Between the Lines

Quietly, and without making any statements to the press, Dr. Joseph Rosen, “father of Jewish colonization in Soviet Russia,” slipped into New York this week to report to the leaders of the Joint Distribution Committee on the work of the Agro-Joint in Russia and on his trip to Biro-Bidjan.

Dr. Rosen’s visit to the United States coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Agro-Joint. Experimenting in Jewish colonization in Russia on a small scale since 1921, the Joint Distribution Committee in 1924 organized the Agro-Joint to continue this colonization work on a larger scale and appointed Dr. Rosen to head it.

That the work done by the Agro-Joint in Russia is one of the brightest chapters in the history of the J. D. C. has been acknowledged by all who have followed the process of settling Jews on the land in Russia. Not less than a quarter of a million Jews are today settled in the Jewish colonies in Crimea and the Ukraine, in compact masses, due to the efforts of the Agro-Joint and the able leadership of Dr. Rosen. Forr#erly a problem to world Jewry and the Soviet government because of their social past, these declassed Jews are now a creative element in Soviet Russia and present the best argument against those who claim that the Jews are not fit for work on the land.

SPLENDID ACHIEVEMENTS

But the policy of the Agro-Joint to convert the declassed Jews of Russia into productive elements has not been limited during the ten years of its activities to colonization only. Much has been done by Dr. Rosen in Russia to enable the hundreds of thousands of declassed Jews there to adjust themselves also along the lines of cooperative artisanship. Much has also been done by him in organizing credit kassas.

The record with which Dr. Rosen now comes to the United States after ten years of work in Russia has no precedent in the history of Jewish relief. In no country in the world have a quarter of a million Jews been adjusted to land work by any organization, as they have been in Russia by the Agro-Joint. In no other country has the work of organizing Jewish cooperative artisan shops brought a new healthy life to so many thousands of Jews as it has in Russia.

EXPERIMENTS FOR POLISH JEWS

Now Dr. Rosen comes to America with a report on a new venture which is becoming the center of Jewish interest. He comes to report his findings on Biro-Bidjan and to give his opinion as to whether Jewish colonization there is possible and desirable.

There was a time when American Jewry was justifiably not interested in Biro-Bidjan at all. Now this time has passed. The millions of Jews reduced to beggary in Poland and other East European countries are now becoming a problem to world Jewry, just as the millions of Soviet Jews were ten years ago. Something must be done for them.

The visit of Dr. Rosen may open a new chapter for the suffering Jews of Poland, just as it did a decade ago for the suffering Jews in Russia. Everything speaks for commencement by the J. D. C. of small-scale experimenting in settling Polish Jews in Biro-Bidjan. The scale can be enlarged if the experiment.