Chanukah and other Jewish subjects accounted for about 90 percent of the regular weekly 15 minute religious program beamed to the Soviet Union in the Russian language by the Voice of America Sunday and repeated Monday night, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed today. The program had been hailed as the start of Jewish VOA broadcasts to the USSR.
But VOA officials conceded that Jewish content was much the same on previous Jewish holidays. The program is normally devoted to religious, cultural and social items relating to all religious denominations in the US. The VOA has so far resisted demands by Jewish and non-Jewish groups to include special Yiddish language broadcasts in its schedule of programs beamed to the USSR. A VOA official told the JTA that the effectiveness and range of audience for the program was uncertain because of Soviet jamming of VOA broadcasts. The Sunday broadcast featured Chanukah and Christmas greetings from Jewish and non-Jewish clergymen and public figures.
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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.
