A group of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergymen, educators and civic leaders in Western Pennsylvania today assailed Soviet anti-Semitism and urged the Soviet Government to “lift its official policy of oppression against its Jewish citizens.”
In a strongly worded telegram to the Soviet Ambassador in Washington, the religious and lay leaders charged that while most other faiths are permitted the “bare necessities” needed for religious practice, the almost 3,000,000 Jews of the Soviet Union “are denied minimal rights.”
Among the repressive measures against Jews in the Soviet Union listed in the telegram were; the arbitrary removal from office of synagogue presidents in six Soviet cities; the sentencing of Jewish leaders in Leningrad and Moscow for the alleged crime of meeting with foreigners visiting their synagogues; the closing of scores of synagogues throughout the country; the prohibition on the manufacture or import of Jewish religious articles; and the fact that Jews are forbidden to organize a central body or to contact Jewish groups in other countries.
Among the religious leaders who signed the telegram were: Archbishop Benjamin, Bishop William G. Connare, Bishop John J. Wright, Rev. John Baiz, Rev. Lester W. Bumpus, Rev. James B. Cayce, Rev. Edward Cahill, Rev. Robert Kincheloe, Rev. N. R. H. Moor, Rev. Joseph Morledge, Rev. LeRoy Patrick, Rev. Howard C. Scharfe, Rev. Frederic Schumann, Rabbi Frederick C. Schwartz, Prof. Robert C. Johnson and Vigder Kavaler.
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.
