Ethnic groups in Moscow

In 1890 they numbered 40,000 men and the community built synagogues, schools and charities, many located in the Zarayadye quarter on the Moskva River and in Marina Rostcha neighborhood.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917 the pale of settlement was abolished and Jews were permitted to settle again in the city, many of whom were refugees.

In the 1920s and 30s, the state promoted Yiddish-language arts and literature in an effort to influence its Jewish citizens.

This resulted in a brief, rich cultural flourishing exemplified by the famed Moscow State Yiddish Theatre, whose inaugural production (1921) was a staging of Sholem Aleichem's stories with sets by Marc Chagall.

In 2010 there were 53,000 Russian Jews living in Moscow although it is estimated that there are around 150,000 people of Jewish origin in the city.