The BiroBidjan section of Siberia, which was once set up by the Soviet Government as a Jewish Autonomous Region, now has a Jewish population of about 14,000 persons constituting only about 9 percent of the total population there, according to a new book on BiroBidjan written by Jacob Levavi, an Israeli author.
Mr. Levavi, who spent five years researching the history and the current situation of BiroBidjan, was today the recepient here of the Leib Yaffe Prize, named in memory of the well-known poet who was director of Keren Hayesod, fundraising arm of the World Zionist Organization. The 1,000 pound ($333) award was given Mr. Levavi by Dr. Israel Goldstein, chairman of the Keren Hayesod.
Of the five deputies representing the region in the local Soviet, only one is a Jew, according to Mr. Levavi. All official business is conducted in Russian. The only Jewish identification found by Mr. Levavi in the region was the thrice-a-week publication of the Yiddish newspaper Birobdjaner Shtern.
(The New York Times reported yesterday from Khabarovsk, far-eastern Siberia, that the Soviet authorities are now attempting to attract non-Jews from various parts of the Soviet Union to settle in BiroBidjan. The report describes the arrival there last weekend of 142 families from Eastern Russia, and says: "When their trains arrived in BiroBidjan, immediately west of here, after a two-week journey, they were greeted by representatives of various state farms in that Jewish Autonomous Region, who sang the praises of their farms. Although founded in 1928 as a Soviet alternative to Zionism. BiroBidjan failed to become a magnet for many Jews and has long since been open to all ethnic groups.)
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.
