In his speech to the recent meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Socialist Republics, S. Dimantstein, president of Ozet, society for the settlement of Jews in the Soviet Union, surveyed the position of the Jewish agricultural settlements in Russia.
A number of Jewish village councils were created in those regions and about a year and a half ago the Jewish autonomous region was established in the Far East, where thousands of Jews have been settled on land. In the city of Biro-Bidjan alone here is to-day a population of 12,000 to 13,000, and in the five districts of the Region a large number of Jewish and non-Jewish settlers live in complete amity.
In 1936, Mr. Dimantstein went on, it is proposed to settle 10,000 new Jewish settlers in the region. It is expected that the settlement work will be carried on for several more years.
In the city of Biro-Bidjan, which was created by the Jewish settlers, 158 undertakings are at present in the course of construction, including a tailoring factory, where 2,000 workers are to be employed, a knitted goods factory, a shoe factory and a car factory, with a total employment capacity of 8,000 hands.
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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.