The Synagogue Council of America cautioned the American Jewish community today “not to fall into the trap” of one of the “architects of the destruction of Judaism” in the Soviet Union–Aron Vergelis, editor of the Sovietisch Heimiand, a Yiddish bi-monthly published in Moscow. Vergelis is a member of a group of Soviet writers coming to the United States next week.
“Vergelis will, without doubt, in his appearance on the American scene, confront us with a barrage whitewashing Soviet anti-Jewish deeds by denying prevailing facts,” Rabbi Uri Miller, president of the religious coordinating body, stated.
Declaring that Vergelis did not represent, “let alone speak,” for Soviet Jews, Rabbi Miller said, that in 1948, Vergelis went to Birobidjan “to participate in the liquidation of the Jewish anti-fascist committee,” as a member at that time, “of the Soviet secret police.” Rabbi Miller also asserted that Vergelis “is considered among Jews of the Soviet Union as one of the most active collaborators in the liquidation of Jewish religious and cultural institutions during the Stalin era.”
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.
