A Router cable from Moscow today quoted Soviet official sources as indicating that applications from Jews abroad for immigration to the Jewish autonomous region of Biro-Bidjan are now being accepted again. The correspondent added that “the Jewish autonomous region is to be considerably developed during the next few years and a great increase in population is expected.”
“Jews from foreign countries,” a Soviet official told the Router correspondent in Moscow, “desiring to settle in the Jewish autonomous region, should address their applications to the regional executive committee of the Soviet of Deputies of the Working People of the Jewish Region in the City of Biro-Bidjan. The Jewish Soviet Republic is making every effort for the economy and culture of the Jewish region to be developed by a Jewish population.”
The Soviet official especially emphasized that many Jews from the western areas of the USSR, particularly those districts which were occupied by the Germans have recently applied for permission to emigrate to Biro-Bidjan. “To encourage immigration, the Soviet authorities are granting concessions in the form of reduced traveling fared lower taxes, assistance in finding housing and jobs, instruction in skilled labor,” the Router report says. “Today, according to official figures, the population of the region is 108,000; but in the near future it is planned to increase that total by at least 50,000. The city of Biro-Bidjan has 40,000 inhabitants. Current building substage, however, envisage 124,000 in a few years.”
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.
