Obviously perturbed over the protests which the anti-Semitic book “Judaism Without Embellishment” — published by the Ukrainian Academy of Science in Kiev — has provoked throughout the world, even among Communist parties in the free world, the Soviet authorities have stopped the sale of the book in Moscow book stores. However, the book is still sold in Soviet Ukraine, it was reported here today from Moscow.
The stoppage of the sale of the book in Moscow is of no importance, since the book, with its Nazi-like anti-Jewish cartoons, is printed in the Ukrainian language, which Russian residents of Moscow do not understand. It has been printed in 12, 000 copies, and was intended primarily for distribution among Ukrainians who maintain their own language, their own newspapers, their own schools and other cultural institutions.
In Kiev, where the book was published, the Ukrainian-language newspaper, Radyanska Kultura published an article criticizing the drawings in the book as being “of low artistic standard and can only insult believers. ” This criticism was disseminated yesterday by Tass, official Soviet news agency. Last week, another Soviet news agency, Novosti, distributed an article citing the book as an example of the constitutional right of an atheist to engage in anti-religious propaganda.
The article disseminated yesterday by Tass criticized the book for linking its attack against Jewish religion with “criticism of the internal life of the State of Israel. ” The article said that Israel has “democratic, progressive institutions of workers who support peace, peaceful coexistence and democratic freedom and who are against colonialism and imperialism.”
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.
