Rosenberg Protests Dragging Jewish Reconstruction and Relief Problems in Russia into Politics and Co

who desire to enter the settlements.

“The program of Jewish farm settlement has had to be conducted under unusual circumstances and from time to time has been faced with serious problems. Notwithstanding all this, it has now been virtually established that the Jews settled on the land fare better and occupy a more economic position in the life of Russia than the great majority of the Jews in the cities and villages.

“This organization, of which Messrs. Julius Rosenwald and Felix M. Warburg are honorary presidents, has enabled thousands of Jewish families to leave the cities and villages where they were herded in ghettos and constituted an outcast class practically without rights of citizenship, to become self-supporting farmers.

“Last Fall, during the rigors of the Government grain collections, several hundred Jewish settlers tried to leave the Jewish settlements in the Crimea to return to their cities and villages. It did not take them long to discover that there conditions were much worse. With very few exceptions, all of these settlers have applied for reinstatement in their old settlements.

“The question of collectivizing the farms, which is now agitating Russia, has brought up a new problem in our farm program. It would be impossible to carry on the Jewish farm work in Russia under a different system from the general Government policy. In some respects, the collectivization program will not be completely new, as a considerable amount of our work has been carried on, from the very beginning, on a cooperative basis. The collectivization plan is an experiment and if the experiment should prove successful for the peasantry at large, it may benefit the Jewish settlers as well; should it fail, the Jews will be in the same position as the remainder of the population.

“The Russian Government has cooperated to the fullest extent with the Agro-Joint and with the American Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in Russia, Inc., and besides making available large tracts of land, of more than one and three-quarter million acres, and advancing substantial credits, provides substantial amounts yearly in its budget for the settling of Jews on the land.

“The question of religious persecution in Russia is not solely or primarily a Jewish question. It affects Christians, Moslems and Jews alike. Deeply as we deplore the anti-religious policy of the Soviet authorities, we cannot help but note that under all circumstances 3,000,000 Jews will remain in Russia, will have to stay there and will have to become producers under the Russian law and system, before their economic and civic position can be made secure.

“Any statement or unsubstantiated information which deals in generalities and which makes problems of Jewish reconstruction and relief in Russia subject to politics and controversies, deals a deadly blow to the Jews of Russia who cannot possibly reconstruct their lives under new and trying conditions without the aid of American Jewry.

“We deplore the fact that statements recently made with regard to the agricultural work among Jews in Russia were made without any attempt to substantiate them from records and data which we have in our files and most of which have been disseminated to the public for the last five or six years.

“In our work we have taken and will continue to take counsel, not of our fears, but of courage and an invincible determination to bring help and hope to the Jews of Russia. It is they who spontaneously developed the movement of Jewish farm settlement in Russia, who availed themselves of the opportunities offered them and who entreat us now to stand by them and not to desert them especially in the hour of their trial.

“Nobody minimizes the difficulty of the situation now prevailing in Russia, not alone for Jewish settlers, but for the hundreds of thousands of the Jewish urban population. In our endeavor to bring aid to the Jews of Russia, we shall not be deterred by carping criticism and misinformation.”