Gezerd

The Gezerd[lower-alpha 1] 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]

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 went voluntarily 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]