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Work of Ort in United States Proved Great Help to Jews of Soviet Russia, Report Shows

December 17, 1929
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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The activities of the Ort in the United States have been of tremendous relief to the Jews of Soviet Russia, it was reported here today at the Ort conference which ended its third session, with Singalovsky, Zegelnitzky and every other responsible member of the Ort staff from the Ukraine and White Russia in attendance.

The report showed that 4,779 machines were provided through the Ort to relatives, of which 1,300 came from the United States. Over 2,000 broken machines were remodelled and from the funds of the New York Tool Campaign 3,000,000 needles were distributed. With the same funds artels (artisans’ co-operatives) were established in Bobruisk, Minsk, Kiev, Boguslav, Bar, Proskurov, Odessa and Homel.

Most of the artisans who have received machines, either individually or in artels in Moscow, however, are in a bad situation because raw materials are not given to artisans who are extraders.

In order to do nothing to increase the chronic unemployment among the artisans created by discriminations (Continued on Page 8)

Concerning the colonies in the Odessa region the conference heard a report to the effect that not with standing all of the difficulties, the 2,500 families served by the Ort on the soil, have been officially proclaimed as the best peasants in the region and successfully developing not only agriculture, but vineyards and sheep herds. In White Russia the Ort’s agronomists are consulted all the time by the government on Jewish reconstruction, it was reported. This helps considerably to relieve the terrible misery of the Jews in the small towns of White Russia.

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