Despite continued reports of anti-Jewish agitation in the Soviet Union and acts of violence against Jews there, sources here which have been closely following Russian developments said today they still believed the Kremlin did not want violence against Jews. They stressed however, that the large number of anti-Jewish articles in the Soviet press, particularly in the provinces, could not be coincidental and must certainly be government-inspired.
Anti-Semitic elements, it was said here, undoubtedly considered these articles as giving them the green-light for anti-Jewish activities. Some of the articles, in newspapers received here, use language which could be interpreted as an open invitation to commit acts of violence. In one article, dealing with charges of alleged use of synagogues as centers for black-marketing, it was noted, the phrase was used: “We sill strike at their hands.!”
The aim of the Soviet authorities in setting an anti-Jewish press campaign in motion, it was believed, was to warn Jews not to interpret the general thaw in East-West relations as any indication of possibilities for any Jewish organization. The attacks on the synagogues, it is believed, were intended to indicate that even the assembly of ten Jewish worshippers–the “Minyan”–could be considered as a semi-illegal assembly.
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.
