Abram Broitman's Journey on the S.S. Asia

The Fabre Line's S.S. Asia.
Undated Postcard

The Journey

On July 9, 1924, Abram Broitman boarded the S.S. Asia at the Black Sea port of Constanța. Its route for this voyage would take it through the Turkish Straits separating the Black Sea from the Aegean; on to the Mediterranean; through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlantic Ocean; and finally, to the deep-water port of Halifax. A mid-sized steamship, owned at that point by the Fabre Line, the S.S. Asia was built in 1907 and could carry over 1,400 passengers. Third-class cabins, which made up the majority of the accommodations, had up to six berths each. The Fabre Line’s advertising noted, in both Yiddish and English, that the Asia boasted “shower baths” and “hygienic lavatories,” and meals would be served in “spacious and elegant dining rooms” by “courteous waiters.” Given the conditions Abram and the refugees had endured for the previous few years, it must have seemed luxurious. 

Fabre Line third-class cabin

Fabre Line dining hall Photos from advertisements for the Fabre Line ships S.S. Bagra and S.S. Asia. Images courtesy of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives

Supporting Jewish Practice on the High Seas

The Jewish Colonization Association had gone to great lengths to ensure that the trip would in fact be as comfortable as possible for the refugees. A 1924 press release stated that Fabre Line ships would provide strictly kosher food for the Jewish emigrants and would carry a “Sepher Thora,” a Torah scroll, with a special room being set aside for use as a sanctuary “on shabbes and festivals.” 

While no Jewish holidays fell during the three weeks that Abram was aboard the ship, his voyage included three sabbaths at sea, meaning that three weekly Torah portions were read. One of these was Parashat Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9), which includes the story of the non-Israelite prophet Balaam (and his talking donkey.) Balaam is hired by King Balak of Moab to curse the Israelites, but finds he is only able to bless them. One can imagine Abram and his fellow refugees reflecting on their circumstances that shabbat morning, and hoping that despite the intentions of those who wanted to harm them, they would find blessing in their new country. 

Press release sent from the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) in Paris to JIAS.
20 Feb 1924. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. JIAS-CA-26-5441-JCA

The Missing Passengers

While the S.S. Asia had berths for 1,480 people, it’s possible that the 380 refugees in third class were the only passengers on board. The United States had seen a flood of immigration between 1890 and 1914, but with the outbreak of World War I, all immigration essentially ceased. Immigration increased when the war ended, but the political appetite for new immigrants was very low. By 1924 there were strict quotas for new immigrants in place. In the U.S. these were based on the makeup of the American population in 1890. In Canada the restrictions were less draconian, but still heavily favored Northern and Western Europeans. In both countries, immigration legislation and policy had the purposeful effect of severely restricting the entry of Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Eastern European would-be émigrés.

With these populations all but barred from entry, there was limited demand for steerage accommodations; hence the likelihood that the 380 refugees, including Abram Broitman, were the only passengers on the ship. Halifax was not a typical destination for Fabre Line ships, and according to Halifax arrival records for that July, the only people to disembark from the S.S. Asia were refugees.^1,2 

Next time: Preparations in Canada for the arrival of the S.S. Asia and the newest crop of refugees. 

1. Ancestry.com. Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Form 30A, 1919-1924 (Ocean Arrivals). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, n.d. RG 76. Department of Employment and Immigration Fonts. Microfilm Reels: T-14939 to T-15248.

2. There is no record of the S.S. Asia arriving in New York in July or August of 1924. I have reached out to archivists at the Steamship Historical Society in Providence, RI to learn if they anchored there or in Boston. 

