Urban Opportunities

In the late 1920’s, the Soviet Union began a relentless drive to reshape its primarily agrarian culture into one dominated by industry. The push towards rapid industrialization placed greater difficulties on farmers, but it opened up fresh job possibilities in the cities. The growing need for trained workers lifted the masses of Jews previously relegated to the deprived classes into full citizens. Agro-Joint built on these developments with programs that trained Jewish youth for factory employment.

"Yevrabmol" (Jewish Worker Youth) in Odessa, was one of many Agro-Joint-financed trade schools providing orphaned youth the chance to develop into skilled, self-sufficient professionals. In 1930,Yevrabmol became a factory school for industrial apprenticeships, producing lathes and other previously-imported machinery. These eager young men and women students made tools in a Yevrabmol workshop. Ukraine, 1934, <em>NY_43859 (from YIVO)</em>.

Industrial training schools helped young Jews to achieve financial stability while securing their places in Soviet society. By 1932, more than half of the USSR’s 2.7 million Jews earned their income from factory work. A mechanized shoemaking program in Kiev included this class in the Ukrainian language. Ukraine, early 1930’s, <em>NY_00550</em>.

By the early ‘30’s, many young Jews had enrolled in Agro-Joint factory schools to pursue a livelihood in industry.

New Skills

Between 1924 and 1930, Agro-Joint subsidized, organized, and equipped 103 vocational training schools with courses in metal working, wood-working, building, needlework, and printing. Most classes were in Yiddish, the government approved language for Jews. Student cooperatives sold products made in the schools and students received stipends for their work.

Preparatory classes for new students were attached to the already well-equipped Agro-Joint technical schools in large cities, like Odessa and Kiev. This harness-making class in Kiev was one of many designed to turn declassed poor Jews into skilled workers. Ukraine, c. 1928, <em>M. Z. Tashker, NY_00541</em>.

Living accommodations were difficult to come by in big cities, so Agro-Joint provided free dormitories to students attending the factory schools. Having grown up in a time of painful disorder, the relative normalcy of communal dormitory life may have been as valuable for students as the professional training they received. At the Ratmansky School Factory in Kiev, where 98% of the students were “out-of-towners,” the dormitory housed around 350. Ukraine, early 1930’s, <em>NY_43278 (from YIVO)</em>.

Student Aid

Many young Ukrainian Jews born in small towns during the first few years of the Revolution did not have enough training to apply to regular trade schools. Agro-Joint subsidized short training programs for them.

Electrification increased the need for workers skilled in using motorized equipment and schools to train them. Agro-Joint introduced dental production to the Soviet Union. Learning such intricate skills gave these students in a Kiev factory school the means for financial security in a society focused on industry. By 1935, when the government took over Agro-Joint’s factory schools, there were 42 of them. Ukraine, c. 1933-35, <em>NY_00558</em>.

In 1934, Joseph Rosen put Agro-Joint’s first decade in context: "Our people in Russia were simply caught between the milestones [millstones?] of history and were confronted by a dilemma, - either to be crushed and turned into historical dust, or to extricate themselves by a determined effort…, no matter how painful and tortuous this process should prove to be....The Jewish masses in Russia were crying for help, and the leaders of [JDC] answered this call, being fully aware of the difficulties, drawbacks, and risks of the enterprise." The most heart-breaking events were yet to come. Rosen (center) with IKOR colonists. Crimea, 1928, <em>NY_00896</em>.

The early enthusiasm for Agro-Joint was ultimately replaced by grim and painful disillusionment. In 1937-1938, hundreds of Agro-Joint officials, agronomists, colonists, and physicians were arrested for “counter-revolutionary activities;” many were executed or died in prison. Six attendees at this 1927 Agro-Joint conference in Moscow, would be killed during the Great Terror for “political crimes”: among them, Agro-Joint’s Medical Director, Dr. Zinovy Serebryanny [front, first left]; its Industrial Department Director, Ezekiel Grower [front, third left], and its Chief Agronomist and Assistant Director, Samuil Lubarsky [front, second right]. Russia, 1927, <em> NY_43644 (from YIVO)</em>.

Hope Uprooted

Agro-Joint officials tried to protect their clients while cooperating with the Soviet system. But conditions worsened. The authorities continually reduced Agro-Joint’s role, taking over its medical programs and factory schools in the mid-1930’s. The end of Agro-Joint in the Soviet Union (in October 1938) was rapidly accelerated by the Great Terror.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

Archives

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

Urban Opportunities

New Skills

Student Aid

Hope Uprooted