The Lubavitcher Rebbe has issued an appeal through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to Jews in America and other countries who have relatives and friends in the Soviet countries, to take urgent measures to provide them with matzoth for Passover, by sending them five kilo packets of Passover flour, which is permitted by Soviet law. In order to facilitate the sending of these packets from distant countries, the statement proceeds, a Committee has been formed in Berlin, beaded by Dr. Eier Hildesheimer. Money for buying packets of flour should be sent to the Treasurer of the Committee, Dr. Emil Hirsch, at 43, Harbenberger Street, in Berlin.
The J.T.A. representative in Moscow, until recently, Mr. Smolar, warned the Jews abroad last year that they should not repeat the campaign of the previous year for providing matzoth for Russian Jewry, because it would do more harm than good. The only way of providing relatives in the Soviet countries with matzoth, he said, is to send them individual packages by post, but it must be remembered that these will be subject to high customs dues.
The Baal Chofetz Chaim and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzenski when they issued their appeal last year urged all Jews to send their relative and friends in Russia small 5 kilo parcels of matzoth for Passover, addressed individually, in place of the method adopted the year before of collecting funds through central committees who used them to forward consignments of matzoth into the Soviet countries for distribution there. When the big appeal for matzoth for Russian Jewry was made in 1929 all over the Jewish world, including England, where the appeal was issued by the Chief rabbi, Dr. J.H. Hertz, the Communist Press exploited the fact to start an agitation against the Rabbis in Russia, arguing that the matzoth campaign proved that they maintain contact with foreign Jewry. The whole business, it contended, was a subterfuge to send funds into the Soviet countries to support the Jewish religious organisations and institutions.
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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.
