A “dark picture” of Jewish life in the Soviet Union is presented today in the New York Times by Harry Schwartz, the newspaper’s expert on Soviet affairs, who has just returned from an extensive tour of the USSR. Mr. Schwartz reports:
“Jews interviewed in the Soviet Union said that the younger generation knew virtually nothing about Judaism. One exception was in Tiflis, where the rabbi of a Georgian synagogue asserted that children were learning about Judaism and he had no fears for the future.
“Moscow has three synagogues, Tiflis has two, and Kiev, Odessa, Leningrad, Baku, Rostov and Minsk have one each. Kharkov, a city with about 100,000 Jews, has no synagogue. The Kharkov synagogue was closed when the rabbi was imprisoned for alleged subversion several years ago.
“In the ten cities this correspondent visited, local estimates added to a total of more than 1,000,000 Jewish inhabitants. Of these, even allowing for the many congregations that meet in private homes, it is dubious if even as many as 10 percent attended Yom Kippur services this year, though this is the most solemn holiday in the Jewish religious calendar.
“Rabbis and lay heads of congregations painted a picture of Jewish life as completely free for all who wished to worship. There seemed to be an element of fear lest they draw a dark picture. But many Jews who cling to the Yiddish language and tradition give a far darker picture. They complained bitterly about anti-Semitism, and many expressed a desire to emigrate.
“We are not wanted here’ and ‘we feel as though we live with a rope around our necks: were typical comments. Even some Jews who had been ‘assimilated’ knew little Yiddish, and had relatively good jobs complained of discrimination and anti-Semitism. Many Jews commented on the harrowing period from January to April, 1953, when a group of doctors, mainly Jews, was falsely accused of having tried to murder Soviet leaders.
“Unhappiness and fear persist among many Soviet Jews despite the considerable easing of Soviet policy toward Yiddish culture. There is now talk among Soviet Jews that a Yiddish newspaper will soon be published again. Some Yiddish writers imprisoned in late 1948 and early 1949 have apparently been released.
“A few Soviet Jews inquired about the situation in Israel, always in whispers. Zionism, though prohibited in the Soviet Union, has apparently not entirely died out. But those Jews who said they wished to emigrate usually indicated they would like to go anywhere in the free world,” Mr. Schwartz concludes.
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.
