Anglo-jewish Association and Joint Foreign Committee Protest Russian Persecution of Judaism

Protests against the persecution of Judaism in Soviet Russia were voiced here today in a resolution adopted by the Anglo-Jewish Association and in the report of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, which revealed that the Committee learned of the arrest of the Minsk rabbis through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The Anglo-Jewish Association deplored the anti-religious policy of the Soviet “which by the wholesale closing and confiscation of synagogues, the restrictions of the activities of congregations, the persecution of rabbis and religious teachers, the suppression of religious instruction to children and the corruption of the state schools by atheistical teaching, is causing intense spiritual suffering to millions of law-abiding Jews and threatens Russian Judaism with extinction.”

The report of the Joint Foreign Committee presented at a meeting of the Board of Deputies explained that efforts to get the British foreign office to make friendly representations to the Soviet foreign secretary had resulted in an expression of regret that under the circumstances it was impossible to accede to any request for intervention that might even adversely affect the interests of the prisoners.

Nevertheless, the report stated, the Committee was not altogether unprepared for the decision and was grateful for the sympathetic spirit in which the government had considered the application.

“Apart from this startling incident, throwing a lurid light on the arbitrary conditions in which the Jews are living,” all information at the disposal of the Committee shows that in the past year “the sufferings of the Jews have been severely aggravated. The inevitable result must be the extinction of Russian Judaism. Direct appeals to the Soviet have been tried and failed, while diplomatic representations by foreign states, even of the most friendly character, are difficult and in the case of Great Britain forbidden by the protocol by which diplomatic relations were resumed.

“The Committee, however, feels it would be unfair to Anglo-Jewry to advise an entirely passive attitude in the face of so terrible a calamity that has befallen our Russian co-religionists and which seems likely to affect disastrously the whole fabric of Judaism in Eastern Europe. It is at least a satisfaction to add our protest to the great volume of indignation with which the Chief Rabbi is so zealously identified.”

Leonard Montefiore, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, said that “the new decree issued after the denials of persecution, is an admission that persecution existed. It is impossible to judge to what extent the decree seriously modifies the anti-religious policy, particularly with regard to any mitigation of the prohibition of religious teaching. I consider that the Chief Rabbi voiced the opinion of all when he said he places little trust in the denunciations of the Soviet rulers. We hope that the test of the decree will be an indication that the Russian government itself intends to end the present condition.”