The Moscow Jewish Community today issued a Rosh Hashonah proclamation addressed “To The Religious Jews All Over the World,” emphasizing that Jews must now concentrate on the rebuilding of Jewish life shattered by the German extermination of the Jewish communities in Europe.
“The war has ruined and devastated our people,” the proclamation says. “Now all our strength should be directed towards the rehabilitation of all that has been destroyed. We must concentrate on the rapid rebuilding of a new life for the Jewish people who have lost a third of their number.
“We, the religious Jews of the USSR, fervently desire that our brothers and sisters who were under the suppression of the German monsters and cannibals should rebuild their lives as rapidly as we, the Jews of the Soviet Union, are doing it with the assistance of our government. Our continuous prayers and fears have reached the Almighty and He has given us victory over the fiendish enemy who was already at the gates of our capital. We believe that the Almighty will now also hear our prayers of thanksgiving and bestow upon the surviving Jews a happy and joyous life.”
In Kiev, to which 50,000 Jews have already returned from the interior, Rosh Hashonah services were held in a synagogue on Shchekavitskaya Street which was placed at the disposal of the Jewish community by the Soviet authorities. The synagogue, which has 400 seats, was repaired and repainted by the community. The well known cantor Lekhiel Gildin came from Moscow to officiats at the services.
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