Agudah Leader Brings Eye-witness Report from Prague, Budapest

An eye-witness report of the situation of Jews in Czechoslovakia and Hungary was given here today by H. A. Goodman, political secretary of the Agudas Israel World Organization, who has just returned from a visit to Prague and Budapest.

“No Jewish communal life except that associated with the synagogue or of a purely social and charitable character is permitted in these countries,” he said “All Jewish political parties, including the Zionists and Agudists are not permitted to function, but precisely the same rule applies to the Christian organization.” He emphasized that Jewish communal life is “being carried on with the full cognizance of the state, which in many cases renders appreciable support despite ideological differences between the state and church.”

The Jewish community of Czechoslovakia is dying out, Mr. Goodman reported. It numbers some 15,000 persons. In Prague Mr. Goodman was told that the Chevra Kadisha is the most important Jewish organization, Religious educational facilities are not available, except for children of registered members of the Jewish community–and then only upon written application and for only one or two hours a week in state schools.

Nevertheless, the Agudah leader continued, the rabbinate in Prague maintains Jewish ritual slaughter of animals for food, runs a kosher communal kitchen and a ritual bath, all of which are supported by the state. All Jewish officials in Czechoslovakia are paid by the state. He revealed that in response to a question he put to a rabbi as to who instructs Jewish boys in preparation for Bar Mitzvah, he was told that “they had no boys of that age; that none bad returned from Auschwitz were born after the liberation” of 1945.

FINDS JEWISH SITUATION IN HUNGARY BETTER THAN IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Regarding the situation in Hungary, Mr. Goodman expressed the opinion that it was more satisfactory than that in Czechoslovakia. It was hard to know how many Jews were left in the country, he said, but estimated their number at about 100,000. One hundred and ten exit permits have been granted to Jews, almost exclusively elderly people, he reported, and a like number of exit visas have been granted to elderly non-Jews.

Mr. Goodman said that there are thousands of Jews who are not registered with the Jewish community in Budapest and that when they attend synagogues they go to synagogues a distance from their own homes. This is so not because they have any specific fear at the moment, “but nobody knows how the wind will blow.”

Mr. Goodman reported that he had visited the communal institutions, including a Talmud Torah where some 500 children were receiving instruction. There are two yeshivoth in the Hungarian provinces, he said, with a total of 150 students, who have been exempted from military service.

When he attended synagogue services in Budapest last Saturday there were some 600 persons present and the atmosphere appeared completely free. The community in Budapest supports seven ritual slaughterers, an old age home, a kosher communal kitchen and many social services. The only restaurant in Hungary not operated by the government is a kosher one, he underlined. This restaurant is frequently visited by non-Jews. The government recently permitted the establishment of a number of Orthodox cooperatives where Sabbath-observing Jews can work.

Mr. Goodman concluded his report with a warm tribute to the Israel Charge d’ Affaires in Budapest who, he said, has been a great source of comfort to the Jews in their hour of need, while at the same time he maintained a “correct” attitude toward the Jewish community.