The Soviet authorities have compelled the congregation of what is believed to have been the last remaining synagogue in Chernovtsy, in the Ukraine, to disband and close the institution, it was learned here today. The city, formerly known as Czernovitz, capital of the Rumanian province of Bukhovina, once had one of the largest Jewish populations in Eastern Europe. The Jewish population of the city today is estimated at between 40, 000 and 50, 000.
A report on the closure of the synagogue was published in the January issue of “Voyovnichy Ateist, ” (Militant Atheist), official organ of the Ukrainian Institute for Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge on Atheism, copies of which were received here today. The story made clear that the action was forced upon the congregation by “3, 000 loyal atheists” who took over the edifice for a mass-meeting.
Participants at the meeting, the publication reported, charged that “Israeli diplomats” had visited the synagogue at various times, “offending Soviet citizens by their attacks against the Soviet system.” The worshipers, the paper said, had “protested against the behavior of the Israeli diplomats.”
The meeting, according to the Soviet periodical, discussed “what goes on behind the walls of the synagogue. ” Charges were made that the Jews there were occupied mainly with “dividing honors as well as with dividing the proceeds of the communal cash-box. ” The periodical asserted that two members of the synagogue’s board of trustees, identified as Reich and Bronstein, had “demanded that the house of worship be closed as a center of conspiracies, swindling and foul attacks against the Soviet people.”
The mass meeting reportedly turned into “an attack against the trustees of the synagogue. ” Finally, three other board members–named as Schechter, Kleiman and Riesel–presented a resolution calling for the shut-down. The resolution was passed, stated the Kiev report, “and the building, on Russky Stree, is now being used as a school, School No. 27, with eight grades.”
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.
