Details about a wave of anti-Jewish religious persecutions conducted recently in the Soviet Union, chiefly through the dispersal of religious Jews attending “minyans” in private homes, were revealed here today. Two such incidents were reported from Kharkov, one of the largest Jewish communities in the Ukraine; one in Gomel, White Russia; a third at Kolomea, Ukraine.
In each case, Soviet police burst into private homes where religious services were being held due to the fact that local synagogues had been shut down by the government authorities previously. The two Kharkov incidents occurred on September 30, 1962, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and on October 8, Yom Kippur. Kolomea’s anti-Jewish raid was also on last Yom Kippur, while the dispersal of the “minyan” in Gomel took place on a Sabbath, February 23, 1963. At Kharkov, the Jew in whose home the “minyan” had been held, was given a heavy fine. Previously, he had been arrested, but released the same day.
The February 26, 1963 issue of Lvovskaya Pravda, organ of the Communist Party in Lvov, received here today, reported that death sentences for “economic crimes” were imposed in that Western Ukraine metropolis on at least four men who are obviously Jewish, named Averbuch, Akselrod, Fuks and Rosenblatt. Six others among 10 in that mass trial who received long prison sentences and had their property confiscated were believed to be Jews. Their names were given as Kleinman, Kravitz, Langman, Poisner, Shayevitz and Weizman.
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.
