The City Council of Vinice, in Ukraine, has issued a report in which it points out that this town, with a population of more than 50,000, the greater half of it Jewish, is one of a number of towns heavily populated by Jews which have been completely reconstructed economically and culturally in the last few years.
Before the revolution Vinice had a population of 30,000. It was a trading town, with a large number of Jewish traders and Jewish shopkeepers, on the one hand, and a large number of “luftmenschen” on the other. There was no industry, and no higher educational institutions.
At the time of the civil war, Vinice was a center for the armies of Petlura, Denikin, Machno and other pogromist bands who engaged in looting and killing. After the civil war Vinice sent many of its inhabitants as settlers to the Jewish regions in the Crimea and Ukraine, and also to Biro-Bidjan.
INDUSTRIAL CENTER
Since the beginning of the first five-year period, Vinice has grown to be a center of light industry and food preparation, in which a large part of the Jewish population is employed. There is a big meat factory built at a cost of five million roubles; a tailoring factory employing more than 2,000 workers, built at a cost of two million roubles; a big mechanical bakery built at a cost of 1,200,000 roubles, employing a large number of Jewish workers. There are also a big motor tractor repair station, a furniture factory, a brick works, etc.
The greater number of the workers in all these enterprises are Jews, most of them former declassed and “luftmenschen.” There are 800 artisans in the artisan cooperative producing goods to a value of seven million roubles a year. The number of workers employed in industry has increased from a 1,000 before the War to more than 13,000.
There has been a big advance in housing, on which twelve million roubles have been spent. A new electric station has been built, and a new water supply and drainage system has been laid down. Before the War Vinice had five secondary schools; today it has sixteen, and there are also seven technical high schools and three university colleges. An agricultural high school has just been built, and a medical institute and a new library are in course of construction.
According to the plans, Vinice will be completely rebuilt within fifteen years, so that not a vestige of the old town will be left. It will then be a model industrial and cultural city.
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.
