American Jewish Soldiers Crowd London Synagogues on Yom Kippur

Large numbers of Jewish soldiers and officers serving in the American armed forces stationed in England crowded the synagogues in London yesterday, while in one synagogue an American Jewish officer served as Chazan, reciting the Yom Kippur prayers for the entire congregation.

The Jewish service men from the United States were only part of the men in military uniform who attended the Yom Kippur services. Attendance in the synagogues this Yom Kippur was so large that traffic had to be diverted from one of the streets in West London which was jammed with Jews, both military men and civilians, awaiting the opening of the doors of one of the synagogues there. Chief Rabbi Hertz, who fell sick after delivering his sermon on Rosh Hashanah, was feeling well enough to attend the Yom Kippur services.

The belief of Jews that when victory over Nazism is achieved the United Nations will deal justly with the problems which will confront the Jews who have survived Nazi brutality and that the forthcoming peace will ensure complete liberty and equality for all the Jewish people, was expressed by Professor Selig Brodetsky, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, in a broadcast last night over the London radio. No language, he said, can recount the suffering of eight million Jews in the Nazi hell. On the other hand, he stressed, there are today eight million Jews in America, Russia, the British Empire and Palestine who are contributing their utmost to the Allied war effort.