The Appeal for Conscience Foundation, an interfaith group protesting against denial of religious and cultural freedom to Soviet Jewry, made public here today a letter from the Soviet Embassy in Washington, rejecting an offer to send 10,000 Jewish prayerbooks to Soviet Jews but asserting that “a prayerbook and a religious calendar for Jews will be printed in the USSR in the nearest future.”
The Foundation made the offer formally last June, and had forwarded to the Embassy in Washington more recently a copy of an appeal by 100 American leaders, noting that Moscow had promised twice to print 10,000 Jewish prayerbooks. The letter disclosed today was a reply to the organization.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the Foundation, described the Soviet Embassy statement about a prayerbook and a Jewish religious calendar as providing “a glimmer of hope” that the Soviet Government would soon honor its “long-standing promise” to provide prayerbooks for Russian Jews.
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.
