Members of two religious congregations in Minsk, White Russia, have offered resistance to the order of the Communist authorities to confiscate their synagogues, according to a report from Minsk circulated by the Polish news agency, Wip.
The synagogues were confiscated for the benefit of the unions of ironmongers and leather workers, to be converted into clubs.
When the carrying out of the order led to street fights between the workers and the Jewish worshippers, the Minsk Soviet decided to temporarily seal the synagogues without converting them immediately into clubs. The congregation members have not given up their endeavors to regain the synagogues, while the Comsomol, Communist youth organization, expressed its dissatisfaction with the action of the authorities and demanded immediate conversion of the synagogues into labor clubs.
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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.