Two important Jewish cultural organizations in Russia, .the Society for Spreading Culture Among the Jews (the Ope), which has been, in existence for. more than 70 years, and the Jewish. Museum of the Ethnographical History Society founded by Sh. Ansky, were liquidated today by the Soviet government. A special liquidation commission has been appointed to take over the huge library of the Ope, which is the richest Jewish library in Russia and among the greatest Jewish libraries of the world.
Official inquiry here by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s correspondent revealed that the Jewish Museum will be incorporated with the Russian Museum at Leningrad while the fate of the Ope’s library has not yet been determined. The library possesses 10,000 valuable books and archives rich in old manuscripts.
An official reply to the inquiry explained that the library and the museum have been liquidated because in the first place they have been conducting work ideologically foreign to the Soviet, second it has maintained contact with the “White Guard emigrant,” Simon Dubnov, the eminent Jewish historian, and third because the literary treasures contained in the museum can be successfully utilized for anti-religious propaganda.
The Jewish section of the Communist Party, which is responsible for the liquidation of the two organizations, is planning to create a “Jewish Marxist Society” to take over their management.
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.
