The Jewish community here has offered to send one of its own rabbis and a Torah scroll to the Soviet Union to assist Leningrad Jews in celebrating the High Holy Days. Concern has been expressed by the Jewish community because there is no one to serve the Leningrad Jews during the High Holy Days because Chaim Lubanov, Leningrad’s Chief Rabbi died recently and left no successor and because 11 of the 12 Torah scrolls in the synagogue have disappeared.
A letter to Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to the United States, was sent by Robert Silverman, chairman of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, offering “the services of one of our own rabbis to lead the Leningrad congregation” for all or part of the High Holy Days period from Sept. 27 through Oct. 19. Silverman also asked Rep. Charles A. Vanik. co-sponsor of the Mills-Vanik amendment, to use “the prominence of your office (to) expedite the Soviet authorities’ attention to our request.”
(In Washington, the Soviet Embassy’s counsellor, Alexander P. Yefstafyev, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that if the letter was mailed “it was mailed. That’s all.” He said he knew nothing about the letter but would ask Dobrynin about it. However, he added, there would be no Embassy comment about the letter. This no comment attitude is the Embassy’s official position over the past three years to refuse to enter public discussion on letters and petitions it receives on Soviet Jewry issues.)
The House Ways and Means Committee will vote tomorrow afternoon on the Mills-Vanik legislation, a source close to the Committee told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today. The Committee had been tentatively scheduled to vote on the legislation several times over the past month but had put off the showndown under Administration pressures for an alternative measure that would soften the impact on the Soviet Union. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is unlikely to appear before the Committee since he is at the United Nations.
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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.
