The Jewish community of France is discussing the possibilities of a Jewish land settlement movement in the South of France. The tendency to make of this question a national problem and even a national program has become evident. It has further brought about the union of two diverse elements, taking the opposite views on all other questions. They are the so called assimilationists on the one hand and on the other hand the so called Diaspora Nationalists who are concerned with immigration primarily. For the first, the land settlement plan is a way out of the problem imposed upon them by the large group of East European Jewish immigrants who entered France following the World War.
The immigrants are principally concentrated in Paris and three or four other large cities. France suffers greatly from a lack of land workers. The young peasants refuse to stay in the villages, and migrate in large groups to the cities. The fields remain untilled, the ranks of the old peasant workers are decimated because there is no young generation behind them. Thus agricultural workers today constitute a vital problem in France. Hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers have been pressed into service to meet this problem so that there is no dearth of land workers today.
The majority of these imported land workers are Italians, concentrated in fairly large groups near the Italian border. It is feared that in time they may create a national minority, capable of presenting their own demands and forming an Italian “Irredenta.” Their demands, some argue, may call forth the intervention of the Italian Government, causing a controversy between France and her sister state.
The Polish elements too have settled in such compact masses that there are places today where the French peasants themselves feel like a national minority. Recently an interesting table of statistics was published showing the division of national groups in the village of Patine in the district of Kalvados. The population figures showed that in the village there were 13 Spaniards, 11 Russians, 6 natives of Luxembourg, 19 Italians, 20 Belgians, 154 Czecho-Slovakians, and 1298 Poles; or 1533 foreigners to a native French population of 450, with the Poles already demanding schools and concessions.
Under such circumstances, Jewish workers are to be preferred, it is argued. They constitute no danger since there is no political power behind them, capable of putting them to its own uses.
The one time solution for the Jews-immigration-has evaporated. Colonization has become the most popular solution for a very serious situation. The question is: Where shall the Jews be colonized? The Diaspora National (Continued on Page 4)
Thus from two very diverse viewpoints the Jewish land settlement movement in France has been created. At first this plan was propogated by the War Relief Committee; later it was taken over by the Emigdirekt; last year a special ‘Central Committee to Aid Jewish Emigrants” was formed, representing fifteen French Jewish Organizations. This Committee has undertaken the work of transferring the immigrant Jews to the land.
That the Committee is working energetically and sincerely, no one can deny. At the same time it would be extravagant to talk of a “Jewish Colonization in France.” The work is of such miniature proportions that it does not merit the title, Jewish colonization.
Recently the committee arranged a mass meeting at which an address outlining the program of the committee was delivered by its director, R. Greenberg. His address disclosed the following facts. Two or three years ago, during a grave unemployment crisis in Paris from which thousands suffered actual hunger, some eighty or ninety, leather tanners, dealers, etc., declared their willingness to settle on the land in some French province rather than starve to death in Paris. The Committee took them in hand and settled them among the French peasants. As soon as the crisis in Paris lifted, ninety percent of them returned to Paris.
The one positive accomplishment the Committee can report is the settlement of 62 people in the province of Volkive in Southern France. These were scattered among certain small farmers of better circumstances (a land worker gets his room, board and a salary of 300 to 400 France). These 62 men are in part immigrants from small Polish villages, in part Chalutzim, to be found in France from to time and who are not expected to remain in the country permanently.
These are the proportions of Jewish colonization in France today. Is it hoped, however, that in the near future Jewish colonization in France will receive a greater impetus and that a larger number of Jews can be settled on the land? This very question was put to the Chairman at the mass meeting. Earnestly and authoritatively he answered: “No.” The difficulties are very great. There is a dearth of human material fitted for the work and willing to tackle it, willing to become peasants. So far, the allure of the small farmers has not been very magnetic. The greatest care must be exercised not to disillusion them, and indeed not to bring about a catastrophe. A swift success dare not be hoped for M. Greenberg is of course optimistic. Naturally he hopes, in time, there will be a larger number of Jews tilling the soil of France. This is only a hope, however, based on a nebulous future.
It is premature, moreover, to name the newly born infant “Jewish Colonization in France.”
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.
