The following article was prepared specially for the Jewish Daily Bulletin by Dr. Lvovitch shortly after his arrival here last week from Paris. Dr. Lvovitch, who is vice-president and member of the praesidium of the World ORT Federation, is in this country to raise funds for ORT rehabilitation and colonization activities throughout the world.
BY DR. DAVID LVOVITCH
Upon my return from my trip through Germany, Poland and Latvia, and after seeing the condition of the Jews in those countries, I felt like one who is recovering from a serious illness. In Germany one meets Jews whose faces express panic, in Poland one meets young people whose attitude toward life is that of sheer hopelessness. In Latvia Jews told me conditions in their country are worse than anywhere, because the economic discriminations they have to face are a new misfortune to which they are not accustomed.
It will perhaps sound to many like a paradox, but when I arrived in Russia from these other countries, I felt greatly relieved. Of course, one should not gather from this that I mean to say the conditions of the Jews in Russia is enviable. It is not, inasmuch as they are lacking in so much that is necessary even for ordinary comfort, but there is no specifically Jewish question in Russia, and Jews in no way feel any discrimination.
WOULD GO TO SOVIET
It is no wonder therefore that one meets large numbers of Jews in the border states who crave to emigrate to Russia. Millions of Polish Jews—and now surely there are as many thousands in the other Eastern European countries — would emigrate anywhere at all if only the way were shown to them.
One hears of an unusually high number of suicides among Polish Jewish business men. And recently this suicide epidemic has been spreading among the younger element, including even disappointed Chalutzim, who failed to secure a visa to Palestine. The Jews in Poland and in Latvia are practically abandoning their hopes of remaining in the businesses to which they have been accustomed. For this reason they are anxious to place their children in vocational schools.
TRADE COURSES POPULAR
There is now such a bid demand for vocational courses—so many apply to the ORT vocational schools for admission, that we are unable to accommodate one-tenth of those who apply. You find in the ORT vocational schools in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Rumania young people who have finished higher educational courses in other schools, even universities, learning manual trades and crafts. The wives and daughters of business men are taking up millinery, dressmaking and corsetmaking.
Out of the total of 114 ORT institutions for vocational training, no fewer than fifty-two are operating in Poland. These institutions include the Jewish Technicum in Vilno, textile and hosiery training factories in Lodz and Bialystok, and a considerable number of engineering, iron-working, joinery, weaving, tailoring and other trade schools in Warsaw, Lodz, Wloclawek, Bialystok, Brzesc, Grodno, Lublin, Piorokow, Rovno, Kovel, Sarny, Wlodzimierz, Krzemieniec, Volynsk, Kobryn and other cities.
5,000 STUDENTS A YEAR
If I tell you that in the vocational schools and workshops of the ORT in Eastern Europe 5,000 persons receive instruction annually at present, and that during the last ten years the Polish ORT had given to about 25,000 the possibility of acquiring a sound knowledge of different branches of handicraft and industrial work, you will appreciate that a very serious work has been accomplished.
The vocational schools and workshops have acquired such a reputation that factories and private artisans are very willing to give work to those who have been trained in them. From data not yet completed for 1934, it can be seen that in Volhynia, for instance, the young men who have been trained in mechanical smithing and joinery have found work not only in Jewish, but also in non-Jewish enterprises. An inquiry carried out by the administration of the ORT Technicum in Vilna shows that a number of its graduates— smiths and electricians— found work in small and big factories, and in public works such as canalization, water supply, etc. A number of graduates of the Technicum emigrated to Palestine and to Russia, and have found work in their respective trades.
LACK OF FUNDS CITED
We have great difficulty just now in supporting our schools, because of a lack of money. Formerly we received liberal support from the Joint Distribution Committee, for which we have been always thankful. But for the past few years ORT has maintained its institutions through funds obtained from its own sources. Many of these schools would have been closed long ago were it not for the sacrifices made by the local populations and the local ORT committees, which have carried on a desperate struggle to keep the schools open.
In a number of towns the authorities demanded that the school buildings be enlarged or that considerable repairs be made. These new tasks added considerably to the heavy burdens of the ORT. Many school buildings would have been taken away by the government in lieu of taxes, social insurance, etc., but in each instance the committee appeared and bought the building back. Many municipalities which formerly subsidized our institutions have now reduced these subsidies. For instance, from the Warsaw government we used to receive 40,000 zloty ($8,000) annually. Now they do not give us anything.
NOTES NEW BURDENS
A new burden has been imposed upon Polish Jewry by a recent Polish act which requires artisans to possess craftsmen’s certificates as a prerequisite to the right to work. More than 20,000 Jewish artisans are affected by this decree which requires that a fee of forty-two zloty, or $8.50 in American exchange, be paid for the certificates and that many Jewish workers be obliged to undergo a qualification examination. Realizing that not only will 20,000 Jewish families face the loss of a livelihood but that one of the most important sources of Jewish labor will be closed, the Polish ORT has prepared a plan for the creation of special courses in fifteen cities for the purpose of preparing thousands of Jewish artisans for the compulsory examinations.
There is a movement now among Polish Jewry for agricultural work. Those who find it impossible to settle on the land, wish at least to develop small garden plots in their small towns where they can raise their own vegetables.
AID 12 FARM GROUPS
We support twelve agricultural cooperatives in Jewish colonies in Volinien, Poland. In Lithuania there is a very successful farm. Magorina, where thirty-two young Jews from Germany are learning farming. Many of them went to Palestine where they were placed on farms. There are more than 100 young German Jews — farmers doctors, lawyers and professional men — who are attending ORT schools in Kaunas and Libo preparing for new vocations. In the Paris ORT there are special courses for German refugees; also agronomical assistance is given by the French ORT to groups of refugees who are desirous of settling on the land in Southern France.
The conditions of the Jewish colonies in Russia is this year much better than it was two years ago, on account of good crops. We helped many colonies to maintain themselves by establishing cooperative factories and workshops where the women were able to work at millinery—and now at toys—which ORT sells to the cooperatives. In this way the women were able to earn from 100 to 150 rubles monthly, which additional income helped the colony to exist.
In the small towns we have organized, and are supporting, about sixty factories where declassed Jews are working. The condition of the Jew in the small towns, however, is not at all satisfactory, and many of the small town dwellers are emigrating to the Jewish colony in South Russia Crimea and now to Biro-Bidjan, where the government is firmly determined to establish a Jewish colony and is spending considerable money to accomplish this purpose.
From my conversation with Peter Smidovitch, who just died, to the great and irreparable loss of the Jews in Russia—for he was a great friend of the Jewish reconstruction in Russia—I learned that the Soviet government would be willing that foreign Jews, who are mechanics or have some useful trade, settle in Biro-Bidjan, providing foreign Jewish organizations provide them with the necessary housing, tools, etc. On this occasion, he stated that he had been commissioned by his government to thank the central committee of ORT for the work it has done in Russia.
On the question as to why I came to this country, my answer is this: When I came to Moscow, everybody asked me what I was doing in Moscow. When I was in Warsaw, I had the same experience. But when I left Paris for America, nobody asked me why I was going to America. Everybody seemed to know.
People are interested in automobiles. On the first two days the new Ford V-8 for 1936 was displayed to the public, a total of 8,683, 900 persons visited dealers’ showrooms throughout the United States to see the new models. When Henry Ford brought out his Model A late in 1927, a total of 5,000,000 persons visited Ford dealers’ showrooms.
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.
