In 1934, the USSR officially designated the region surrounding the capital city of Birobidzhan the Jewish Autonomous Region. The official name has endured, although the region never fulfilled its promise of being a homeland for Soviet Jews.
I was reading about Stalin's purges of the late 1930s that reached the J.A.R. when I came across this line, "[Matvei] Khavkin's wife, Sofia, also fell victim to the secret police who accused her of trying to poison [Lazar] Kaganovich with homemade gefilte fish."
Even if she didn't try to poison it, simply offering someone homemade gefilte fish should be an arrestable offence. And if she was trying to poison him, why not choose something he might actually eat, like matzah balls.
"She was arrested along with her husband, sentenced to a labor camp, and tragically ended up in a mental hospital."
Not a surprise, you'd have to be mental to serve gefilte fish.
source: Robert Weinberg, "Stalin's Forgotten Jews."
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