Biro-Bidjan Jews feel secure and cannot understand why American Jews place emphasis on military dangers to the autonomous Soviet Jewish territory, according to Elias Tobenkin, American Jewish writer.
The 11,000 workers and colonists feel safe under the protection of the Red Army and the Red Air Force, he declared in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after a survey of conditions among the Jews in the Russian territory.
Mr. Tobenkin held that the prospect of settling non-Russian Jews in the territory was not promising. However, he said, preparations are being made to settle 1,000 Polish Jewish families.
It was hoped that the population of Biro-Bidjan would rise to 35,000 by 1937, when the territory is to become an independent republic, he said.
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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.
