JAO is a Soviet artifact of creating and supporting national regions.

Today it have relatively high (in comparison with other regions) percentage of Jews at 1%. Hebrew is a second official language of JAO.

AFAIK, it was created by Bolsheviks as kind of new Israel around 1929 in one of the most nature rich places, however, Jews quickly began to flee out as Israel state was established, so now it is kind of curiosity.

There are several proposals of abolishing JAO and joining it with Khabarovsk region to ease development and financing. I think with high probability this decision will be legislated sooner or later.