Fifty young Israelis, members of the Israel delegation to the World Youth Festival which is now taking place in Moscow, attended the Sabbath services in the Moscow synagogue yesterday and were the center of attention of about 3, 000 Jews who crowded the synagogue building and streets outside the building.
This was the largest crowd ever seeking entrance into the synagogue. The Moscow Jews, attracted by the presence of the Israeli youths, flocked to the house of worship, despite “Soviet official disapproval of Israel” and notwithstanding the fact that “there were a good many persons in plainclothes around to watch the proceedings,” Daniel Schorr, Moscow correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System, reported. He emphasized that the Israeli youths were given in the synagogue “a heart-felt and sometimes tearful reception.”
The New York Times reported from Moscow that “thousands of Soviet Jews have come to see the Israeli delegation at the World Youth Festival perform Israeli folk dances and songs.” The Israeli youngsters have tried to get together with delegates from Arab nations but without success thus far, except for one round of fisticuffs, the Times reported. The dispatch emphasized that the Israeli delegation of about 200 youths consists of two equally divided groups, one sympathetic to Communism and the other non-Communist.
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