Because Boris Smolar, correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, approached the Soviet Commissar of Education, Andrei Bubnov, on the question of his attitude towards the teaching of the Hebrew language in Russia, the Moscow Yiddish Communist daily “Emes,” in an article in its issue of December 8, furiously attacks Smolar and gives an undisguised hint to the effect that the proper course for the Soviet government is to prohibit Smolar from continuing his work in Russia.
“If bigger people have been rapped over their knuckles, what will happen to the dollar correspondent Smolar?” the concluding sentence in the article reads.
The “Emes” accuses Smolar of interfering in the internal Soviet affairs. It also attacks him for making an issue in the foreign press some months ago of the fact that it was intended to have Jewish colonists work on Yom Kippur, which would have been a “Collectivization Day” were it not for Smolar’s intercession with Vice-President Smidovitch, who had the “Collectivization Day” postponed. “Now,” says the “Emes,” “the Soviet correspondent takes the liberty to draw the attention of the government to the persecutions of the Hebrew language and Hebrew schools.”
The article is from the pen of a prominent Yevsektzia leader who hides under a pseudonym. Among the list of sins of which the article accuses Smolar is that of visiting on Yom Kippur, synagogues in Moscow in the company of other foreign correspondents to see the effect of the anti-religious campaign, and also that Smolar visited the Jewish colonies to acquaint himself on the spot with the situation there.
Smolar, however, aroused the greatest indignation among Jewish Communists because of his approaching Bubnov on the question of the persecution of the Hebrew language, the Yevsektzia being afraid that the correspondent may succeed in enlightening the Commissar of Education on the injustice of the Yevsektzia’s persecution of Hebrew. The “Emes” is afraid that Bubnov’s declaration may disclose that not the Soviet government, but certain members of the Yevsektzia persecute the Hebrew language and the teachers of it.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
