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THE REBIRTH
*
By
Pierre Van Paassen
*
of the LUFTMENSCH
F ORTY-THREE thousand Jewish families
arc engaged in agriculture in the Soviet
Union, or approximately 300,000 Jewish in
dividuals. The majority of these live in White
Russia, in the Ukraine and in the Crimea. At
the close of the civil wars, the Soviet Government
inherited from the old regime in White Russia
and the Ukraine alone 200,000 Jewish widows
and orphans, 60,000 destitute rabbis and mclam-
dim, 25,000 Jewish beggars and a round 100,000
Jews who kept “Schnapps” (whiskey) shops.
Many of the latter carried on money-lending as
a side-line.
The orphans are still orphans, but they have
grown up and most of them belong to the army
of 650,000 Jews who arc now engaged in in
dustry. Some of the “Schnapps” sellers still sell
“Schnapps” in government stores, but they no
longer engage in money-lending. What has be
come of the rabonin and melamdim (Rabbis and
teachers) is hard to say. As far as l could sec many
of them still carry on valorously; that is to say,
many rabbis do. The job of religious teacher,
however, is not in demand. It is namely illegal to
touch from the Torah, or from the New Testament,
or from the Koran to children under the age of
eighteen. Above that age, children have usually
developed other interests. 'This is the case in the
U. S. S. R., as well as in the U. S. A. or Germany
or anywhere else.
Vet no melamed need go without work in the
U. S. S. R. There is work for all and to spare.
At least so several melamdim assured themselves.
It is a question whether a man has been able to
adapt himself to the changed conditions. He can
become a farmer, for instance, or else find clerical
work, or again he may go into industry. No man
is denied a living simply because he has been a
religious teacher or exhorter in the past. The
only bar to making a living is to refuse to work.
There is no discrimination of race, color or re
ligion in the U. S. S. R. Nor is there any unem
ployment.
The Jews of Russia have had an unimaginable
hard time. Their life under Czarism and during the
terror-years of the civil wars when Petluras and
Denikines and dozens of other Czarist pogrom-
chiks of that ilk roamed the country with their
sadistic bands, was hell on earth. Initially the es
tablishment of the Soviet power brought more
hardships. The Soviet regime namely set about to
destroy the basis of the existence of the middle
classes or bourgeoisie. Private trade was abolished,
hor usury and money-lending there was no more
room. 1 he small shopkeeper was forced to the
wall by the cooperative stores. The Jewish cattle
dealer, the grain merchant, the wood merchant
was eliminated by the State trade organizations.
T he Jewish artisan was relegated to the last place
when applying for raw material. First came the
state and the cooperative manufacturers. More
over, the new regime, isolated by Clemenceau’s
Cordon of Death, that is to say shut out from
the world s markets, had no raw materials to spare.
That cordon still operates, by the way.
And so it seemed that the Jews, having all the
old props of their former existence knocked from
under them, were doomed. It goes without saying
that non-Jcwish money-lenders, shopkeepers, mer
chants, manufacturers and artisans had the same
tragic fate staring them in the face.
When haphazard and frequently deliberately
false information about the condition of the Jews
began to reach America in the early days of the
[10]
Biro-Bidjan No Longer a Dream
establishment of the Soviet regime, grave appre
hension w r as felt in American Jewry over the fate
of its brethren in Russia. This was inevitable.
And not only apprehension. There was a deal of
lighteous anger. T here was an outcry. Denuncia
tions were heaped on the head of I^enin and
Stalin and the other directors of the process that
was transforming life in the U. S. S. R. T he
condition of the Jews in Russia has long since
changed, but the denunciators still go on like so
many wound-up clocks.
For that which first appeared as the doom of
the Jews of Russia turned out to be the beginning
of a new life. As a matter of fact the Jew’s were
Modern machinery is in full Sluing throughout the
agricultural districts.
never threatened with extinction. It was the old
life that was extinguished. T he old life in which
the Jews played the dolorous role of a destitute
class of “Luftmenschcn” was swept away for all
time. The road back to that old life is today ob
literated, the bridges are burnt and no matter how
vociferous the critics of the new order of things
may be, the past is not going to come back. The
Czarist-feudal phase of Jewish history, with all
its sordidness and misery, with its mere toleration
of the Jews and its perpetual pogrom atmosphere,
that phase is closed forever.
