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Intellectuals Among Jews Repatriated from USSR Are Problem in Poland

November 8, 1957
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The Jews repatriated to Poland from the Soviet Union made for only unskilled and semi skilled workers but also judges, teachers, engineers, technicians and other intellectuals. Furthermore, many of the Jewish repatriates are young people ranging from children to teen-age youths.

These facts emerged from a report in the latest issue, received here today, of Die Folkstimme Yiddish-language daily newspaper published in Warsaw. While no numbers were indicated either as to totals of Jews repatriated, or in a breakdown by professions the type of Russian-Jewish immigration into Poland was spelled out clearly in a report of an important meeting held recently in Wroclaw.

The Wrodraw meeting was an “enlarged plenum” of the district section of the executive of the Association of Jewish Cultural Organizations in Poland. Hersch Smoliar, national chairman of the association and leader of the Jewish section of the Polish Comments Party presided.

Three main subjects occupied the plenum. These were: 1. Finding more work for the repatriates, and vocational retraining for most of them; 2. Creating more cultural activities for the repatriates, 3. Special activities for youth, and improvement of the Yiddish schools.

Some of the participants at the meeting insisted that the Jewish intellectuals among the repatriates must be integrated into Poland’s economy, while others held that the majority should be retrained as workers and be given places in workers’ cooperatives.

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