Recent events in the Soviet Union have indicated “a strong direction toward Soviet anti-Semitism in a vast area of Russian economic, political and social activities,” it was charged here last night at the 26th annual convention of the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox group.
The charge was voiced by Rabbi Albert B. Schartz, chairman of the convention. He called upon the U.S. Government, the United Nations and leaders of all major faiths to speak out against the continued suppression of Jewish religious and cultural activities in the USSR.
“Russian Jews,” Rabbi Schwartz said, “must be rehabilitated to lead a life of Jewish dignity and fulfillment. All the leaders of the world must exert their utmost efforts to persuade the rulers of the Soviet Union to uphold the fundamental guarantees of unfettered religio-cultural liberty for the Jews of Russia. Russian Jewry is being victimized unjustly.”
At an earlier session, American Jewry was called upon by several of the speakers to give “greater and more meaningful” significance to Sabbath observance. Americans were reminded of the meaning of the Sabbath by Rabbi Nachman Rabinovitch, of Charles ton, S. C,; Rabbi Zalman I. Posner, of Nashville; and Rabbi Irving Filler, of Brooklyn. Rabbi David Shapiro, of Milwaukee, scored what he called “the ersatz methods which have been formulated for the observance of the Sabbath.”
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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.
