it’s the only place that actually came from a respect for the culture and language of Ashkenazi Jews
It absolutely wasn't. Komzet (the "Committee for the Settlement of Working Jews on the Land") was established to combat Jewish unemployment and provide an alternative to Zionism. Komzet was a mostly economic project, and was still not consulted on the actual location and mechanics of the Oblast. Whose location, according to Sudoplatov, was picked purely with strategic and military goals in mind. Although even if we disregard Sudoplatov because of his anti Stalin bias you still have the twin fact that nobody asked the Jews how, where and why the were to be resettled and the organisation in charge of such an effort was a purely economic endeavour
It absolutely wasn't. Komzet (the "Committee for the Settlement of Working Jews on the Land") was established to combat Jewish unemployment and provide an alternative to Zionism. Komzet was a mostly economic project, and was still not consulted on the actual location and mechanics of the Oblast. Whose location, according to Sudoplatov, was picked purely with strategic and military goals in mind. Although even if we disregard Sudoplatov because of his anti Stalin bias you still have the twin fact that nobody asked the Jews how, where and why the were to be resettled and the organisation in charge of such an effort was a purely economic endeavour
The JAO and Israel are both cynical projects.
That's completely fair! I didn't realize some of that stuff