Former Soviet Union

Afghanistan marks Soviet withdrawal anniversary as Taliban rule draws global scrutiny

The Taliban’s governance remains deeply controversial. Since returning to power in 2021, the group has imposed sweeping restrictions on women and girls and enforcing strict social rules.

|ByTHE MEDIA LINE STAFF
An Afghan Taliban fighter sit next to an anti-aircraft gun near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province, following exchanges of fire between Pakistani and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, October 15, 2025.
New immigrants from USA and Canada arrive on a special " Aliyah Flight 2016" on behalf of Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, at Ben Gurion airport in central Israel on August 17, 2016,

Israel’s conversion crisis is becoming an aliyah crisis - opinion

The gates of aliyah and the gates of conversion were meant to stand side by side. It is time to open them both.

|BySETH FARBER
Holocaust survivors and WW2 veterans from the former Soviet Union take part at the Holocaust Memorial service of their local Police station, Katsrin, Golan Heights, April 24, 2025.

Immigration from Russia, Ukraine, at its lowest since COVID-19, says Diaspora Affairs Committee

Israel expects an additional drop of approximately 50% in Eastern European immigrants, a result of policies that have disincentivized influx from the region, according to various Knesset members.

|ByARIELLA ROITMAN
IN THE Stalin era’s early days, the Kremlin established a new administrative territory in the Soviet Far East – the Jewish Autonomous Region. The region’s capital was the city of Birobidzhan. This 274-photograph album includes images from the city’s early years, from the late 1920s.

'World Enemy No. 1': Hitler, Stalin, and the crime of being Jewish - review

Hundreds of Jewish Communists who had escaped to the USSR were handed over by the Soviets to the Nazis at the border crossing of Brest-Litovsk.

|ByCOLIN SHINDLER

Novel set in a war-torn Ukraine wins Sami Rohr prize for Jewish literature

Sasha Vasilyuk's novel is the second book by an immigrant from the former Soviet Union to win the 2025 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

MAY 21, 2025ByANDREW SILOW-CARROLL/JTA
Books (illustrative)

A memoir of courage and love: British-Israeli pioneer living on the Gaza border - review

Interviews with released hostages and families of victims illustrate how many of them were pioneers who made the Western Negev bloom.

MAY 8, 2025ByWENDY BLUMFIELD
A barbed wire fence is seen on Zikim beach, in southern Israel near the border with Northern Gaza Strip, on April 5, 2016

The growing need for Holocaust education, as Trump's actions won't be enough - opinion

A 2020 Claims Conference survey found that 63% of US millennials and Gen Z did not know that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

MAY 4, 2025ByGREGORY LYAKHOV
PROTESTERS CALL for the release of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil in New York City, last month. On campuses like Columbia and in all levels of education, better Holocaust education is needed, says the writer.

Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson must allow access to information on Wallenberg case - opinion

After eight decades, the central questions in the Wallenberg case remain unanswered: What exactly happened to him after his trail broke off in Moscow in the spring of 1947?

APRIL 22, 2025ByMARIE VON DARDEL-DUPUY , LOUISE VON DARDEL
RAOUL WALLENBERG’S parents, Maj and Fredrik von Dardel, are pictured with Wallenberg’s brother, Guy von Dardel (left), the father of the two authors of this open letter, in a rare private moment during the 1970s.

Alleged KGB report detailing encounter between Soviet soldiers ans a UFO resurfaces

Experts refute the authenticity of a report claiming extraterrestrial beings 'petrified' 23 soldiers in Ukraine.

APRIL 16, 2025ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Column of the Red army infantry. Reenactment of the winter defensive battles of the Red Army in WWII. Image: Maria Moskvitsova.

Wars on two fronts: Russian-speaking olim on making aliyah during wartime - opinion

I am privileged to have gotten to know hundreds of Russian-speaking olim in their 20s and 30s through my work over the past 15 years.

APRIL 5, 2025ByLINDA PARDES FRIEDBURG
NEW RUSSIAN-SPEAKING olim celebrate Independence Day in the Jerusalem Hills this past year.

The enigma of Nikita Khrushchev: Unravelling the Soviet leader's views on Israel, Zionism

The story of the Soviet leader’s time in power, his policies against Jews, and his relationship with Israel and Zionism

MARCH 15, 2025ByALEX WINSTON
NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV (R) and Leonid Brezhnev wave from Lenin’s Tomb in Moscow after announcing that Khrushchev was resigning as first secretary of the Communist Party and Brezhnev was taking over the role, 1964.

Aliyah committee will be ‘home’ for non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, Kariv says - interview

The committee would also examine the issue of people emigrating away from Israel, which Kariv claimed the government was not concerned about.

FEBRUARY 19, 2025ByELIAV BREUER
MK Gilad Kariv attends a National Security committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament on October 15, 2024.

From Sinai to daily life: How small actions create lasting holiness - opinion

BEYOND THE HEADLINES: How parashat Mishpatim and mothers of hostages highlight the power of small actions in creating lasting impact

FEBRUARY 17, 2025BySIVAN RAHAV MEIR
Lena Troufanov (R) and Rabbanit Bazak (L)

Putin says ignoring Soviet role in liberation of Nazi death camps is shameful

As Soviet forces pushed back Nazi troops in Europe in 1944 and 1945, they liberated a number of death camps, including Majdanek, Auschwitz, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück.

FEBRUARY 2, 2025ByREUTERS
THE FRONT GATE of Auschwitz carries the infamous phrase: ‘Arbeit macht frei.’ The writer states: ‘Perhaps we as Jews are less alone in our grief than we may fear.’