The city of Perm was founded in the 18th century. It was outside the Pale of Settlement, so Jews appeared here:

• As visiting merchants.

This is mentioned in the economic description of the region at the beginning of the 19th century, compiled by N.S. Popov. From the middle of the 19th century, certain categories of Jews, including merchants of the first guild, were allowed to live outside the Pale of Settlement. There is information that at the beginning of the twentieth century, four out of 19 merchants of the first guild who lived in the city were Jews.

• As exiles.

Perm was one of the places of exile for criminals. Some of them remained in the city after the end of their term. Therefore, the first Jews in Perm, whose names are known from sources, are the former exiles Leiba Gershovich and Itsik Movshovich. A document from 1823 has preserved stating that they were accepted into the tax-paying estate. It is clear from it that they got into exile in Perm in 1813.

• As military.

After the introduction of conscription for Jews in 1827, Jewish cantonist boys of 8-12 years old arrived in Perm to be trained for military service. Documents have been preserved that 380 cantonists were baptized between 1837 and 1842. In 1860, there were 216 Jewish military personnel in the entire Perm province. According to the 1897 census, 48 ​​Jews in the military service lived in Perm.

• As evacuees.

Two world wars added evacuees to the Jewish population of the city. There is information that in 1914, 60 refugee families received help from the Jewish Committee. The second wave of Jewish resettlement fell on the Second World War.

Many evacuees remained in the city after the end of the war, as the regional authorities turned a blind eye to restrictive measures regarding the admission of Jews to universities. As a result, in 1959 more than 10 thousand Jews lived in the region. The vast majority of them were urban dwellers. In 20 years, the number of Jews has halved and in 1979, there were 5.9 thousand, and a decade later - 4.6 thousand.

The first Jewish cemetery appeared in the city since the 1840s. The education system developed from the second half of the 19th century. In 1869 the first cheder appeared, and in 1910 the so-called Russian-Jewish two-year school. Already in 1914, the community asked the city council to allocate land for the construction of a Jewish school. Until the end of the 1920s, a Jewish library, a kindergarten and a vocational school operated.

According to the 2010 census, 1.8 thousand Jews lived in the entire region. 1.5 thousand of these are in Perm.