The solution of the Jewish question in the
Soviet Union was in one stroke advanced to the
point where there was no longer a conflict be
tween Jews and non-Jews. This in itself is an
immense achievement which no other state on earth
has so far been able to duplicate. It means that
the social aspect of the question is solved. There
remains today the national aspect. And contrary
to what is being said by the anti-Soviet press at
the suggestion of the propaganda bureau of the
emigrated Czarist General Staff in Paris, the
Soviets are also proceeding to solve the Jewish
question in a national sense. This is being at
tempted in Biro-Bidjan.
Now as to Biro-Bidjan: I know perfectly well
that it offers considerable difficulty. It is a long
way off. It is virgin country. Jews are not
equipped psychologically and technically for life
in a pioneer s region, consisting of primeval forests,
vast steppes, mountains stuffed with natural re
sources and rivers teeming with Hsh. Of the older
Jewish population, the melamdim, schnapps sellers,
rabonim and beggars, few wall ever find their way
out to Biro-Bidjan. This will be the more so
since nobody is pressing them to migrate. That
there has not been a greater Jewish influx into
the Far East than there has been, is unquestior
ably due to the roaring tempo of industry whi
absorbs millions and millions of human beings, ir
respective of race or nationality. Thereby cam?
the shortage of capital and equipment. But now
that the first Five-Year Plan is completed and
the Soviets are able to turn out their own ma
chinery, the settlement of Biro-Bidjan by Jnv.
will certainly receive a new impetus.
Fifty thousand Jews are out there already
Present indications are to the effect that another
100,000 Jews will move out there in the course oi
the next piatiletka. Several important factories
have been opened at Tichonkaya and Dalstoy. In
Londoko a big chloride and lime factor) w ts
opened this summer. Biro-Bidjan can boast of the
largest preserve factory in the world, opened thi
summer, manned, operated and built by Jews. The
metal industry is constructing a factory in Chinga.
A furniture plant has been erected in Tichonkaya.
the capital of Biro-Bidjan. T hese factories are
modern, up-to-date institutions, especially the pre
serving factory, which is a model.
Jews are cutting down the forests. They are
hunting and trapping, tanning hides and making
furs. They are scouring the hills for gold and
other metals equipped with modern prospector
instruments. The land is being surveyed. Even
train brings newcomers, not only from Russia, hut
Jews from the Argentine, Brazil, Uruguay, Hol
land, Mexico, the U. S. A., France, and even from
Eretz Israel. No quota regulations exist for Hiro-
Bidjan. T here is no wait for certificates. I hi'
land is open to the Jews of the world. Any Jew.
anywhere in the world, will be helped to settle
there if he can only manage to reach the frontier'
of the U. S. S. R. After crossing that boundary he
is sure to find his way.
Biro-Bidjan, it should be remembered, how
ever, is virtually unexplored territory. At present
it takes pioneering grit and endurance to go our
there and stay. Conditions resemble those that pre
vailed in the days of the Covered Wagon in the
last Great West of America. I will not den\
that the prospect of going to pioneer in that coun
try appealed to me personally with ineluctubif
fascination. Were 1 a Jew, out to Biro-Bidjan 1
would go tomorrow. I would want to be among
the foundation-layers of a new Jewish life. I know
1 would not make a fortune. Personal fortune-
are out of the question in the U. S. S. R.. but
would see my people renew its strength like the
eagle renews its strength. I would see it slow'b
develop a new creative productivity. Two cit><>
of Biro are building technicims this year, Nichols*
and Jokaterinow. Schools are opening everywhere.
There are two Jewish theatres in that new
opened district.
For the first time in history the Jews are mo'
ing into a land without causing prejudice to the
inhabitants. T here need be no conquest of Canaan
ites, for there are no Canaanites, nor is there an'
one else, except a few thousand Mongolia!
mads who are already outnumbered by the J f "'
and who have proven utterly friendly to th
tiers, who came bearing the gifts of know
and progress and who (Please turn to pa9 l *
* THE SOUTHERN ISRAF-.’ 11