A SOVIET JEWISH REPUBLIC

Evening Star, Issue 21520, 19 September 1933, Page 12

A SOVIET JEWISH REPUBLIC

Biro-Bidjan, the new Jewish settlement of the U.S.S.R., lies away to the Far East of Soviet Russia, bordering Manchuria. It is a rich territory of forests, pasture land, and mountains, with large deposits of iron ore and gold. It is bigger than Belgium or Palestine. The early settlers underwent a hard period. For instance, in 1928 and 1929. there were heavy floods. Despite this, 2,700 Jews settled in Biro-Bidjan iu 1930, and in 1932 the number had increased to 9,000. There are' now six Jewish Soviets in Biro-Bidjan, and the territory will be proclaimed an autonomous Jewish district as soon as there are 10,000 Jewish settlers. When the number reaches 50,000 Biro-Bidjan will be constituted an autonomous Jewish Republic. A large part of the Jewish immigration into the region comes, not from other parts of Russia, but from abroad. The Jews in Russia, we read in the ‘ New Russia,’ a supplement of the .‘New Leader,’ weekly organ of the British Independent Labour Party, find employment in the factories an easier solution of the problem of their poverty than any colonisation scheme. Last year 718 foreign Jews settled in Biro-Bidjan. It is interesting to note the countries from which they came. From Argentine, 116; Lithu- ‘ ania, 101; France, 88; Palestine, 74; Germany, 65: U.S.A., 64, etc. The migration to Biro-Bidjan, it is held, ia perhaps the most outstanding event in Jewish life of the post-war period, and may well become a landmark in Jewish history, “no less important than tha first immigration into the United States fifty years ago.” The land which is handed over to tha settlers has already * been cleared, drained, and ploughed. After the first year they can live on their own produce. They get fifteen years’ credit for the necessary equipment, beginning repayment in three or five years, and ara free of all taxes for eight years (nina years if they enter a collective farm). The young men have their military sen* vice postponed for five years. Timber is at present the main industry. Last year there was a production of 400,000 cubic meters of timber ._ Timber forms the basic raw material fop the chemical and furniture factories. There are seven goldfields and immense iron ore deposits. The capital investments in Biro-Bidjan during the first Five-year Plan amounted to 11.6 million roubles.