News comes from Kovno, Lithuania, to the effect that Lithuanian Jews who had gone to Biro-Bidjan. Siberia, a few years ago, at the invitation of the Soviet government, are now begging the Lithuanian legation in Moscow for permission to return to Lithuania. The disillusioned Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who had hoped to build new homes and find new opportunities in the projected autonomous Jewish republic in Soviet Russia, encountered unbearable hardships, and are eager to return to their former homes. According to their stories, they suffered from hunger and epidemics in Biro-Bidjan.
What a sad commentary on the recent exaggerations of Lord Marley and others who endeavored to picture Biro-Bidjan as a new haven of hope for German Jewish refugees!
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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.