Details of attacks on Jews, Israel, Zionism and Jewish religious practices in a wide range of the Soviet press were presented today in a study by the American Jewish Congress. The study covered Soviet publications which appeared during a 16-month period covering 1960 and the first four months of 1961.
The denunciations appeared in the Moscow press, and in publications in the Ukraine, Bukowina, Moldavia, Kazakhstan and Russia proper. A typical example was a description of circumcision as “tortures” which provide “a source of income for synagogue loafers.”
Julian Freeman, chairman of the organization’s Commission on International Affairs, said the press campaign clearly indicated that “Jewish pride lives on–even in the USSR.” We cannot and will not abandon our efforts to strengthen Soviet Jewry’s spirit of solidarity with the Jewish people and with their Jewish heritage,” he declared.
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.