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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