Tract of 21/2 Million Hectares Asked for Settling 1,000,000 Jews (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
A request that the regions of Bir and Birdschan, Siberia, be set aside for the purposes of Jewish colonization work was directed by the Comzet, governmental department for settling Jews on the land, to the All Russian Committee for Transmigrants. The Committee has charge over the unsettled areas which are to be allocated for colonization work.
Commenting upon this decision of the Comzet, “Der Emess,” Communist Yiddish daily, heralds it as a new page in the history of the Jewish working masses. The Birdschan region has a great future for Jewish land settlement, the paper states. The area consists of two and a half million hectares, the present population consisting mainly of Russians and Koreans, numbers 27,000. The project, when realized will include the concentration of one million Jews in an area which has an excellent climate and soil capable of the cultivation of wheat, rice, grapes and is only several hours journey from Charabowsk and 940 kilometers from Vladivostock.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
