The first shipment of matzoth for Russian Jews for the forthcoming Passover holiday, is expected to arrive here tomorrow. Five carloads containing 4,000 pud are en route.
The quantity of matzoth which the Soviet Government will permit to be brought into the country depends on the funds available from abroad, and no limit has been set, according to an agreement reached on the quantity to be admitted and the duty to be imposed. A duty of 50 kopeks per kilogram was set.
In specifying a 50 kopek per kilo duty, a mean was struck between the 5 kopek duty on bread and the 2 rouble luxury duty on cake. At first the Soviet Government set the sake tariff for matzoth. An appeal by the Berlin committee formed to provide the Russian Jews with matzoth, made through Ambassador Krestinsky, urged that the duty be reduced to that for bread. The Soviet Government replied, decreasing the duty to 80 kopeks. As this was considered still to high, Rabbi Leo Baeck, acting for the German committee, appealed for further reduction.
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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.
