Russian Jews, nearly 3,000,000 of them, are fast being assimilated end absorbed by the Soveit Russia which has since the overthrow of Tsarism passed death sentence on religion and religiousd practises. As a group these Jews are losing their "racial solidarity" and intermarriage is common.
Sa,ie; K ?Rpd,am. Russian corresondent for the Exchange Telegraph in London which serves about 300 newspaper in England and France, and for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, who is now in th United States on a lecture tour, talkes with representative of the Bulletin for an hour yesterday reviewing in substance, the situation wih regard to Russian Jews.
Formerly the executive director of Perth Amboy’s Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Young Judes leader and Zionist. Mr. Rodman affirmed his belief that although Russian Jewry is losing its religion, it is more contended and prosperous as a whole than it has been in that country for many years.
Mr. Rodman has been living in Russia for two years. He left the United States June, 1932, for a short visit and received an appiontment as instructor of English in the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. He liked Russia so well and found the "new society which the Bolsheviki have created" so enteresting that he decede to make the country his home. He is engaged in wriing a book which will deal with collectivization and will be an interpre ation of Russia’s new psychology.
SYNAGOGUES CROWDED NO HOLIDAYS
Regarding the subject of religion which the Soviet government oppses without equivocation and makes an effort to wipe out completely, Mr. Rodman had much to say.
He told of the two remaining synagogues in Moscow, with its 250,000 Jewish population and how at the last New Year an Yom Kippur services, they were overcrowded by worshippers who "wher drawn by feelings stronger than they thought."
He recalled the instance of a young worker who put in a double shift the day before Yom Kippur in order to attend services, and who later kept the matter quiet for fear that fellow workers might disdain his company.
He described an organization called Bez Boznik, the godless, with an enrollment reputed to be 5,000,000, which has as its platform the spread of progaganda execrating religion and conversion of its remaining adherents to atheism. Mr. Rodman said that Bez Boznik erects buildings adjoining the twenty-five churches in Moscow and evangelizes members.
On one occasion he was engaged in gathering information for a story to deal with Christmas services in Leningrad. He met a young boy and inquired where the nearest chruch was.
"It’s a little way up the street."directed the boy.
"Can you take me there?"asked Mr. Rodman.
"No, Sir." he replied. "I won’t go near a church, I am a pioneer."
The Russian government makes an effort, however, to encourage the thirty-odd national groups living within its borders. This encouragement, Mr Rodman pointed out, takes various froms.
In the case of the Jews, the Soviet officials look with favor upon Yiddish as the "national" tongue and, acording to Mr. Rodman, fosters the establishment of Yiddish teaching institutes and the publication of Yiddish newspapers. The Yiddish Theatre in Moscow has financial support from the state. The philosophy behind this work, Mr. Rodman pointed out, was Lenin’s belief that friendship with smal national groups leads eventually in strengthenin the Russian nation as a whole.
SOVIET DECRIES RELIGION
But Russia froms upon Zionism, the Hebrew language and Hebrew teaching, which it bans. hebrew teachers are not permitted to instruct more than three pupils, nor are they allowed to establish schools for this purpose. Cherics are not permitted to preachs in more than one church, a ruling which results in great hardship among the few femaining divines the country.
"Religion is practically out of business," in Soviet Russia, Mr. Rodman remarked.
The fundamental change which has come about in class privilege in Russia had its effect upon the Jews there, Mr. Rodman told the writer, From tradesmen the masses of Jewry became producers. Their intense dislike of Thysical labor which they hiterto considered degrading has turned into an earnest love of it, one of the paramount principles of the collectivizaton program.
The industrilization of Russia, undertaken in the Five Year plan, opened a path into large cities to Russian Jews. Three-quarters of their number. have drifted into them an are engaged in white collar work, but they do not despise the working man. Thousands ##re in government departments, many thousans are in handicfaft trades and many are in agriculture.
"Because three is no discrimination," said Mr. Rodman, "there is a tendency for the Jews in teh Soviet to feel at one with the Russian people. There is emphasis on class and not racial grouping. The question asked by the Russian government deals not with racial affiliation, but with your Communist affiliation and whether you are a worker.
Mr. Rodman was educated at Coluumbia University where he was graduated with an Arts degree in 1922.]
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.
