Soviet Government Will Provide Additional $10,000,000 for Jewish Colonization Fund, Paper Reports

The Soviet Government will provide $10,000,000, in addition to the $10,000,000 fund which is to be raised by leading American Jews, including the $5,000,000 subscription of Julius Rosenwald, for creating a $20,000,000 revolving fund to promote Jewish colonization work in Crimea and White Russia, states to-day the “Freiheit”, Yiddish Communist daily of New York.

In commenting upon the Jewish Telegraphic Agency release announcing the $5,000,000 subscription of Julius Rosenwald, the “Freiheit” states:

“The release of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency announcing the contribution of Mr. Julius Rosenwald of $5,000,000 for Jewish colonization work in Soviet Russia and declaring that an additional $5,000,000 will be raised through subscriptions from other American Jews, does not present the matter completely.

“The release does not state the important fact that the Soviet Government is providing a similar sum of $10,000,000 and the entire agreement is substantially not of a philanthropic character. The $10,000,000, which the American Jewish leaders provide, is not a subscription but a loan and the Soviet Government guarantees the loan. Concerning the interest and other conditions, negotiations are still being carried on.

“The $10,000,000 which the Soviet Government is providing will, with the loan from the American Jews, constitute a permanent revolving fund of $20,000,000 to carry on the colonization work in Crimea and White Russia.

“Judging by the feeling among American Jewish leaders, it is entirely certain that the fund will not be employed for the projected mass colonization in Bureya,” the “Freiheit” writes.

When interviewed by the representative of the Jewish Daily Bulletin, Mr. James N. Rosenberg, chairman of the Agro-joint, who announced several days ago Mr. Rosenwald’s subscription of $5,000,000 and the plan of creating the $10,000,000 fund by American Jewish subscriptions, neither confirmed nor denied the report published in “Freiheit.”

The matter is still pending, he said, negotiations being in progress.

“The imagination of Jews everywhere will be kindled with new inspiration and hope by that wonderful act of social and national upbuilding which will be linked forever in Jewish history with the name of that remarkable Chicago Jew, Julius Rosenwald,” observes “The Day”, commenting editorially on Mr. Rosenwald’s $5,000,000 subscription.

“It is not philanthropy; it is much more than charity and welfare work. It is an act of broad historic scope. It could have come only from a man who views life through much bigger glasses than those afforded by one’s individual ego, from a man who looks ahead beyond the today of his life, who is capable of imagining the realization of a dream and who wishes to connect his name with a beautiful ideal reaching out into the distant future.

“What Mr. Rosenwald has done must kindle hearts and minds. We hear that his wonderful example has already brought fruit. A number of persons, among them the indefatigable and devoted Felix M. Warburg, have appreciated the fascination of Mr. Rosenwald’s accomplishment. Now the Jewish colonization work in Russia is on a more secure basis than ever before. The Soviet Government itself is not lagging behind. With the same generosity with which it has viewed the task of improving the living conditions of the Jewish masses in the Soviet territories, with the same high mindedness which it has displayed from the very beginning, making possible the work, the Soviet Government is, we hear, contributing an amount equal to that which is being raised in America.

“What appeared yesterday to be an impossible fantasy is today a firm and beautiful reality. The storekeepers and the Luftmenschen of the small, impoverished Jewish towns, now become productive toilers of the soil, living in the sweat of their brows and reconstructing entirely their social status,” the paper writes.

Arthur Brisbane, writing in his column on Mr. Rosenwald’s subscription, says:

“If each would stick to his family and his people as Julius Rosenwald does there would be fewer poorhouses and less misery.

“Mr. Rosenwald gives $5,000,000 to buy farming land for his co-religionists in Russia, largest gift ever made by an individual for Jewish relief abroad.

“The ignorant, associating Jews with clothing, real estate, etc., ask, ‘Can Jews succeed at farming?’ They ought to. Abraham pastured his flocks and herds long before the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ farmer came into existence.

“It may be added that Mr. Rosenwald’s many gifts are distinctly non-sectarian, not confined to those of his own race. He is one of the largest contributors in America to the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association, Red Cross, etc.”