Hope that the city-dwelling Jews of Russia will in time become self-supporting with American aid was held out by Dr. Joseph Rosen, head of the Agro-Joint, the agency through which the American Joint Distribution Committee is enabling thousands of Russian Jews to settle as farmers in the Crimea and Ukraine, just before he sailed for Russia after a flying trip to the United States where he came to make an oral report to the Committee.
In a statement made just before his departure Dr. Rosen said that not withstanding the unusual difficulties that the settlers in the Jewish colonies faced during the abnormal cold weather last winter all of the colonies in the Crimea and Ukraine are in a satisfactory state. Difficult as is the situation of the city-dwelling Jews of Russia, Mr. Rosen assured the Joint Distribution Committee that a number of opportunities can be created whereby employment and the possibility of self-support can be created for thousands provided the funds necessary for training and equipping them to avail themselves of these opportunities can be secured and provided artisans and members of cooperatives can secure raw material. Dr. Rosen added that all of these activities are dependent upon the support that they will receive in the next few years from the Jews in America.
He is on his way to his headquarters in Moscow to develop plans for the extension of the agricultural colonization program, which contemplates the settlement in Crimea of 3,500 new families, approximately 17,500 souls, in addition to the 150,000 Jews who have been established as farmers there since 1924.
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.
