Rep. Joshua Eilberg (D. Pa.) has called for an investigation of the destruction by the US Post Office of some 8000 pounds of matzo which had been sent to the Soviet Embassy for Jews in the Soviet Union and refused by the Embassy. Eilberg made his request to Rep. Robert N.C. Nix (D. Pa.), chairman of the Postal Facilities and Mail Subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. Nix agreed to the request and said a public hearing would be held as soon as possible following the current recess which ends April 10.
When the matzos were refused by the Soviet Embassy it was stored for several days in the basement of the main Post Office and subsequently destroyed. Postal authorities declined to describe the nature of the disposition of the matzos but said that the Postal Service authorized its disposition. Robert C. Kohler, director of the New Jersey regional office of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, which sponsored the matzo campaign to help draw attention to the plight of Soviet Jews, said that groups in N.J., Pa., W. Va., and Del. had mailed more than 20,000 pounds of matzos.
“The destruction of the matzo should not have occurred at this time,” Eilberg said. “The American people should know why it was done, who ordered it and for what reasons.” Late last week a spokesman for Sen. Harrison A. Williams (D. N.J.) said that the legislator had asked the Postal Service for a “full explanation” of why the matzos were destroyed.
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.
