J. D. B. News Letter

Beginning with the announcement that he had just received a telegram from Moscow stating that the summer harvest in the Jewish colonies has again been satisfactory this year, and that feeling in all the colonies is once more extremely optimistic, Dr. J. Zegelnitzky, the Director of the Ort work in Russia, in submitting his report to the meeting of the International Council of the Ort, said that however successful the Jewish colonization may be, it cannot do away with the vast economic distress of the Jews of Soviet Russia.

The economic disintegration of the masses of the Jewish population in the towns and townships of White Russia and the Ukraine proceeds at a rate far more rapid than the development of the colonization work and the consolidation of the existing Jewish colonies. These declassed masses see their only salvation in finding a place in small and heavy industry and in artisanship. It will therefore have to be considered a lasting service on the part of the Ort Federation, he said, that years ago it had already foreseen this development, and had taken action in time to arrange for bringing machinery and raw materials into the country. The agreements concluded by the Ort Federation for this purpose with the Soviet Government enable it now to conduct a systematic and extensive activity on behalf both of the declassed Jews who must turn to handicraft and home industry, and of the old artisans. In the short period of the seven months of the present year, 1929, about 4,500 applications for machines had been made to the Ort offices in Moscow. In order to help the declassed Jews to become artisans, the Ort is establishing cooperative public workshops in a number of towns, and the local State co-operatives and authorities are providing part of the funds. In order to supply the necessary raw materials and partly manufactured goods, the Ort is opening loan banks in Kiev and Charkoff in conjunction with the Agrojoint, and raw material bases in conjunction with the local authorities.

It is of special importance, Dr. Zegelnitzky declared, to direct the youth among the declassed Jewish population to productive activity. The position of these hundreds of thousands of young people who have no occupation, is a tragedy without comparison anywhere, he said. It is the task of the Jewish relief organizations to direct these young people to productive work. In order to carry out this task, technical training courses for young people are being established in many places in the Ukraine and White Russia. Measures are also being taken to transfer large groups of young people who are suited for industrial work from the congested small towns of the former pale of set-

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tlement into the central industrial regions, the Urals, the Donetz Basin, etc., where there are greater prospects for employment.

In the forefront of the agricultural work of the Ort in Russia stands today the providing of funds for the Ort colonies in the Odessa region and in White Russia, through the introduction of new payable cultures, Dr. Zegelnitzky went on. In the course of the present year, he said, several hundred desiatin of land will be made available for viticuiture in the Odessa region. The soil will be prepared by the tractors which have recently arrived from America. In White Russia, in the district of Pervomaisk and Podolia, attention is being concentrated at the moment on the development of vegetable gardening and the Jewish agricultural work in the vicinity of the towns.

Of special importance, Dr. Zegelnitzky added, is the activity inaugurated recently by Dr. Singalovsky in the United States, which seeks to establish contact between the Jewish population of the towns and townships in the Ukraine and White Russia, and their fellow-townsmen who are now in America, organized in their Landsmanschaften. Thanks to these efforts, and to Dr. Singalovsky’s activities, a large number of the Landsmanschaften in New York, notably the Landsmanschaften. Thanks to these efforts, isk, etc., have placed contributions at the disposal of the Ort, which are earmarked for the establishment of workshops in their native places.

Dr. Silberfarb, the chief representative of the Ort in Poland, painted a picture of the economic ruination of Polish Jewry, to which, he said, the government was completely indifferent. More than that, he said, the government policy in respect to the Jewish artisans and traders is largely hastening this process of the ruination of the Jewish population. The ruination of Jewry in Poland, Dr. Silberfarb contended, is a silent tragedy, concerning which public opinion outside Poland is very little informed, but which is no less terrible than the distress of Jewry in Soviet Russia. “I have been in Russia only recently,” he said, “and I studied the conditions on the spot, so that I am qualified to make comparisons. I consequently say this with a quiet conscience and with full responsibility for what I am saying.”

Agronome Feigin, the delegate from Bessarabia, said in his report that owing to the tendency of the Roumanian government to concentrate trade in the hands of the syndicates and the cooperatives, they must expect within the near future a very acute process of declassation among Roumanian Jewry. In Bessarabia, he said, the economic distress of the Jewish population has already assumed a most acute form.

The reports submitted from Lithuania and Latvia also depicted a terrible process of economic disintegration and destruction of the economic life of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe. The distress of these millions of Jews, it was urged, places upon the Jewish relief organizations the duty of extending very largely the scope of their work, in order to cope with this menacing situation and to save East European Jewry.

HICOM AGREEMENT STILL PENDING

In connection with the recent meeting here of the Council of the Hias-Ica-Emigdirekt (Hicem) the Jewish Telegraphic Agency now learns that the report given at the time to the effect that it was decided to prolong the Hicem agreement till 1933 is premature and partly incorrect. The negotiations on the subject of the Hias-Ica-Emigdirekt have not yet reached a final stage.

With regard to the reports concerning the presidency of the Ica, it is stated that no decision has been taken on this matter and will probably not be taken until the autumn.