Gezerd

The Gezerd^[a] was a communist organisation of Australian Jews that promoted the settlement of Jews in Eastern Siberia, along with pro-Soviet positions. It was active in Melbourne and Sydney.^[2] The organisation was co-founded by the recent Polish Jewish immigrant & Bundist Sender Burstin.^[3] In its early years it cooperated strongly with the Jewish Labour Bund in Australia; including the formation of a Joint Culture Committee,^[2] however the two organisations split over the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact along with the expelling of Sender Burstin as a "Social-Fascist".^[2][4][5] The organisation supported the activities of the Soviet Komzet in trying to build an alternative Jewish Homeland in Birobidzhan, working as a local wing of the public relations organisation OZET for this purpose.^[4] Towards these ends, it raised some £50 (Australian) within its first year to help with the settlement there, along with a microscope and an x-ray in 1934.^[2] The group also maintained strong ties with the Communist Party of Australia, although never formally joined or affiliated with the organisation.^[2] Beyond its support of Soviet policies, the group also engaged in yiddish culture events; including founding a "Culture House" in Carlton in 1938 and running a Yiddish theatre troupe between 1932 and 1937,^[5][6] efforts to support the integration of migrants (such Australian history and English language lessons), and events around international policy; especially the rise of fascism.^[2] It also supported the international boycott of German goods, and organised meetings against the political violence of the Nazi Regime against "Jews, Catholics, workers, and intellectuals".^[4][7] The group put itself at odds with the traditional Anglo-Jewery of Australia, positioning itself against Religious and ideologically Conservative elements of Australian Jewery: being described as an 'undesirable foreign element' by Newman Rosenthal, right-leaning editor of the Australian Jewish Herald newspaper.^[2][5] The organisation continued despite the liquidation of the Soviet OZET in 1938, apparently not aware of this event.^[2]

Gezerd
Founder	Sender Burstin
Founded	May 1930 (1930-05)
Dissolved	March 1944
Succeeded by	Jewish Progressive Council (de facto) Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Anti-Semitism (de facto)
Headquarters	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Newspaper	The Gezerd Tribune (1931)[1] Dos Naye Vort / The New Word (1937)[1]
Membership	~100 (c.1931) "Several Hundred" (Mid 1933)
Ideology	Pro-Soviet Communism Jewish Territorialism Settlement of Jews in Birobidzhan
International affiliation	OZET (parent)
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The aforementioned issues regarding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact would cause a decline in membership and public support from which the organisation would never recover.^[2] With the banning of the CPA by Prime Minister Menzies in 1940, the organisation voluntarily went underground for roughly 15 months.^[2] It re-emerged following the German Invasion of the Soviet Union, however this could not abate its decline.^[2] The organisation would dissolve in May 1944.^[5]

See also

• Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia
• OZET
• Komzet

Notes

1. Short for: Gezelshaft far aynordnen oyf Erd arbetnidke Yidin in F.S.S.R, Yiddish: געזעלשאפט פאר איינארדענען ארבעטנדיקע יידן אויף ערד אין פ.ס.ס.ר
   English: Society for Settling Toiling Jews on the Land in the USSR