A five year program for settling Jews on the land was adopted at the last session of the Executive Committee of the Comzet, the central government commission dealing with the problem of Jewish colonization work.
Under the program 38,500 Jewish families are to be settled on the land in various parts of Russia. The distribution of the families would be as follows: 12,000 families in Bira-Bidjan; 15,000 in Crimea; 4,000 in Ukraine; 5,000 in White Russia; 2,500 in Usbekistan, Dagestan and Aiserbedjan.
An additional 2,500 families are to be settled in suburban districts of White Russia, Ukraine and Russia proper. Concerning the White Russian swamps, the Comzet decided to leave the amelioration work to the White Russian government, thus avoiding what was feared to be a duplication of work. A large portion of the ameliorated swamp land would be used for Jewish settlement work by agreement with the White Russian government.
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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.