A denial of the charge that on his recent visit to Russia he had had an “illegal conference” with the leaders of the Minsk kehillah now under arrest, as charged by the G.P.U., was made here yesterday by Rabbi Simon Glazer, president of the Central Council of Orthodox Rabbis.
In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rabbi Glazer declared that the “Soviet Union’s Information Bureau in Washington and the Soviet ambassador in Berlin as well as the Russian foreign office were informed that the object of my visit was to study Jewish life under the present regime and on these conditions a passport was issued to me. On arriving in Russia I found on sale in the hotel lobby the 1929 April laws affecting religious bodies, thus obtaining all the information I desired on the first night of my arrival. Cherkakov, president of White Russia, verified the laws. I had no gathering of rabbis because there was no need for further information. On my way back I saw the acting American ambassador in France and he told me by all means to publish the facts as they are which I did in a short statement to the A. P. The arrest of the rabbis is diabolical as they actually could not see me because I was constantly under surveillance of and accompanied by the military police.”
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.
