While the anti-Passover campaign has started in various parts of Russia many Jewish Communists consider it absurd because they point out that since the Jews will be unable to obtain matzoth the entire campaign becomes useless. While the campaign officially opened in Moscow a fortnight ago there are no indications that it is effective.
In White Russia plans call for the visiting of every Jewish home with a demand for the contribution of religious articles to the industrialization fund. Red wagons will go through every small town for the purpose of collecting candle sticks, praying shawls and phylacteries. Special stress will be laid on women and children in an effort to get them to contribute to the fund. All children will be required to attend school during Passover, while on the eve of the holiday the women will be invited to special anti-religious meetings.
In the meantime the Jewish Communists of Minsk are utilizing the recent arrest of the rabbis there in their own anti-Passover campaign. They are endeavoring to prove that “all rabbis are partners with contrabandists and Soviet enemies and hence no Jew should observe religious festivals because religion breeds counter-revolution.”
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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.
