A further reduction in the number of Jewish members of the Communist Party, who now average less than 5% of the total membership, is awaited as a result of the new purging process announced by the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
Many Jews will be expelled, it is believed, inasmuch as the Party views with suspicion members who previously belonged to other parties, and the proportion of such members is highest among Jews. About 15% of the Jewish membership in the Communist Party consists of former members of the Bund, Jewish Socialist Party, and the Poale Zion.
According to the last statistical record, that of 1927, the number of Jewish members of the Communist Party as well as candidates for party membership, totaled 49,511, including 11,545 women, the whole comprising less than 5% of the entire membership.
In the five years that have intervened, the Party membership has increased from 773,220 to more than 2,000,000, but the Jewish membership has not increased in the same proportion. The most liberal estimates set the number of Jewish Communist Party members at 75,000, which would make their proportion even less than 5%.
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.
