The 10,000 member pre-war Jewish community of Czerkassi, in the Ukraine, has shrunk to 2,000 men, women and children, it was reported here today by an immigrant from the Soviet Union who arrived by plane. The immigrant, 72-year-old Hirsch Polowsky, was one of a party of 14 elderly Jewish men and women most of them residents of Czernowitz, who were permitted to immigrate to Israel.
Mr. Polowsky said that only one synagogue was in use today, as compared with 12 in the pre-war period. He added that the lone rabbi was also the cantor and shochet. Mr. Polowsky said that there is still considerable anti-Semitism among the Ukrainian people.
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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.