Russian “committee for Settling Jews on the Land” Decides to Increase Allotments for Jewish Coloniza

Increased activities with regard to the settling of Jews on the land in Soviet Russia are outlined in the decisions of the official “Committee for Settling Jews on the Land”. At the recent meeting of the Committee a resolution was adopted to immediately allot sufficient land in southern Ukrainia for the settlement of 3,000 Jewish families during 1925.

For the purpose of having all available data on the subject the Committee has decided to ask the Agricultural Commissariats in Ukrainia, Crimea and White Russia to present the exact figures during this month of the land available for allotment for Jewish colonization work.

The Committee has also decided to send several of its members to obtain a first hand knowledge of the soil alloted for Jewish colonization.

The meeting of the “Committee for Settling Jews on the Land” took up the question of organizing the Jewish colonization work in Soviet Russia and the criticism voiced against the previous methods of the work both in Russia and abroad. The Committee came to the conclusion that the best plan for the efficiency of the work would be to create separate Zeks (Central Executive Committees) and Gubispolkoms (Regional Executive Committees) in the respective Soviet republics. These should act as local committees, supervising and putting into effect the colonization plans, according to the directions of the Central Committee. As to the membership of these Committees and the representation of the various elements in them, the official “Committee for Settling Jews on the Land” decided that they should consist of representatives of the Agricultural Peoples Commissariat and of those Jewish social workers who are connected with the “Toiling Jewish Masses.”

With regard to the question of the actual control of the colonization work which was before the official Committee for consideration, it has been decided that the local Committees should have no operative function, but their work should be limited to “regulating the transimmigration and coloniztion.”