movement from the Soviet Union would be limited almost entirely to the emigration of near relatives—wives and children going to join their husbands and fathers, and parents going to join their children.
The anxiety of Jews in the Soviet countries to emigrate was graphically illustrated in the spring of 1928, when a rumor went about the country that a representative of a big American Jewish philanthropic organization had arrived at Proskurov, for the purpose of assisting a million Jews to emigrate to America at the cost of American Jewry. The Soviet Government, according to the rumor, had agreed to the plan, being desirous to assist in the improvement of the position in the Jewish small towns.
Delegations from many Jewish small towns poured into Proskurov, looking for the supposed American representative. They were disappointed to find that there was no knowledge in Proskurov of any such American representative. The Proskurov Jewish Community heard that he was at Bar, in the province of Podolia, and sent a delegation of its own there. Finally inquiries made in Moscow brought the information that no such American delegate had arrived and that the Soviet Government had never agreed to the emigration of a million Jews from the country.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
