The decline in the number of syiagogues and rabbis serving the religious needs of the Jewish population in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics is reported with satisfaction in the Moscow paper, “Bezboshnik” (The Atheist).
According to “The Atheist” there were 1,400 synagogues in the Ukraine prior to the outbreak of the World War in 1914. In 1927 there were only 1.034 synagogues in the Ukraine. Since 1927 a hundred more synagogues were closed in the region. During the same period 100 synagogues were closed in White Russia. In 1914 there were 1,059 rabbis in the Ukraine. Today they number only 830. A similar proportion in the decline was observed in White Russia.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
