Most satisfactory progress is reported by James N. Rosenberg, Vice Chairman of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee of the United States, who has just returned to Moscow after a three weeks’ tour of fifty Jewish colonies in South Russia and the Crimea, according to a despatch from Moscow to the New York "Times."
Already ###000 Jews have been settled apon the 500,000 acres granted by the Soviet Government. Mr. Rosen berg said mat although the financial help given by the American Committee was a little more than $2,000,000 thus far-in addition to grants of land, timber and seed from the Soviet Government–a highly conservative estimate of the grain crop planted last Winter was between $2,000,000 and $2,500,000. In addition, there are large areas of corn, hay and vines and some orchards and tobacco plantations. Besides the tractors, which have been used continually, traveling from place to place and working for non-Jewish peasants as well as the colonists, the latter have been supplied with horses and oxen and now own fully 30,000 head.
Mr. Rosenberg stressed the enthusiasm of the colonists and their eagerness to adopt the permanent life of the country. They are not, he said, as frequently supposed in America, poor Jews from the cities, but former inhabitants of small towns and villages who already were familiar with the care of animals and with truck farming. Prior to the war and the revolution more than 1,000,000 people of a total Jewish population of 3,000,000 gained a living from small trading. More than 15,000 families, would-be colonists, representing a population half as large again as that already settled, have registered at the Government agencies.
Mr. Rosenberg visited colonies in all stages of development, from prosperous villages surrounded by thousands of acres of grain fields and with their own water supply from artesian wells, and with electric lights, bath houses, schools, synagogues, toolshops and cooperative stores. to little settlements of thirty of forty adults living in dugouts, building houses and preparing the land for the Fall sowing. If the houses are completed soon after the Fall sowing, many will stay on the land throughout the Winter, but the majority will return to the villages to remain until next Spring, when they will return with their families and form regular communities, Mr. Rosenberg said.
"Conferences I have had with M. Smidowitch. Vice President of Soviet Russia, and other Soviet officials." Mr. Rosenberg said. "have convinced me that the Soviet Government is giving the Jewish farmer a fair chance with the rest." an Associated Press dispatch from Moscow states.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
