rom the late 1920s until the mid-1930s, over a thousand foreign Jews moved to the Jewish Autonomous Region. Starting in 1935, all foreigners wishing to settle in the Jewish Autonomous Region had to pay $200 to KOMZET (Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land), which covered all expenses while they traveled in the Soviet Union. Many of these Jews had family roots in Russia and were disenchanted with life in Europe and the Americas. They came especially from Lithuania, Argentina, and the United States. Like many Zionist pioneers in Palestine, the foreign Jews who settled in the Jewish Autonomous Region were attracted by the mystique of tilling the land, engaging in physical labor, and building socialism.