The anti-religious campaign, timed to coincide with the Jewish High Holidays, is a failure, the Moscow Jewish paper, Emes, admits today, and calls for the immediate mobilization of all forces to save the so-called culture march, which is to urge Jewish workers to remain at work on the holidays, from failure. In White Russia every Jewish teacher has been mobilized for the campaign, but many of them are openly refusing to participate, saying that the Jewish children are not religious anyhow.
The Oktiabr, Jewish Communist paper in Minsk, urges “unmerciful measures” against the teachers who do not take part in the campaign. The Oktiabr also utilizes the anti-religious campaign to insinuate that rabbis are hoarding silver and thus “deliberately increasing the difficulties of the Soviet government. We have proof that the Jewish clericals are hiding silver, participating in the food speculation and also obtaining foodstuffs illegally from the government cooperatives while they are engaged in spreading malicious rumors. This must be stopped.”
Reports from Kiev, Vimnitza, Kamenetz-Podolsk and dozens of other cities in Ukrainia complaining that nothing is being done for the anti-religious campaign, are published today in the Emes.
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.