An end to the isolation of Russian Jewry after the war was forecast today by Prof. Solomon Mikhoels, addressing a press conference here. Prof. Mikhoels, together with Lieut.-Col. Itzik Feffer, arrived in England a few days ago from the United States where they toured the Jewish communities as a Jewish cultural delegation from Russia. Contact between the Jews of Russia and their relatives abroad will be resumed immediately after the war, he said. Such communication is difficult now because of security reasons.
Lieut.-Col. Feffer described the development of Jewish culture in Russia and expressed the hope that it would be further stimulated after the war through contact with the Jews of other lands. Both delegates stressed the importance of the first contact which has been made between the 5,000,000 Jews of Russia and the 5,000,000 Jews of the United States.
Replying to a query, Lieut.-Col. Feffer stated that there was complete religious freedom in Soviet Russia. In reply to another question, he denied that the recent creation of “Chmelnitzky Order” by the Soviet Government was a slur upon the Jewish people. Bogdan Chmelnitzky was a Ukrainian leader in the 17th century who is held responsible for massacres of the Jews in the Ukraine. Feffer insisted that Chmelnitzky’s struggle for the liberation of the Ukrainians cannot be compared to the Czarist pogroms or Hitler’s annihilation of the Jews.
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.
