Article on Jews in Soviet Publication Denounced As ‘hypocrisy’

A feature article, obviously intended to show that religious Jews in the Soviet Union are not subjected to discrimination, appeared this weekend in “USSR,” an illustrated English-language monthly magazine published by the Soviet Embassy in Washington. It was immediately characterized by U. S. Senator Jac ob K. Javits, as “hypocrisy” intended to cover up the fact that the Soviet authorities practice and encourage discriminations against Jews, especially in the religious and cultural fields.

The article in “USSR,” entitled “Rabbi Honored in Moscow,” is illustrated with a full page portrait of Rabbi Natan Olevsky, 90-year-old leader of the Maryina Roscha Synagogue, a house of worship in a Moscow suburb. According to the article, the synagogue celebration was attended by leaders of “other congregations in the capital and representatives of the Israeli Embassy.” Rabbi Olevsky is reported having delivered a sermon in which he purportedly said: “We Jews in the Soviet Union are equal citizens of our motherland.”

In his denunciation of the article as “hypocrisy,” Sen. Javits pointed to the fact that the Ukrainia Academy of Science has published a “blatant anti-Semitic” pamphlet entitled “Judaism Without Embellishment,” deriding the Jewish religion and alleging that synagogues in the Soviet Union are centers for “speculation in matzoh, pigs, thievery, deception, debauchery.”

Asserting that the “USSR” article is full of “falsehoods, ” Sen. Javits declared” “These falsehoods need to be dissected. But the anti-Semitism of ‘Judaism Without Embellishment’ demands an oucry of pain and protest.” He noted that the pamphlet, portraying Jews “in traditional, anti-Semitic stereotypes,” was published for internal consumption while the “USSR” article was issued for foreign readers as Soviet propaganda.