300,000 Declassed Russian Jews Joyful As Government Decision Reinstates Them to Most of Their Citize

Three hundred thousand declassed Jews read with undisguised joy, yesterday’s government decision, the effect of which will be to enable the majority of the declassed to obtain bread cards, to remain in their dwellings without danger of being thrown out, to receive medical treatment, to send their children to schools and to consider themselves as citizens in all respects except that they have no vote in Soviet elections.

The decision did not come as a total surprise, for during the last fortnight, Jewish circles have expected some government measure of relief for those deprived of their rights. While the text of the decision is somewhat ambiguous and there is no explicit statement as to whether those previously evicted from their dwellings will be permitted to return, it nevertheless is clear that all those without rights can submit a complaint and be reinstated, even to their elective rights.

All such complaints will be acted on within three months by special commissions which will be created for a revision of the lists of the declassed. Officials guilty of illegal treatment of the declassed will be severely punished, according to the provisions of the decisions. It is also explained that the children of those without rights, even those who reached the voting age in 1925, but were deprived of the ballot because their parents were without rights, will be reinstated to full voting privileges, providing they have occupations independent of their parents.

This means that they will be registered in the government employment bureaus for work. Not less than 300,000 of those without rights are estimated to be Jews who will be affected by this decision, which opens a new vista, especially for the Jews of the small towns, who were actually unable to get any bread for any amount of money because they had no bread cards.