The Denver Jewish news., 1921-02-23
Making Their Way to
the Holy Land
FROM A REPORT REN-
DERED By A MEMBER OF THE
JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMIT
ICES OVERSEAS PERSONNEL.
BY J. SAVITSKI.

|
what we called in our office in Con
| stantinople Refugee heavy" 1t means
that every day every steamship that
entered the Bosphorous and the Gold
en- Horn brought tens and sometimes
| hundreds OF men, women and children
/ that fled from the countries of terror
to nowhere.
They were of all kinds, all ages, ap
parently collected from the four corn-
| crs of Russia and some from the eau
casus and even from hot Persia. How
these people could get thru all OBJ
stacles, how they could pass n great
| number of fighting fronts and border
| lines, how they found their way on
board ship, many a time without pass
ports, without visas and proper pa
pers, how they managed to get into
COnstantinOple, no one could explain
in general terms, for each one was Il
history of indescribable suffering but
at the same time combination of
real ingenious inventions and wonder
full schemes.
Here is n Jewish woman. talking
fluently Russian and Ukrainian, that
PASSED from a town in Kiev Province
to the Crimea, dressed as an Ukrainian
peasant girl there n middle-aged man
hcatedly explains how he carried thru
part of his fortunes concealed in Il
pot of tar used on the Russian convey
ances, and some have even travelled
many, many miles concealed in barrels,
or among hay, and by similar means.
Now they are all congrcgated in this
beautiful and dirty fantastic and ugly
Turkish capital and to their last dis
appointment they are Informed thai
their Russian Donski roubles are worth
exactly one cent per thousand.
What shall we do with these ref
ugccs? Constantinople Is frightfuiiy
congested: there are no suitable houses
to he obtained to shelter them all. and
the rainy. cold season is approaching
There are not sufficient funds at our
disposal to help them all. and 1901
and other necessaries are sky high.
Somebody said: "On to Palestine,
and Immediately the idea was born
that the best thing is TO help the ref
ugecs find their way to the Holy land
Within three days the necessary
visas were obtained for three hundred
and on the eve of Rosh Hashana tn"
Bukovina and Italian semi-freigEt
steamer laden with 335 wanderers
slipped out of the Golden Horn and
made for Jaffa.
Aboard ship was also the ]. ID. c.
representative to Turkey. How
found myself travelling with the ref
ugecs 1 can hardly explain. for unit!
one hour before the departure l could
not decide to go or not to go.
But at the eleventh hour. when !
found out that the refugees would ACT
ually have to travel fourteen days be-
fore they reach Jaffa that no food Is
supplied to them by the steamship
company and that there were no suit
able provisions made to obtain same
along the way: that it was doub'fu!
whether any of them would be per
mitted to land at any of the inter
mediate ports; that the captain refus'
ed TO undertake to furnish the steer
age passengers even with hot water
l decided to go.
There was something like Il second
Iass where the wealthier Greek ana
Turkish passengers travelled, and find
in a ,.nhin with Turk
ish Mufti and two other Turks ! set
tied down for n two weeks trip.
The very first of my tasks became
,.n arrangement for supplying the ref
uyees with hot water ut least twice
day. so that they could have their
Russian tea and Kepiatok. But the
Italian cook could hardly see the neces-
sity for same until a number OF llras
were transferred into his pockets. To
all my pleas he at first answered
impossible" but money talks, and II
possibility was soon found. y large
kettle was placed on top of the iron
even and the refugees were to be al
| lotted hot water FOR tea, ut seven in
the morning and at seven in the eve
ming.
The next on the program was to ob-
tain sufficient space on deck for the
wanderers to leave the freight holes
during the day and get breath Of the
fresh sea air. Since almost all of the
SPACE was reserved for the cabin pas
scngers and since the captain abso-
lutely refused to allow anybody from
the stecrage quarters to step on pro
hibited ground. the question was not
so easy of solution, but on the other
hand. it was unthinkable to leave the
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