The charge that Jews are persecuted in the Soviet Union is the “worst lie yet invented against the Socialist system,” Moscow radio said last night in a broadcast monitored here. “Synagogues are functioning in the USSR and books by Jewish writers are being published,” the broadcaster said.
He noted that the writer Ilya Ehrenburg, the violinist David Cistrakh and the pianist Emil Gilels as well as scientists and other intellectuals who are Jews are “looked up to and respected in Russia.” He neglected to state that no books are published in Yiddish and that all Jewish cultural institutions have been closed down and no longer function.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
