Fred Monosson, national Zionist leader, has returned here from a visit to Russia with a report that there is no Jewish life in Russia, Everywhere he went, he said, he looked for Jewish places but only in the synagogues was he absolutely certain that those present were Jews.
“Since no books are published in Yiudish and all Jewish cultural institutions have been closed down and do not function, there is no Jewish life, ” he reported. He said that in a theatre in Odessa, he found 700 Jews who came to see a pray in Yiddish, adding that he found that they wanted to be together and to be among Jews “even though many of them did not understand a word of Yiudish and parts of the play had to be translated.” The pro gram for the play was printed in Russian, not Yiddish, he said.
On his visits to synagogues he found “only elderly folks, from 65 years and up, no younger generation.” Asked whether he found evidence that Russian Jews wanted to go to Israel, he said: “The elderly people, yes. But when it comes to the present generation, who for 40 years have absorbed and lived completely under the spell of Soviet rule, what do they know about Israel and the new life and happiness our Jewish nation could bring them.”
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