No compulsion is to be used during the anti-Passover campaign, is the order issued today by the League of the Godless.
The order says that no house-to-house collection of candlesticks, praying shawls or phylacteries should take place during Passover, and that the delivery of such articles should be of an absolutely voluntary nature.
The resignation of Jews from membership in the organized Jewish communities and their joining the Godless League should also not be carried on under compulsion, the instructions state. The order aims at showing that those who submit their religious articles for the industrialization fund, do it not under pressure. “We know that the Jewish nepmen and the Jewish clericals will represent our anti-Passover campaign as an evil edict and persecution and will try to compromise it by saying that we confiscate their religious articles and sell them for junk, thus robbing them,” says the order.
“We are, therefore, anxious to show that we accept contributions for our industrialization fund only from those giving them with a full heart. We don’t want anything from rabbis or religious leaders who will later cry that they were forced to give up their candlesticks. Urging people to give up religious articles demonstrates a departure from religion and must, therefore, be done voluntarily,” the order declares.
Under the headline, “Organize Our Jewish Workers Against the Religious Swindle,” the “Emes,” Moscow Jewish Communist daily, today publishes reports from the provinces showing how the anti-Passover campaign is being prepared there. All the reports show that the anti-Passover campaign this year centers on collecting religious articles.
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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.
