Birobidjan Yiddish Paper Barred from Other Parts of Soviet Union

Soviet authorities have prevented recently the circulation of the USSR’s only Yiddish newspaper, the BiroBidjaner Shtern, in any part of the Soviet Union except in the city of BiroBidjan itself, it was learned here today from highly reliable sources.

The BiroBidjaner Shtern has been published for years in the capital city of the BiroBidjan Republic, an area once designated by Moscow as an “autonomous” Jewish region. The four-page newspaper, printed entirely in Yiddish, is issued three times a week in a total of 1, 000 copies.

Until recently, it had been on sale on newsstands of three Moscow hotels, and arrangements could be made through Intourist, the official government tourist agency, to have copies of the newspaper on sale at those hotels when visiting foreign delegations had requested that they be allowed to buy the Shtern. Soviet citizens interested in the newspaper in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev could also subscribe for the paper.

Now, it has been learned, all subscribers in any place in the USSR outside the city of BiroBidjan can no longer receive the newspaper. None is on sale at any of the hotels in Moscow or Leningrad. Soviet authorities, asked about the apparent restriction of the newspaper’s circulation to the city of BiroBidjan itself, have explained its spread is being prevented because of its “low standards.” There was no explanation as to what the “standards” were.