Definite and frank opposition to the Bira Bidjan project for a Jewish state in the Far Eastern Republic, was expressed today by Reuben Brainin, venerable New York journalist and publicist, now visiting Russia, at the closing session of the plenary conference of the Ozet, the society for settling the Jews on the land.
In a most tactful address Brainin said that after listening to the many reports on Bira Bidjan, reports which had criticized the Oezt’s management there, he thought that Bira Bidjan was an unnecessary scheme which was artificial and had not aroused the interests of the Jewish masses in Russia.
In a conversation with the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Brainin, who for a number of years has been actively working for Jewish colonization in Russia declared that he was disappointed in Bira Bidjan and doesn’t intend to support it any longer. Nevertheless, he stated, he remains a devoted friend of Jewish colonization work in Crimea which he thinks has great prospects.
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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.