PURELY COMMENTARY

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

When Self-Help Mirage Failed In USSR

N

o matter how treach-
erous the risks for life
in poisoned at-
mospheres, Jewish com-
munities' spiritual com-
mitments were always given
priority.
While threats of pogroms
are now being widely spread,
cultural centers are being
organized in Russia. Their ad-
vancement is receiving sup-
port from American Jews.
Nobel Prize Laureate Elie
Wiesel has viewed such func-
tions as always important to
Jewish communal life in
Russia.
In the critical early 1920s,
when the fate of Russian
Jewry was literally at stake
with the assumption of power
of communism, there was
hope that there would be
economic security for Jews by
establishing agricultural set-
tlements. It was undertaken
by the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee and
the task gained the title of
Agro-Joint.
The importance of it gains
significance because of the
early interest and leadership
by a prominent Detroiter.
David A. Brown became
Agro-Joint's advocate. He was
the national chairman, in
1924, of the JDC drive for $15
million.

This, too, is worth recalling,
that such a sum, which . is
minimal today for a com-
munity like Detroit, was at
that time the national goal of
American Jewry.
Brown had a many years'
record of leadership in JDC
nationally and in the Detroit
municipality. He believed in
the value of the Agro-Joint
proposals and he went to
Russia to study possibilities.
There is special interest in
the relief effort in the Brown
report which was printed in
the 1925 edition of the
Michigan Jewish Yearbook.
The pity is that these year
books are now unavailable, as
proof of the vital need for
Detroit Jewish archives to
assure the preservation of our
recorded historical
documents.
As an introduction to recall-
ing the develoment of the
Agro-Joint plans, it is vital
that its background be
known. The Universal Jewish
Encyclopedia explains it at
length and the vital points
are:

In 1917, seventy percent
of the Jews in Russia
belonged to the petty
trader class, a condition
forced upon them by the
restrictions of the Czarist

The Remnant

D

isputes over the polit-
ical crises in Israel
and the debates over
the territorial issues have also
developed differing views in-
volving leadership in
American Jewry. Controver-
sies relating to some Jews con-
ferring with PLO affiliates
added to the differing conclu-
sion as to who speaks for
American Jewry.
In the many issues that
have emerged, there is denial
of the claimed unity of the
Jewish people, with the
counter claim that "Establish-
ment" as it operates now is

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Vol. XCVII No. 8

2

April 20, 1990

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1990

that they would be given
Russian citizenship and
would receive equal rights
with the privileged classes
of workers and peasants. It
was generally recognized
that from the point of view
of permanent rehabilita-
tion, mass transition to
productive occupations
was the only solution to the
problems confronting the
Jews in Soviet Russia who
numbered at that time ap-
proximately 2,750,000.

David A. Brown

government. With the
establishment of the Soviet
Union, two million Jews,
together with others in pet-
ty trade, were declassed.
As declassed persons they
were denied citizenship
and deprived of practical-
ly all civil and economic
rights.
The task before the Agro-
Joint was so to restratify
Jews in the economic field

Shearit Yisrael

not representative of the
Jewish masses.
In past experiences it has
been contended that as long
as there is a group, no matter
how small, that carries the
banner of Jewish loyalties,
there is nothing to fear. It is
this contention that has given
emphasis to a claim that "the
remnant" is valuable in
Jewish thinking. It is iden-
tified as Shearit Yisrael as
"the remnant of Israel!" Does
this concept have validity to-
day? Does it reject the panic
over divisiveness? Will it lead
to eventual unity in Jewry, to
the oneness striven for under
the establishment that battles
for solidity in Jewish com-
munal practices?
The roots of shearit are in
our prayers. Specifically it is
in the prayer of penitence
recited on Mondays and
Thursdays. This translation is
provided in the prayer book by
Rabbi Ben Zion Boksev: "Oh
guardian of Israel, guard the
remnant of Israel, and let not
destruction befall Israel, who
proclaim daily 'Hear 0
Israel! "
There is an important com-
mentary on the prayer by Rab-

