A gloomy picture of the future of Soviet Jewry was presented here today at the annual meeting of the executive committee of the National Council of Jewish Women by Mrs. Moise S. Kahn, president of the organization, who returned from a visit to the Soviet Union.
“Despite Communist propaganda to the effect that attendance at churches and synagogues has increased since Stalin’s death, most of the worshippers are old people,” Mrs. Kahn reported. “The young have been weaned away by indoctrination, and when occasionally they are seen at religious services, they are drawn only by curiosity. Virulent and untruthful propaganda against all things religious continues at strength.
“This continuous indoctrination threatens the Jewish community with imminent destruction, since the youth grow up with no Jewish consciousness at all. Unlike the Jewish youth of Yugoslavia, who maintain a strong sense of Jewish identity despite their irreligiousness, the Jewish generation now growing up in Russia will have no consciousness of being Jewish at all.
“Soviet Premier Bulganin has stated privately that it is planned to permit kosher food in Russia again, and that the Yiddish theatre will be revived. A rabbinical seminary in Moscow is being planned. These gestures, however, are virtually irrelevant. They come too late. The only thing which possibly could save the Jewish community of Russia would be the revival of Jewish education of the young, of which there is none at present,” Mrs. Kahn stated.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
