The plan to start Jewish colonization in South Russia and the Crimea, with a view to establishing a Jewish autonomous province has undergone a change. A group of practical rescontruction workers have prepared a new plan which eliminates entirely the political tendencies attached to a colonization project calling for an autonomous Jewish region.
The changed plan calls for immediate action in starting the settlement of Jewish families on the available land in South Russia and the Crimea. The new plan is having the support of the Government and of responsible Jewish social workers. The Soviet Government is willing to reserve until a certain time large tracts of land in the neighborhood of the existing old Jewish colonies in the Ukraine and the Crimea, freeing the settlers from taxes and giving them other facilities.
According to reports received here from densely populated Jewish regions, it is evident that the economically ruined population regard this project as their only salvation from their present distress.
It is stated that the originators of the plan intend to take immediate action toward the settlement of the first 1,500 Jewish families. For this purpose the sum of $1,000,000 will be required. Emphasis is made that unless this sum is raised immediately a great historic opportunity for the solution of the Jewish economic problem in Russia, which is now acute, will be lost.
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.
