Commenting on the organization of a national committee in Great Britain, of which Chief Rabbi Hertz is vice-president, to fight religious persecutions in Soviet Russia, the “Jewish Morning Journal” of December 15 says:
“The prospect that even a national British committee will be able to accomplish something against religious persecutions in Soviet Russia is not very promising, in spite of the naive belief in protests that is so often expressed in Jewish circles. It is easy to say that Moscow will listen to this or that voice, but the fact is that until now no protest of this sort was much noticed by the Soviet authorities, that protests from this or from other Western countries have never under the present or under former Russian rulers brought concrete results, since the fanatic who wields power in a Russian town is as little concerned over an opinion from London or New York as a lynching mob in Georgia is concerned over an opinion from Berlin or Paris.
“For those, however, who believe that something can be accomplished through the intervention of the civilized countries, it must be clear that the British committee, of which Chief Rabbi Dr. Hertz became a member, is on the right path. One must remember that the world is accustomed to political persecutions. Religious persecutions, however, are regarded in civilized countries as a form of barbarism that is entirely out of accord with the spirit of modern life.”
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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.
