When the Stalinist purges began, shortly after the creation of Birobidzhan, Jews there were targeted. Following World War II, tens of thousands of displaced Eastern European Jews found their way to Birobidzhan from 1946 to 1948. Some were Ukrainian and Belarussian Jews who were not allowed to return to their original homes. However, Jews were once again targeted in the wake of World War II when Joseph Stalin embarked on a campaign against ″rootless cosmopolitans″. Nearly all the Yiddish institutions of Birobidzhan were liquidated.