniks see the potential for financial gain. Birobidzhan Jews are increasing their contacts with criminal syndicates in North Korea who use North Korean slave labor to cut diamonds and fashion gold ingots and jewelry for export to Birobidzhan, through Russia and China, and to the rest of the world.
There are plans by Chabadniks, many of whom have close relations with Israel’s Mossad, to relocate Diaspora Jews to Birobidzhan to take advantage of the changing political and economic situation in northeast Asia. These activities are coordinated by Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Mordechai Sheiner who arrived from Israel in 2002. The Israeli government is directly funding the teaching of Hebrew and Yiddish in Birobidzhan schools and the proliferation of Yiddishkeit Ashkenazi culture in Birobidzhan’s media.
Before World War II, the Diaspora Jews of Harbin in Japanese-controlled Manchuria, where Japan’s Imperial government established the puppet state of Manchukuo under the Manchu royal family, were instrumental in forming the Zionist Betar organization, which ultimately became the Zionist terrorist organization in Palestine, the Irgun Zvai Leumi. Many Zionists escaping Europe and those living in the Jewish area of Kobe, Japan, during the war found that Japanese dictator Hideki Tojo was more than willing to allow them to resettle in Harbin and other towns in Manchukuo, where they soon made common cause with the Jews of Birobidzhan. The Jewish areas in Russia and Manchukuo became known as “Little Israels.”
The history of the Little Israels of Harbin and Birobidzhan, and their close association with the Axis, has been suppressed in the history books. There is little appetite among those who support Israel that the nation was founded, in part, with the help of one of Adolf Hitler’s closest allies. In fact, Hitler helped populate Palestine with Jews as a result of the 1933 Transfer Agreement (Hebrew: heskem haavara) between Hitler and the Zionist Federation of Germany and the Jewish Agency of Palestine for the transfer, in return for cash payments and the end to the Jewish call for a worldwide embargo against German goods. Hitler continued to support the transfer of Jews from Germany to Palestine until 1939. Meanwhile, the Japanese encouraged Betar members, trained in terrorist tactics to fight the British, to emigrate to Palestine from Manchukuo and Birobidzhan.
With the changing situation in Asia resulting from the Fukushima disaster, President Obama’s “pivot to Asia,” and northeast Asian regional tensions, Chabad and other Jews are, once again, taking an interest in Birobidzhan.
The Chabad move into Asia is supported by wealthy Jews like Uri Friedman, the CEO of Taiwan’s Starlight Technologies, and Hong Kong billionaire Michael Kadoorie, who helped arrange Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s cordial reception in Beijing by Chinese leaders.
Chabad operatives in India and Southeast Asia have also been linked to the illegal drug trade, especially the smuggling and sale of ketamine and Ecstasy, and diamond, gold, and gem smuggling.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2013 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
