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When Soviets Will Fall, Russian Jews Will Suffer Greatly, Says Ex Hakam Gaster

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“When the Soviets will fall, and chaos will prevail in Russia, Russian Jewry will suffer greatly,” was the plea offered yesterday by Dr. Moses Gaster, ex Hakam of the Sephardic Congregation in London, at the meeting of the Anglo-Jewish Association. He made this statement in protest against a report submitted to the annual meeting of the Association, on the persecution of the Jewish religion in Soviet Russia.

He stated that prominent Jews in Russia object to the charges of anti-Jewish persecution by the Soviet Government, and that the Rabbi of Moscow was incensed at them. According to ex Hakam Gaster, no synagogues have been closed, no Rabbis imprisoned and no Jewish teaching suspended. He claimed that the one or two Jewish teachers who had been arrested, had exceeded their official positions by touch in – on political questions, and as for the charges of the confiscation of synagogue property, only a few silver things had been removed. This procedure he considered thoroughly justified in view of the fact that they were used for saving the lives of starving people.

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