the jewish autonomous oblast (jao; russian: евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast; yiddish: ייִדישע אװטאָנאָמע געגנט, yidishe avtonome gegnt) is a federal subject of russia. it is located in the russian far east, near khabarovsk krai and amur oblast in russia and heilongjiang province in china. the main city is birobidzhan.