300 Soviet Police Deployed Outside Moscow Synagogue on Passover Eve Prevent Several Hundred from Ent

Jewish sources in the Soviet Union have reported that on Passover eve 300 policemen were deployed outside the Moscow Synagogue. They made a path through their ranks for worshippers to enter the synagogue. When the synagogue became full, the sources said, the several hundred Jews outside the synagogue who had hoped to enter were ordered to disperse. On previous holidays, Jews were allowed to gather outside the synagogue for prayer and conversation when the synagogue became filled.

The sources also reported that after the Passover eve service, the worshippers were told to leave immediately. Several who did not leave the synagogue fast enough to suit the police, were arrested. All but one were later released.

JEWISH DISSIDENTS HOLD SEDER

Forty Jews held a seder at the home of Aleksander Lerner, the computer expert, in Moscow on Passover eve. Greville Janner, MP and honorary secretary of the Committee for the Release of Soviet Jewry, telephoned Lerner’s home during the seder. Janner said he was told a number of Soviet Jewish dissidents took part in the seder, including Vladimir Slepak, Mrs. Esther Markish, Vladimir Polski and others.

Janner gave the seder participants greetings from the Parliamentary committee and they in turn asked Janner to convey their appreciation to the Committee and to the British public. They also urged the committee “to induce the Soviet authorities not to prevent Jews from praying outside as well as inside the synagogues still left in the USSR.” (In Israel, several kibbutzim incorporated in their Passover eve observances calls to Soviet Jews.)