Rabbi Chaim M. Twersky of Brooklyn, a member of the presidium of the World Center of European Rabbis, reported today, on his return from a tour of Soviet cities, that officials there had erected and repaired monuments of graves of a number of rabbis in those cities with “the fullest measure of cooperation.”
Rabbi Twersky visited Moscow, Kiev, Makarev, Onetevka, Kalinovka, Berditshev and Zhitomir. He said there were many Jewish cemeteries in the Soviet Union which has suffered damage during the Nazi occupation but he found that the non Jews in the areas had not touched the remnants of the cemeteries.
He reported that this information was important in reference to efforts by the rabbinical group to obtain indemnification from West Germany for repair of cemeteries damaged or destroyed by the Nazis. The West German Government has argued that the local non-Jewish population would destroy the cemeteries if they were repaired.
The rabbinical group is seeking to obtain 1, 000, 000 Jewish signatures for a petition, to be presented to West German officials, declaring that the West German Government should provide funds to repair cemeteries in East Europe destroyed by the Nazis.
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