The Soviet government is called upon ### make some statement with regard to the alleged “dollar inquisition” against the Jews, in an editorial in the Pittsburgh Jewish Criterion signed by Charles H. Joseph.
Mr. Joseph writes: “Is it true that Jews are being tortured in Russia in order to force them to give up American dollars which they are supposed to have? That is what some of the Jewish papers are reporting, and they call it the ‘Dollar Inquisition.’ Your government was alleged to have ordered this torture and one news item alleges that your secret police rounded up some hundred or more Jews and confined them in cellars with the threat to keep them there unless they gave either gold or American dollars to be freed. How about it, Mr. Stalin? It seems scarcely creditable that you would countenance that sort of thing.
“Perhaps it is true that there may be an occasional offender who is hoarding American dollars. Perhaps many others, innocent, have been placed under suspicion and punished in an effort to extort that which they don’t possess. Frankly, we are inclined to believe that reports have been exaggerated, but we do feel that it would make for less misunderstanding if you were to authorize a denial of the conditions alleged. Now and again we hear reports of this or that evidence of discrimination in Russia against the Jews, but it appears to us that Jews of Russia are treated exactly as all other Russians. There may be individual anti-Semitism, but it certainly cannot be charged against the Government. It must be said in all fairness that so far as the Jew is concerned, Russia is a far better country to live in today than when the Czars ruled,” Mr. Joseph concludes.
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