There is little evidence of any Yiddish culture in Minsk, a city rich in Jewish history, it was reported here today by David Miller, correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune, who is currently visiting the capital of Byelorussia in the Soviet Union.
The correspondent noted that there are no Byelorussian Yiddish-language books or newspapers in the stores although Byelorussia publishes 128 newspapers and last year issued 1,612 book titles. He said Yiddish writers appear either in the Moscow-published Yiddish magazine, Soviet Homeland, or in translation. Yiddish is not taught in any school, not even as a specialized course in one of the institutes of higher learning. Concerts in Yiddish are given in Minsk, but there is no permanent theater.
The only synagogue in Minsk, where nearly 120 flourished before the 1917 revolution, is scheduled for demolition by Communist officials as part of a new construction project. It is not known where religious Jews will gather to pray after the ancient synagogue is swept away. There are some 59,000 Jews in Minsk, according to the latest Soviet census. Jews in the city constitute about eight percent of the population. In all of Belorussia, there are about 150,000 Jews, about two percent of the population.
At the Byelorussian state museum of the history of the Second World War, the correspondent found almost no reminders of the holocaust suffered by the Jews under the Nazis. Of the 4,500 photographs, documents and exhibits, only one–a newspaper clipping ordering the creation of the Minsk Jewish ghetto in the early days of the Nazi occupation–was on display.
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