Leaders of the Jewish community in Kiev have con firmed reports that the synagogue in that Soviet city was refused permission to bake matzoh for Passover, it was reported here according to a cable today from Moscow to the New York Times.
The confirmation of the reports by the Kiev Jews contradicted a claim made earlier this week by Dimitri Chavakhin, Soviet Ambassador to Israel, who denied that there was any matzoh ban in Kiev. The Soviet envoy made this claim during a conversation with Israeli Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman.
According to the Times, the Kiev Jewish leaders said that they had requested permission to bake matzoh in January and that it had been refused. The Times report added, however, that “semi-official” sources said that some matzoh baking was going on under the auspices of the only synagogue in Kiev, which has a Jewish population of 300, 000.
(The Moscow correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation reported today that while Jews in Moscow and Leningrad apparently would be able to get matzon this year, other scattered communities were unlikely to get enough matzoh for Passover “if indeed they get them at all. ” In the communities, where there may be no matzoh at all, Jews there will face the same difficulty as last year when no matzoh was available for Passover.)
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