Abram Broitman's Departure from Romania

Advertisement for the Fabre Line ships S.S. Bagra and S.S. Asia. Passage from Constantinople, Constanța, and Odessa to New York (top) and to Jaffa and Haifa (bottom). Abram Broitman took the S.S. Asia on a chartered voyage in July of 1924 with a group of 380 refugees. Image courtesy of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives

By July 1924, the Broitman family was in a desperate situation. Abram Broitman, his wife Chaika, and their three surviving children – Anita, Aron, and Raisel – were living in poverty in Bucharest after fleeing the pogroms of the Ukrainian War of Independence. The town they had lived in for several generations, Savran, had been one of many places to endure massacres, disease, and starvation. The journey to Bucharest – via Kishinev – had been equally harrowing, with the Broitmans’ few remaining possessions being stolen and two of their children dying of waterborne diseases. They had eventually made the dangerous passage across the Dniester River from Ukraine to the relative safety of Romania.¹ 

Sometime between 1919 and 1923 the Broitmans had spent a few years in Kishinev with their Bershadsky cousins, with whom they had made the dangerous journey. But Kishinev had gotten crowded as an estimated 50,000 fellow Jewish refugees had flooded the Romanian border region abutting the newly-formed Soviet Union. Bucharest, further from the border, was better, but only slightly: Romanian authorities severely limited what employment their new Russian Jewish “guests” could seek. According to the Jewish Colonization Association, in 1924 there were still an estimated 4,000-8,000 Jewish refugees in Romania.² Many, like the Broitmans, had visas allowing them to join family in the United States; but the passage of the restrictive and infamously discriminatory Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 effectively ended the Eastern European Jewish immigration wave of 1892-1914. So the Broitmans remained in Bucharest, supported in large part by the Jewish aid groups Central Relief and the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). 

Luckily, in 1924, the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA or ICA) in Canada was able to convince the Canadian government in Ottawa to accept a limited number of refugees. There were strings attached, of course. 

1. The refugees needed to demonstrate that they had sufficient financial resources that they wouldn’t be a burden on the state. Otherwise, the Jewish philanthropic organizations facilitating refugee resettlement had to raise funds to support them. 
2. A portion of the refugees needed to settle in the prairie provinces and work as farmers. 
3. The steamships used to transport the refugees needed to be Canadian-flagged vessels.

This was Abram Broitman’s chance. He would go to Canada, raise enough money to bring his wife (now pregnant) and children to join him, and eventually gain entry to the U.S. On June 24, 1924, Abram was issued a passport by the Russian Consulate in Bucharest indicating that he held Russian citizenship. This was remarkable, because the country of Russia had ceased to exist years earlier! But the Imperial Russian consulates remained in operation in large part to support the stateless refugees and manage Russian property abroad.³ 

Passenger Record of Abram Broitman on the S.S. Asia, 1924.

Abram wasted no time in arranging his departure. Ten days later, on July 4, 1924, he purchased a ticket (with funds supplied by American and Canadian donors through the JDC to the JCA) from Constanța, Romania to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Although he was a married lumber merchant, he indicated on his passenger record that he was a unmarried farmer – presumably to convince the Central Relief Committee officials to allow him passage. Over the next five days he made his way by train from Bucharest to the Black Sea port of Constanța, leaving his family behind. 

Exactly 100 years ago this week, on July 9, 1924, Abram set sail on the S.S. Asia, a French-flagged vessel, with 380 fellow refugees. Destination: Canada. 

Next time: Abram's Journey on the S.S. Asia

Postcard depicting Bucharest's North Station, circa 1930.

Postcard depicting the Port of Constanța, 1927.

Postcard of Fabre Line S.S. Asia.  The vessel met a tragic end in 1930 when it sank off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Memo for Mr. Lyon Cohen regarding the number of refugees who may be sent to Canada Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives ICA. 6 January 1924.

1. For an account of a similar journey by fellow Savraner refugees, I recommend “Oh Say Can You See Chaos and a Dream of Peace” by Abraham Gootnick. University Press of America, 1987.
2. Memorandum for Mr. Lyon Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Colonization Association of Canada regarding the number of Russian refugees who may be sent to Canada. Sent 6 Jan 1924. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. Montreal, Canada. ICA-S-CB-18. Two pages.  
3. Personal correspondence, Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of  History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan. 3 April 2023.