Biro-Bidjan must become a Jewish Soviet Republic in the shortest possible time, M. Lavrentieff, head of the Far Eastern Communist party, declared today in an address before the first All-Biro-Bidjan Soviet Congress, now in session in the town of Biro-Bidjan.
The Communist leader referred to a statement of Michael Kalinin, president of the Soviet Union, in which he said that a Jewish re-public must be created within the next eight years.
“It is our historic task to change the Jewish autonomous area into a republic in less time even than was assigned to us,” Lavrentieff declared.
Pointing out that the Soviet government had assigned 40,000,000 rubles for work in the autonomous territory in 1935, Lavrentieff declared the area would soon be capable of absorbing large numbers of Jewish workers, “who will build a great Socialist economy, a highly developed national Jewish culture, and will change the area from a wilderness to a flourishing republic.”
Last night’s session was the occasion for an enthusiastic demonstration by local inhabitants in honor of the congress. The newly written “Biro-Bidjan March” was played and aroused great enthusiasm.
The Jew has witnessed during the course of his existence the extremes of light and darkness, happiness and sorrow, freedom and slavery, richness and poverty, glory and infamy, of power and of debility.
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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.
