(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Jewish artisans in Soviet Russia constituting one of the declassed groups, are seeing a hope for new opportunities in a new Soviet law drafted by the All-Soviet Trans-Migrant Committee. The bill is now awaiting approval by the Government.
According to this project the transmigration of artisans in European Russia to Siberia is to be encouraged, Siberia is in need of manufactured articles which are now being imported from Japan. Siberian peasants are compelled to walk hundreds of miles to neighboring towns in search of shoes and garments. According to the bill the government would undertake to supply those artisans who are willing to migrate to Siberia with necessary machines as well as to provide credit, release them from taxation, free them from military service and pay their fare. If the bill is approved by the Central government 20,000 artisans will be helped to migrate to the Far Eastern regions. In view of the unemployment which is now becoming chronic in the towns and villages mainly populated by Jews, this bill is looked upon as a ray of hope. According to the “Emes”, there are in the Jewish towns and villages “10 shoemakers to each shoe that needs mending.”
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.
