The State Department said today that it has been advised by the United States Embassy in Moscow that Chief Rabbi Yehudah Leib Levin has urged Jews in the Soviet capital to bake matzohs at home, since public baking and sale of matzoh has been banned by the Soviet authorities this year.
The Jewish Labor Committee has asked American Jews with relatives or friends in the Soviet Union not to send them religious items–prayer books or prayer shawls–for the approaching Passover holiday, it was reported here today.
The JLC pointed out that “it has received a number of letters from Jews in the Soviet Union that specifically requested that such gifts not be sent. The reasons given were not that there was a surplus of such items in the Soviet Union, in fact there is a shortage, but that Jews receiving such items from Jews in the United States are suspect.
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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.