Moscow Press, in New Year Attack, Finds Jewish Religion Too Active

An appeal to intensify the anti-religious propaganda in connection with the Jewish holy days is published in the Yiddish press here.

“The clericals, who want to keep their influence over the religious people, pay special attention to the preservation of religious customs and habits and of the holy days,” states the Moscow Jewish daily Emes in a leading article. “The rabbis and their followers agitate strongly for the circumcision of the new born, for Sabbath observance, for kosher food. They do good business out of the dead through the burial societies. These organizations, which are not recognized by the law, actually exist in several localities to the detriment of Soviet citizens. Attempts to organize ‘chadorim’ (religious schools) and ‘yeshivoth’ (religious seminaries) were reported by the press on many occasions. All these facts reveal that the clericals show an intensified activity, especially where they meet no resistance, and that the propaganda of atheism is not strong enough.

“The bourgeois nationalists and the rabbis always tried to prove that Jewish religion and the Jewish people are one and the same. This is a false and harmful legend.”

After calling upon the trades unions, the cultural and youth organizations to intensify their anti religious propaganda, the article concludes: “The freedom of anti-religious propaganda, exactly as freedom of religious observance, was guaranteed to all the citizens of the U.S.S.R. By the Stalin Constitution. We have to make full use of this right to help the religious working people to free themselves from the reactionary religious organizations.”