Provincial Jewish communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries: Judaism as the forty of identity

The article considers the main regularities of formation and activity of Jewish communities in provincial cities of Russia. It was revealed that servicemen became the basis for the formation of religious communities of Jews. Subsequently, the number of Jewish communities has increased significantly due to a significant influx of exiles and the arrival of Jewish merchants. The existence of Jewish religious communities was the subject to detailed legislative regulation. At the same time, a number of significant problems could not be solved. In particular, training of rabbis was extremely difficult. The difficulties were also in preserving the traditional way of life, the native language.