Newspaper Page Text
7
.THE SOU THERN ISRAELITE
The Inside Story Of R
J
ussian Jewry
Stalin s Biographer Discusses Jewish Problems In The U. S. S. R.
By ISAAC DON LEVINE
As Told to FLORENCE ROTHSCHILD
Recently Isaac Don Levine, noted Rns-
inn correspondent of the Hearst papers,
h ns come very much into the limelight he-
‘iiusc of his biography of Joseph Stalin,
Dictator of Soviet Russia. In this article
\lr. Levine speaks his mind on the Jewish
situation in the U. S. S. R. Mr. Levine has
tmt been in Russia for several years, and
some of his views may appear a bit out
moded. I'hey are, however, reproduced here
without comment, because of Mr. Levine’s
snnding as one of the best American ob
servers ever to have occupied himself with
the political and economic problems of the
l \ S. R. R.
> iiimiiimmniiiiMimiimiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiimMimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiimiiimiiiiimii.
You want to know the inside story of
the Jewish situation in Russia? That is
rather a large order. Rut I shall try to
give an idea of it regarding the problem
from two points of view, the subjective
and the objective.
Subjectively the attitude of present-day
Russia toward the Jew is more favorable
than otherwise. Official prejudice against
the Jew does not exist; Jews still occupy
high positions in the councils of the So
viets; the Jew is regarded as a citizen
equal to any other.
Objectively, however, the situation is dif
ferent. The Bolshevist movement has lost
much of its intellectual element in the last
few years, and its mass is now made up
of Russian workers and peasants for whom
the original ideology of the Revo
lution is quite incomprehensible,
whose efforts are consecrated upon
the carrying through of the Five
ear Plan and who have no use
for a group which, like the Jews,
essentially intellectual in its
outlook on the Bolshevist aims
und purposes. Add to this the fact
that a good part of the Russian
population is none too enthusiastic
ver the Five Year Plan—after
all, the Communist Party in Rus
sia has only about a million mem-
>( rs —that the overwhelming ma-
ority is forced to endure priva-
m because of the Plan, that the
nouzhiks have for generations
K ’ en used to vent upon the Jews
ieir anger against conditions in
eneral, and—well, it doesn’t au-
ur well for the Jews of Russia.
It is true, of course, that the
v iet Government is making
enuous effort to stamp out anti-
mitism. But why? I think it is
ar that if the Government is
*ing more and more stringent
easures it is because anti-Jewish
eling is growing among the Rus-
an masses. Not in official circles,
course. Though Stalin has re-
aced many Jewish Soviet officials
md foreign representatives with
Georgian friends and countrymen
ISAAC DON LEVINE
Author of Stalin. Portrait from
lift' by the well-known Berlin art
ist, Hass.
iiimimimiimiiiimimniiHimnmmimmmiimmimmimmmimimimiiimmmiimHmimiiiiimniiHiiii
of his, this is merely an instance of natural
clannishness to which even Bolshevist lead
ers are subject. The high position of a man
like Kaganovich shows that there is no
anti-Semitism in the Russian Government.
But among the people the old habit of anti-
Semitic violence is merely dormant, and
the danger of its breaking out is great.
TSE?—1
TouJarS bF '
KrzrriLVt'jV..' ;
P}oSGo\A, t^OSSiO-^
The Jews of Russia know this. If the gates
of Russia were opened and if there were
any place where the Russian Jews could
go a good many of them would leave at
once.
An interesting sidelight is thrown by
the Soviet Government’s disbanding of the
Yevsektsia, the Jewish Communists’ organ
ization, some time ago. This was done
largely because the Yevsektsia was making
a nuisance of itself. The Bolshevist policy
is anti-religious, of course; but the Yev
sektsia became too militant in its drive
against Judaism. There has been a general
let-up in the anti-religious campaign in
Russia—possibly because of pressure from
abroad—and it was in this process of re
laxation that the Yevsektsia was dis
banded. It was felt, moreover, that the
organization’s activities were not of a
nature to win over many Jewish con
verts to the Bolshevist creed.
As a matter of fact, the role of the Jew
in the Bolshevist movement has diminished
considerably in the last few years. Imme
diately after the Revolution there were
many Jewish leaders among the Commu
nists. Their idealism and enthusiasm had
been fired by the broad, liberating program
of the Revolution. As time went on, how
ever, and the Revolution had to devote it
self to the solution of economic problems,
evolving such offshoots as the New Eco
nomic Policy and the Five Year Plan, these
idealists gradually began to lose
their enthusiasm. It is the course
which the Revolution took that
made it lose its intellectual ele
ment—which included the Jews—
and has now made the Communist
Party merely a passive mass led
by the dictator Stalin and a few
of his aides.
As for the present economic
status of Russian Jewry—it could
hardly be worse. There is, actual
ly, no room for the Jew in mod
ern industrial Russia. Russia—
probably because of her need to
prepare for war—is concentrating
every effort upon the development
of her heavy industries. The Jew
has two handicaps here. In the
first place, he rarely is fit or train
ed to work in industries; how
many Jewish coal-miners or foun-
drymen are there in any country?
Secondly, the centers of Jewish
settlement are mostly at a con
siderable distance from the places
where Russia’s natural resources
are located; and naturally the men
selected for work in a mine or
steel-plant will be those who origi
nally come from the neighborhood.
It is only in the Ukraine where
natural resources and Jewish set
tlements coincide in some measure.
And this (Continued on Page 17)