Soviet newspapers from territories acquired by the Soviet Union after the war–especially Galicia and the Baltic states–are indulging in unprecedented anti-Jewish propaganda under the pretext of fighting religion, it was established here today following a study of a number of Soviet publications from these areas.
The Latvian newspaper “Sovietskaya Daugava,” published in Riga, carries an article attacking the local rabbi, Baruch Eliashberg, for selling hand-written Jewish calendars. The article avoids indicating that the Soviet authorities do not permit the printing of Jewish religious calendars, but accuses the rabbi of “amassing” money by selling the hand-written calendars to “many visitors to the synagogue.”
Calling this income “illegal,” the article carefully avoids saying what happened to the rabbi, but implies that the practice of disseminating hand-copied Jewish calendars has been stopped by the Latvian Soviet authorities.
The rabbi, according to the Soviet newspaper, was checked after he had purchased “several dozens of ordinary copy books at 15 kopecks apiece, split them into two, and produced so-called religious calendars which he sold at 5-10 rubles each.” Admitting, thus, that it was only a question of “several dozens” calendars, the paper nevertheless charges the rabbi with pocketing the “amassed” income.
A more inciting article against Jewish religious leaders appears in the Ukrainian Soviet newspaper “Prikarpatska Pravda,” published in Stanislav, which was a Polish city until World War H. “Rabbis, tzadiks and their like” the Communist paper writes, “on the other side of our frontiers, try to now send special agents into our country for anti-Soviet activities. Their letters and radio broadcasts direct the clergy living in the Soviet Union to sabotage the Communist Party and the Soviet regime.”
The paper, in its inciting anti-Jewish article, claims that the rabbis in the Soviet Union “oppose the Communist system of education of children.” As example, it cites a Jewish preacher in Mogilev who “not so long ago” allegedly told mothers in the synagogue to “better lead your children to the slaughter house, rather than to let them not in Communist Pioneer units.”
Declaring that “the Jewish religion teaches Jews who live among other nations never to wish these nations peace and happiness,” the Ukrainian newspaper says that the Jewish religion “is now, and always has been, the enemy of science, culture and progress,” and that “it emphasizes the things which divert the minds of people from active participation in the building of Communism.”
PIOUS JEWS CHARGED WITH HOLDING “ILLEGAL” MEETINGS; ISRAEL ATTACKED
Asserting that “the leaders of Judaism in Stanislav are ardent liars,” the Soviet newspaper alleges that pious Jews in the city held “illegal meetings and floated provocative rumors to the effect that God Jehovah was soon going to gather together the scattered Jews from all the corners of the earth and unite them.”
“Israel,” the article continues, “is, according to the Judaists, a scored temple of the God Jehovah. On the other hand, it is known to all people of the world that Israel is now a puppet of the American-British imperialists. Ben Gurion, the leader of the Israel Government, a veteran Zionist, is already long known as an ultra-reactionary. He is the leader of one of the Zionist organizations which developed in the United States, and which have the unlimited support of the multi-millionaire Rockefeller Brothers and other grabbing monopolists.
“That is why the reactionaries in Israel are so impudent and organize provocative attacks on the countries of the Arab East, and try to send their agents to Socialist countries,” the paper goes on to say. At the same time, the newspaper points out that “the working masses of Israel have no connections with these criminal actions.” It mentions the Secretary of the Israel Communist Party. S. Mikunis, as the leader of the “working masses” in Israel who “oppose the American-oriented policy of leading Israeli circles.”
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.
