Extended Profile

Aron Efimovich Zaitchik was born in 1898 in Kamenka, Yekaterinoslav gubernia (today Ukraine). A university graduate, he was a resident of Simferopol, Crimea. Zaitchik was an agronomist and the Director of the Agro-Joint regional office in Simferopol. Together with his co-workers Samuil Lubarsky and Ezekiel Grower, he visited Birobidzhan in October and November of 1934 to explore the possibility of settling Jewish refugees in that area. Zaitchik is frequently mentioned in the book by Evelyn M. Morrissey, Assistant Treasurer of the American Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in Russia (the fund-raising body of Agro-Joint in the United States), which details her 1936 fact-finding trip to the Agro-Joint colonies in Crimea and the Ukraine. Zaitchik was arrested on November 27, 1937, by the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) and charged with “Zionist and anti-Soviet activities.” He was sentenced on April 11, 1940, to five years in corrective labor camps by the Special Council of the NKVD. Zaitchik died on March 12, 1943, while in the camp in Magadan oblast(Soviet Union). On November 23, 1956, he was “rehabilitated” (his name was officially cleared) by the Military Tribunal of the Odessa Military District.