In 1928 first Jewish homeland of the modern era was created not in the Middle East, but in the Far East of the Soviet Union.
Thousands of pioneers came from all over the world
Most who made the long journey to Birobidzhan quickly returned home defeated by the harsh reality that awaited them there, but this ambitious contemporary opera looks at the lives of an American family and a European family who stay to pioneer Siberia's mysterious Jewish Autonomous Region and how they must rise to the challenges they face in achieving the freedom they seek.
The new musical drama SOVIET ZION takes a closer look at how the political maelstrom of the time would send six ordinary people to the end of the earth in search of a home; at their relationships to the identities that define them; and their search for a sense of belonging that would compel them all the way from Malibu to Siberia and beyond.
The following rare historical footage give a glimpse of what life was like arriving in the Russian Far East, miles from home, to build a whole country from scratch.
