Mongolia Virtual Jewish History Tour

Mongolia, located in eastern central Asia and landlocked between Russia and China, is home to only a handful of Jews. At the end of the 19th century, trade between Siberian-Jewish merchants and Mongolians resulted in a few Jewish families settling on the border. By 1920, a small Jewish community had been founded in Outer Mongolia, made up of businessmen and their families, political prisoners, and Russian Jews fleeing persecution and civil war. The entire Jewish community in Mongolia was brutally massacred in 1921 by the anti-Semitic warlord Baron Ungern, who ordered his followers to kill “all Jews, Bolsheviks and Chinese soldiers.” Ungern suspected the Jews of harboring pro-communist leanings. Only one Jew, Israel-Eli (Alexander) Zanzer, is known to have survived the massacre. He had integrated into local society to the point that he was conferred a noble title and a Mongolian name (Baron Zanzer) honoring Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar by Bogd Khan. Due to his powerful connections (he was crucial to the Mongolian gold mining enterprise), he managed to flee to Lutsk, Poland, where he was ultimately murdered in the Holocaust. The community was virtually wiped out by 1921 when the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces retreated into Mongolia after being defeated in Central Asia.

However, a few years later, hundreds of Russian Jews streamed back into Mongolia, attracted by the opportunity to trade in oil, cigarettes, pelts, and other commodities. Their numbers were bolstered during the Holocaust when Soviet authorities relocated several thousand Lithuanian Jews to farms in Soviet Mongolia and Eastern Siberia.

In 1925-6, a Russian-Jewish journalist came across a community of 50 newly settled families in a remote region of Outer Mongolia approximately 200 miles from the Manchurian border. In 1926, Ulan Bator (formerly Urga), the capital of the Mongolian People’s Republic, maintained a community of 600 Russian Jews who left Outer Mongolia due to increased Soviet influence. Most fled to Manchuria, and those who remained were government workers. Decades of Communist rule left their mark, and the fledgling Jewish community faded into oblivion. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, several Jewish Mongols left the country in search of better economic opportunities. Some moved to Israel due to its visa-free agreement with Mongolia.

Hundreds of Israeli tourists also visit Mongolia each summer, and the majority of permanent Jewish residents in the country are Israeli businessmen or other foreign aid workers. One such businessman is Yair Jacob Porat, an Israeli who moved to Mongolia in 1996 and has taken responsibility for Jewish life in the region, hosting Shabbat dinners, importing kosher staples, and organizing holiday celebrations. Porat estimates the local Jewish community is in the single digits, consisting of Israelis married to locals, expats, and Jewish tourists. Porat has also worked to uncover the history of the Jewish community in Mongolia, locating graves in the Russian-Orthodox cemetery in Ulaanbaatar marked with Stars of David and Jewish names. He believes he has found the mass grave of the victims of the 1921 purge and plans to fence off the Jewish part of the cemetery. Porat hopes that Mongolia will one day have a Chabad center. 

The closest Jewish community with a Rabbi is the Siberian city of Irkutsk, whose Chief Rabbi Aharon Wagner wants to maintain close contact and support the neighboring Mongolian Jewish community.

In July 2017, the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority reported a strange uptick in the number of Mongolians applying for asylum in Israel. Between January and July 2017, 190 Mongolian tourists visited Israel. Of those, 50 applied for asylum, claiming that they were fleeing personal persecution as members of a political opposition party in Mongolia. 

Sources: Federation of Jewish Communities in the CIS;
Kesher Talk;
Itamar Eichner.  Israel faces surge in Mongolian asylum requests, Ynet, (July 18, 2017).
Menachem Posner, 100 Years After Genocide, Mongolia’s Jewish Community Is Tiny, Chabad, (January 9, 2025).

Map: CIA Factbook.