bi Samson Raphael Hirsch,
who continues among the
highly acclaimed Orthodox
scholars and Bible
commentators:
This is an appeal to God
in which we plead with
Him to guard the shattered
remnant of Yisrael which,
as "Yisrael", should serve
as a memorial of the domi-
nion of God over man, a na-
tion which, through the
declaration of Shema, con-
stantly reminds itself of the
task which, as the nation of
God's sovereignty, it must
fulfill.
We beseech Him to
preserve the remnant of
that people which is united
in the unity and uni-
queness of its purpose, the
people which still bears
through the world the
avowal of the One God. We
beg Him to preserve that
people which must guard
its moral sanctity, both as a
nation among other nations
and as a people in its own
inner life.

The concept is defined as
"remnant" and it is logical to
view those who never cease to

The Agro-Joint began
work with an experimental
project for settling several
hundred Jewish families
on the soil. By the end of
1925, the results of this ex-
periment had so far ex-
ceeded the most optimistic
expectations of the Joint
Distribution Committee
that it was decided to con-
tinue this effort on a more
extensive scale. Dr. Joseph
A. Rosen was appointed
director of the Agro-Joint
to carry out the land settle-
ment program and a
number of industrial pro-
jects which were all
designed to redirect a
substantial proportion of
the Jewish population into
agricultural and industrial
occupations.

The Russian government
was in full sympathy with
the work of the Agro-Joint
and, by supplying free
land, reduced transporta-
tion rates, free tracts of
timberland, and financial
credits, furnished by far
the greatest part of the
necessary investment.
From 1924, when it began
operations with an initial
appropriation of $400,000
from the Joint Distribution
Committee, till the end of
1928, the Agro-Joint ex-
pended approximately
$5,880,000. In that year
(1928) the further support
of the Agro-Joint work was
assumed by the American
Society for Jewish Farm
Settlements in Russia, Inc.
The society without
resorting to any general
appeal, secured $8 million
in private subscriptions
from a small group of in-
dividuals in the United
States, payable over a
period of eight years.
These sums were made
available to the Agro-Joint
for the extension of its
work.
By agreement with the
society and Agro-Joint, the
government of the USSR
Continued on Page 48

To The Rescue

adhere to and struggle for
Jewish rights as the
Hebraically and traditionally
judged shearit. For our pur-
pose, there is much to benefit
from available comments on
the current situation and the
threatened divisiveness.
Rabbi Marc Liebhaber, who
writes interestingly as editor
of the American Jewish World
of Minneapolis, considered
most seriously the obstacles to

Those who never
cease to struggle
for Jewish rights
are "shearit."

Jewish unity in the current
disputes. He provides con-
fidence in an essay in which
he made these observations:
We always were a unique
but never uniform people.
To Isaiah came the call
from the Almighty: "Come
Let Us Debate" and since
that day we do debate.
Dispersed, we adjusted to
different spiritual climates,
assimilated into our
cultural heritage many con-
cepts and customs from

diverse cultures and
tongues in a way that an
Ashkenazi Jew had dif-
ficulties to pray in a
Sephardic synagogue, the
Arab lands gave us a
Golden Period of Hebrew
liturgy and a Maimonides,
European Jewry gave us a
Besht with a Hassidic
Jewry and a Gaon of Vilna.
The Gaon of Vilna sent
his disciples to burn the
Hassidic prayer houses,
pious Jews danced on the
grave of Maimonides and
burned his books, and we
remained one people. Time
healed and tempered the
edges.
Do we want a Jewry that
adheres to a Satmar
philosophy only?
Do we dream of a Jewry
following the precepts of
Reform only?
Does anybody preach the
coming of Moshiach now,
as Lubavitch urges us to
do?
Reform, Orthodox, Con-
servative, secularists, Re-
constructionists and any
other religious philoso-
phies that will appear on
Continued on Page 48

