The Anglo-Jewish press in America is showing great interest in the Biro-Bidjan project. The Jewish Press, in Omaha, Neb., writes editorially:
Biro-Bidjan, where the Russian government has set up an autonomous Jewish republic and which officially became part of the Soviet council Tuesday, has become a center of attraction in Jewish circles.
Much as Jewish individuals the world over dislike the idea of having destitute Jews from oppressing countries migrate into the Soviet, they are nevertheless watching with interest the experiment by which the first colony of Polish Jews will move into the undeveloped territory of Biro-Bidjan.
HAVEN FOR PERSECUTED
The Jewish Times of Baltimore, commenting on Biro-Bidjan under the headline “A Haven for the Persecuted,” says editorially:
Today, coincidentally with the opening of the Soviet Congress of Biro-Bidjan, Biro-Bidjan has assumed a significant place in the plans of those looking for new homes for hundreds of thousands of economically hopeless and politically disenfranchised Eastern and Central European Jews. Hardly a day passes without a new report about far-reaching plans for settling substantial numbers of foreign Jews in Biro-Bidjan.
Many of these plans are still too vague and uncertain to merit consideration; but the fact that the Agro-Joint thought it important is indicative of the importance attributed to that territory by responsible Jewish organizations.
LET US VOICE PROTEST TO POLAND
Speaking of the Jewish situation in Poland, the Chicago Jewish Daily Courier says editorially:
How have the Jews of Poland sinned, that the Jews of the rest of the world scarcely mention their troubles? Can it be because Hitlerism has diverted all our attention to the Jews of Germany? Perhaps. But if there is no official “Aryan paragraph” in Poland, and no anti-Semitic constitution, anti – Semitism is nevertheless rampant at every step and the “Aryan paragraph” is being practiced in every branch of economics. Moreover, the government not only does not hinder this, but helps by devious by-laws to take the last bite of bread away from the three million Jews, who have no one to turn to for help!
American Jewry should be the first to raise its voice against the destruction of the Jews in the country of Pilsudski. After the American Jews should come the English and those of all other countries. We must not keep silent; the cries for help which have been uttered by the Jewish Sejm deputies must not fall upon deaf ears. They must find an echo among the millions of Jews the world over. We have been silent long enough, and have made things worse. To keep silent any longer is dangerous!
NOT ALL GERMANS HOLD NAZI IDEAS
The London Jewish Chronicle relates the following interesting facts from Germany:
Every now and then a story comes our way to indicate that the better elements in the German nation are only dormant, not dead. We are glad to be able to relate from incidents this week that encourage one in that belief.
The German Students’ Organization, the Deutsche Burschenschaft, submitted a demand to the General Federation of German Students for the exclusion of Old Boys of Jewish origin from their free membership in the students’ corporations. The Federation rejected the demand, and some of its leaders went out of their way to be friendly with the Jewish Old Boys at a subsequent function. The Deutsche Burschenschaft has withdrawn from the Federation as a protest.
The Jewish Burial Society, of Prenzlau, in Braudenburg, has received a substantial donation from an anonymous “Aryan.”
The Jewish Sports Club of Stuttgart has been invited by the German Sports Club to participate in a local festival. The Jewish club accepted the invitation, but the Nazis raise# such a storm that the club has now been asked not to participate.
On All Saints’ Day the Coblenz municipal authorities laid a magnificent wreath with the town colors on the memorial to fallen Jewish soldiers in the Jewish cemetery.
BIRO-BIDJAN RECEIVING FAVOR
The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, under the title, “From Biro-Bidjan to Palestine,” writes editorially:
Whatever opinions one may have about the creation of an autonomous Jewish state in Biro-Bidjan, the fact remains that an event of historic import is being inscribed in the pages of Jewish history. If this news were heralded fifteen years ago, yes, even ten years ago, it would have been received with smiles of incredulity. The whole structure of Sovietism was at that time a flimsy one. Communism was itself insecure, therefore anything that came under the aegis of a communist regime was insecure.
Sovietism in Russia, however, bids fair to remain in the saddle for some time to come in spite of its merits and demerits, and the Jewish state of Biro-Bidjan will be pushed through to consummation in spite of prognostications as to its future.
We thus have two objectives bidding against each other for supremacy, Palestine and Biro-Bidjan, and in spite of their diametrically opposite goals Zionists and Communists look upon these two as rival movements. Palestine, with all its restrictive circumscriptions, still holds the lead in point of numbers, but Biro-Bidjan is beginning to fire the imagination of certain sections of our people who were never interested in that far-flung region, as attested by the alacrity with which many Polish Jews are ready to go there.
‘RESISTANCE TO JEWISH MONOPOLY’
John Bull, one of the oldest publications in England, prints the following editorial remark:
We don’t think any tears will be shed outside Germany over the disbandment of the Liverpool society for “resistance to Jewish monopoly.”
Having sneered at their fellow-citizens for “lacking in racial sense,” the founders have decided to go out of business, thereby showing a little sense themselves.
In trying to stir up the muddy waters of religious intolerance and race hatred they have dirtied none but themselves.
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.
