The situation of Soviet Jewry was described last night in the Independent Television series on “The Jews in the World,” a documentary watched by an estimated 6,000,000 viewers.
The program made it clear that Soviet Jews were free and equal citizens of the Soviet Union but only as long as they did not insist on preserving their Jewish identity. When they do, they meet administrative obstacles and sometimes even hostility though the latter is by no means general, the program indicated.
The documentary also noted that in the current spate of trials of Soviet citizens for alleged economic crimes, the Jews, who are a tiny minority in Russia, are prominently mentioned in the Soviet press by name and ethnic description as Jews.
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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.
