Seeking New Horizons

The Soviets offered free parcels of long-idle land to new farmers as one way to increase food production. Jews could now pursue a way of life previously denied them. As an internationally renowned agronomist, Dr. Rosen recognized this window of opportunity. JDC threw financial, advisory, and legal support behind the “Back to the Soil” movement. In 1924, it formally established an agency to operate in the southern Ukraine and Crimea: the American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation (Agro-Joint).

Agro-Joint drew on the expertise of engineers, agronomists, horticulturists, and animal husbandry experts to help organize colonies. At its peak, its staff numbered close to 3,000. Agro-Joint advisors helped settlers select land from potential sites, then survey and prepare the fields for planting prior to their actual move. Crimea, c. 1925, <em>NY_00866</em>.

Colonies were laid out on government-provided land, much of it never farmed or fallow for years. Clips of Agro-Joint colonies in the 1920’s and 1930’s, taken from JDC films “Founding a New Life,” and “Agro-Joint”, appears courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film.

Settlers first lived in dilapidated houses, barns, or dugouts while they constructed permanent homes. These colonists began their new lives in crude temporary barracks, where the only amenity was the samovar they brought with them. Crimea, Russia, c. 1926, <em>NY_00847</em>.

Weakened from years of privation and unaccustomed to their new way of life, Jewish settlers struggled in the beginning but with Agro-Joint and government help, did gain a foothold. Colonists stand proudly in the communal wheat fields of the Khaklay settlement, Jankoy District. Crimea, mid-1920’s, <em>NY_42897 (from YIVO)</em>.

Settling In

As Agro-Joint’s Director, Dr. Rosen envisioned employing all the modern techniques of farming to turn Jews into successful colonists. Jobless Jews from the shtetls (labeled “non-productive”) resettled in Agro-Joint’s colonies, where they could grow their own food while gaining full citizen status and rights.

Despite the considerable hardship involved, there were many more applicants than opportunities for settlement life. Agro-Joint aided newcomers to farming from all walks of life, including former clerks, peddlers, teachers, and rabbis. Ukraine, c. 1925, <em> NY_00786</em>.

Water was the most crucial resource for the young colony. Making it accessible was laborious, time-consuming work, as was the first year of tilling the soil, planting, and looking after crops. Settlers learned to farm “in the field.”

Trained in farming techniques like wheat threshing, men and women alike became capable farmers. A period caption read, “Women work alongside of the men everywhere and sometimes harder than the men.” Crimea, c. 1930, <em>NY_00878</em>.

Most colonies included settlers from diverse parts of the former Russian Empire. A few, though, were comprised of distinct groups, such as the Caucasian Mountain Jews. These women from the Caucasus settled in Jankoy. Like many new settlers, they started out living in an earthen hut. Crimea, 1929, <em> NY_42869 (from YIVO)</em>.

A Crash Course

New settlers had a rough time for the first year. They had to prepare long-abandoned or previously untilled fields. The precise planting and harvesting times for certain crops required farmers taking shifts day and night, tractor mechanics working 24-hour stints.

Barges like these brought logs from Kherson to colonies as far as 1,000 miles to the south. Timber was used sparingly, for doors and window frames. Ukraine, 1925, <em> NY_43001 (from YIVO)</em>.

The colonies were chiefly built from the material close at hand. Mud churned with bare feet, then kneaded with straw, was molded into bricks for the Ukrainian colonies. Those in Crimea were made chiefly from the soft, porous sea shell-studded stones that littered the ground. At Oif Lebung (Rebirth) in the Kolay District, as in most colonies, construction was done communally. Ukraine, 1920’s, <em>NY_43328 (from YIVO)</em>.

Utilizing local materials and transported lumber, thousands of homes were erected in Agro-Joint colonies.

Building from Scratch

When building started in the colonies, Southern Russia had no timberland. Until new plantings could grow, Agro-Joint had to cut down trees in the North, then prepare and assemble its own lumber. Logs were then transported by river, stream, and railroad.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

Archives

Beyond Relief: JDC's Work in the Ukraine and Crimea between the Wars

Seeking New Horizons

Settling In

A Crash Course

Building from Scratch