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Yom Kippur Observed in Iron Curtain Lands; Moscow Radio Blasts Jews

September 26, 1958
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Jews in countries behind the Iron Curtain observed Yom Kippur at synagogue services, according to reports reaching here from Moscow, Warsaw, Bucharest and Budapest.

The Great Synagogue in Moscow was crowded on Yom Kippur eve with worshippers, including many young people. Jewish members of a number of foreign embassies, as well as the staff of the Israel embassy attended the services. A number of Jewish tourists from the United States and Britain were also seen during the Kol Nidri prayer in the Moscow synagogue.

The Moscow radio, on the other hand, chose Yom Kippur eve to broadcast a bitter attack on world Jewry by the Grand Mufti of the Syrian region of the United Arab Republic. The broadcast, transmitted in Arabic to Arab nations, said that “the Jews are kindling evil among nations.” It claimed that “the Jews are pushing the followers of Jesus into a terrible war” and accused Israel of “stealing the country from other people whom she has turned into refugees.”

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