Chaluzim Colony Closed in Russian Central Asia

Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service

A trial which took place in the Tashkent Court for Labor Affairs has led to the closing down of an agricultural Chaluzim collectivist colony near Tashkent in Russian Central Asia.

The colony was organized in the autumn of 1924 by a group of Tashkent. The Commissariat of Agriculture granted the colony on lease an area of 60 desiatin of land including orchards and vineyards. The colonists were also given a certain amount of live and dead stock. But the colony needed more money to carry on its work. A member of the Chalutz Organization named Maso, proposed at this point that a loan of 3,000 roubles should be raised from the Joint Distribution Committee on condition that 3 Chaluzim should be admitted as members of the colony. As according to the statutes of the colony each member had to contribute 300 roubles it was therefore possible to admit only 10 Chaluzim and the remaining 20 were registered as their children.

Not long after the deal had been concluded, there was friction between the Chaluzim and the members of the Left “Bolshevist” group of the colony who demanded the exclusion of the 20 “children.” The Chaluzim, however, prevailed upon the other colonists to exclude the Left disturbers. A few of the Chaluzim also left the colony for various reasons.

As a consequence a complaint was lodged with the Labor Court at Tashkent, that the statutes of the colony had been violated and that a number of the workers of the colony had been exploited by the members. The trial lasted seven days. The prosecutor was a member of the Tashkent Jewish Communist Section named Bogar, who accused the Chaluzim of counter-revolutionary activities. The Court decided that the colony had fallen into the anti-Soviet hands of the Hecholuz and that it should therefore be dissolved and the colonists purged of the harmful elements of Chaluzim and Zionists.

The former President of the Colony, Simenovsky, was sentenced to be publicly reprimanded for having concluded the agreement with the Chaluzim and Rubinstein was sentenced to a year and a half conditional imprisonment, Briskman to a year and Pereptchoi, a former Chaluz, to six months.

Among the new members elected to the board of directors of the American Red Cross, New York County and Bronx, at the annual meeting were Colonel Michael Friedsam and Miss Cathering Leverich.

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