‘prudent Protests’ on Soviet Jews Urged by Rabbi Returning from Russia

Protests against Soviet discriminations against Jews have a salutary effect when carried out “in responsible and prudent ways,” Rabbi Bernard A. Poupko, a member of the nine-man delegation of the Rabbinical Council of America which visited the Soviet Union, told the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, upon his return here. Rabbi Poupko was one of the three members of the delegation who were the first American rabbis permitted to deliver greetings to Soviet Jewry from the pulpit of the Great Synagogue in Moscow.

Rabbi Poupko’s trip to Russia was his second visit there within the past 14 months. “I am retreating somewhat from my original position of 14 months ago,” he said. “But we found that everything done abroad on this matter in a responsible and prudent way is of inestimable value.”

After his last visit to Russia, Dr. Poupko indicated that public protests serve no good, perhaps harm, and that the Soviet cold program was primarily a religious problem and should be left in the hands of religious leaders of various faiths to quietly negotiate relief for the Jews of Russia. He said this trip changed his viewpoint.

“I am happy about the planned ‘Washington Vigil on Soviet Jewry,'” he said. (The American Conference on Soviet Jewry in New York has scheduled an Eternal Light Vigil to take place in Washington on Sunday, September 19. Leadership delegations from local and national Jewish agencies from all over the United States will assemble for the mass protest.)

“Soviet Russia is eager for approval from world public opinion,” Rabbi Poupko declared. “It is no longer the same Russia of Lenin and Stalin. It is Communist, of course, but today Soviet Russia wants to live with the world, it seems. The government people seem to go out of their way to impress the tourist.”

‘OBSTACLES’ AND ‘RESENTMENTS’ AGAINST JEWS IN UNIVERSITIES

He said that, wherever the delegation went, they walked about with the yarmulke (skull cap) on their heads, so that they would be identified as Jews to Russians who were aware of their custom. Many of the delegation were stopped, especially by students, to really determine whether they were Jews and to ask about America.

Some students noted, sometimes in extra quiet tones, according to Rabbi Poupko, that things are better than in Stalin’s time and that a year ago, anti-Semitism was more noticeable than now. With regard to university discrimination, they said there are “obstacles” and “resentments.” Jews are most represented on the mathematics and physics faculties; the preponderance of these professors are often Jewish, they stated.

Dr. Poupko noted an unevenness in Soviet pressure on the Jewish population. For instance, in Kiev the pressure seemed constant, with informers and officials watchful and often overbearing. In Tbilisi (Tiflis), the Sephardic community seems unburdened in its religious pursuits, with about 300 attending daily services. Georgia, the province of Stalin’s birthplace, seems to have had some concessions made to it over the years, he said.