Leaflets signed by an organization calling itself “Kill the Jews and Save Russia” are being distributed in a number of Soviet cities, particularly in the Ukraine, according to The New York Times which noted “a sharp increase in Soviet attacks against Judaism and religious Jews.” The newspaper said that copies of these leaflets have now reached the United States.
In the Moscow suburb of Malakhovka, leaflets signed with the initials of the anti-Jewish organization were distributed before an attempt was made there on October 4 to burn down the synagogue during Rosh Hashanah. Similar leaflets, the Times reports, had been distributed on the eve of Rosh Hashanah in three Ukrainian cities–Kharkov, Kiev and Vinnitza. One of the leaflets, received here, criticized the Bolsheviks for having rushed to give the Jews equality.
The Jewish woman who died in the Malakhovka synagogue arson attempt was identified by the newspaper as Mme. Sarah Gordovskaya. It said she “did not die by accident, as was first believed, but was strangled and her body thrown into the blaze.”
The Times report said that on the eve of Rosh Hashanah Soviet authorities confiscated Torah Scrolls in synagogues in Kharkov, Minsk and in the Moscow suburb of Kuntsevo. Synagogues have recently been reported closed in Tiraspol, Uzhgorod, Chelyabinsk, Rovno, Drogobych, Brest, Karaganda, Tashkent, and Samarkand. In the last two cities the closed synagogues were reported to be those of European Jews, while the synagogues of the Bukharin Jews have apparently been permitted to function.
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.
