Articles in Yiddish Communist Daily “octiabre” Show Attitude of Russian Communists to Adherents of J

In connection with the reports of renewed persecution of the Jewish religion in Soviet Russia, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency gives here excerpts from certain articles which have appeared in the Minsk Yiddish Communist daily, “Octiabre,” to show the attitude of the Communists in Russia towards those practicing the Jewish religion.

“The synagogues of Slutzk,” writes the “Octiabre,” “are nests of counterrevolutionary activity. All anti-Soviet slanders are here spread by the ‘klai-kodesh.’ Recently the Slutzk speculators spread a rumor that there would be no kerosene. A panic ensued in the town. The lines at the kerosene stores began to grow and the speculators were overjoyed. The ‘klai-kodesh’ are especially successful in influencing the backward workingmen.

“At the same time that such counterrevolutionary activity is being conducted in the synagogues, there is being felt a lack of buildings for cultural work.”

In the same issue there is also an item about the town Pukhowitch, Province of Minsk, where a fire in 1925 destroyed most of the houses, as well as both synagogues. Former residents of the town who now live in America had raised money and helped the Jews of Pukhowitch to build a new synagogue. Commenting on this, the “Octiabre” says:

“The proletarians of the town are now demanding that the synagogue be converted into a Yiddish 7-year school, and at the same time they also demand that the ‘klai-kodesh’ be brought to trial as swindlers and thieves.

“In the town of Pietrikow, also in the Province of Minsk, the Communists are demanding that the various maggidim and rabonim—the agents of the counter-revolution—be forbidden to spread counter-revolutionary propaganda there. In the town of Yurewitch, the Communists are demanding that the local pharmacist, Gurewitch, be dismissed from his job because he insists on kosher meat and refuses to eat ‘Chometz’ on Pesach.

“Most of the towns have long ago rid themselves of their shochtim. The proletarians there have long ago renounced kosher meat, which was used only as speculation for the ‘klai-kodesh.’ In the Jewish agricultural collective ‘Pachar,’ however, they still hate to part with the shochet. They bring the shochet at night and he does his work in the dark.”

In the same issue of the “Octiabre” there is an article in which the orthodox Jews of America and Europe are accused of “helping the Fascisti and the police to drown in blood every workers’ struggle.

“In the United States of America,” it says, “the ‘klai-kodesh’ have this year introduced a change in their traditional customs. They converted the days of foregiveness into days of war against the communists, into days of anti-proletarian meetings. The Jewish workers organized protests against the rabbis. With the help of police and gendarmes the rabbis succeeded in drowning the protest of Jewish workers against religion.”

In another issue, the “Octiabre” says:

“During the past year we have gained in our fight against clericalism. All the workers’ artels and most of the collectives are now working on Saturdays and holidays. An entire movement has crystallized itself in the fight with the ‘klai-kodesh.’ The masses are demanding that the synagogues be taken away. The proletarians have been mobilized in the war on kosher meat, and so on. But at the same time we note increased activity on the part of the ‘klai-kodesh’ among the backward Jewish workers; they are using new methods in the form of open, organized counter-revolutionary demonstrations, and so on.

“The clericals are getting much support from the foreign bourgeoisie, not only in the form of dollars, but also in the form of counter-revolutionary literature which is being read in the synagogues. The ‘innocent’ mask of Jewish chauvinism and clericalism has been torn off. Now it has taken the path of open class war. We accept the war, and will annihilate the class enemy.”