Several hundred families of the township of Okne, Moldavia, have been merged into one commune, according to the decision of the regional Communist party.
This is the first case in Soviet Russia where an entire township has been converted into one commune. This commune also takes in the neighboring Jewish colony of Valiarka.
Workers, artisans and unemployed are all equal members of the commune. Their lives, as well as the lives of their families, will be regulated entirely by commune rules.
The Jewish population is happy, because this eliminates suffering for the unemployed, since not a single soul in the township is left outside of the commune, which is to provide for all alike.
Reporting this first unique experience in Soviet Russia, the “Emes,” Yiddish Communist daily, asks whether former traders are also included in the commune, and demands that they be expelled if they are so included.
The report of the organization of this commune in Okne doesn’t state how the question of the mutual life of Jews and non-Jews in the commune is to be regulated, in so far as rituals are concerned, since most of the Jews there are religious.
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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.
