The Denver Jewish news., 1924-04-24
TheDregs of Moscow
"a Picture of the Poor of ihe Chief
City Of BOlshevik Russia)
BY d. MOSKVIN
Copyright 1924. Jewish Teiegraphic

Copyright 1924. Jewish Telegraphic
Agencyl
Moscow is today the largest Jewish
community in Russia. and like every
Jewish community. il has IFS poor.
The difference between the poor of
other towns AID the poor of Moscow IL
munities, the poor are generally peo-
pie who have inherited their poverty
from father 10 son for generations, in
Moscow they are mostly people without
Il few who We're born poor. a few who
have become poor. but mnsi of them
are Deople who have fallen from more
or less great estate. victims of time
lack of professional beggars. both gen
uinc unfortunaicS and ShamS. people
who make efforts Ia keep themselves
from sinking, and others who have
again rise from the depths.
The war the evacuation. The rcvolu-
ticn. the civil w.lr. the famine. The
cpidemics. the cmigrati0n, and the re
backwards and forwards from one end
of Russia 10 the other. and The fiot-
sam and jetsam. the dregS of the peo-
pie have stopped in Moscow. AT first.
Moscow was only one of the stations
on their long road of exile hut later
on. it became the place for them 10
spend the rest Of their days. Here
is your grave these words might
one of them.
II wanted to describe in one word
all these Jewish poor who have col
lcctcd in Moscow during the last few
years, should use the word-drcgs.
The Jewish rcfngecs in Moscow, they
are the broken vessels. the refuse which
is left behind in every house when The
tenants move 10 their new home. And
il the tenants move to n great distance
happens that good articles of furniture
too are left behind. and in the con
fusion. are trippcd over and smashed.
The evacuation of the Jews ut the
outbreak of the Great War. the forced
expulsion within twcnty-four hours, the
voluntary" evacuation at the time of
the Civil war. the fleeing from the p"-
groms. from the famine, from the cpi-
4. al yi,.,Y tn n
one end of Russia to the other. has
everywhere left behind shattered frag-
ments-human refuse.
Everything that was strong and heal
thy among these unwilling Wanderers.
has again. found its feet. Some of the
refugees have returned 10 their homes,
some have adapted themselves i'll new
places. Everything that WIS physical
ly. spiritually and materially weak has
become broken. They are the dregs,
ilotsam and jetSam. scourings,
refuse.
1t is characteristic of the situation
that among the several hundred Jew
ish refugees in Moscow. there are no
intcllcctuals and hardly any artisans.
At most pcrhaps there are about II
dozen among the lot who have II trade
in hand. Ninety-ninc per cent of them
belong to the class which Lithuanian
Jews refer TO as common people =
they are small dealers. people without
any settled mode Of life, commission
lnborcrs. wcumdcd eN-soldicrs. '1-uft-
mcnschen."
Many of them are just schnorrers'
but years of forced exile the continnai
wandering about through the refugee
homes, the pleading before the relief
committees. the begging and the aims
have left their mark on all the vic
tins and now it is difficult to dis
tinruish between the horn Schnorreis
and these who have become 'schnorirrS'
They have all come down to the level
where men forget what they have ieen
Decentralization has been wrought on
the refugees not so much by the relief
committees. the begging or even the
hunger, but by the compulsory heruihe
| together of, hundreds of complete
| strangers in one. refnsce-home. Iht
! ref,lgec-homes are like II beg. ThoSt
who once get caught in them. sink tC
the bottom The. refugee loses his
identity. he loses his humanity, he Loses
his shame. The Moscow Jewish Rclie'
committee. like all other relief organi
zations knows this very wcll hut the
housing conditions in Russia. and espe
cially in Moscow make it, Impossible
even to think of separate homes fo'
the refugees. Even these. refugee
homes have not been easy 10 hnd.
There are in Moscow no less than
nine such homes. two in the centre o