Rabbi David Hollander of The Bronx, past president of the Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox) declared here that the Soviet Government “Is not anti-Semitic in the sense that the German nation was under Hitler.” He spoke at the 21st annual dinner of Young Israel of Los Angeles. “There is no legal barrier to the observance of the Jewish religion in Soviet Russia,” he said. “But there is no religious education permitted for Jewish children. Soviet Russia’s anti-Semitism is like anti-Semitism in many other countries. But Soviet Russia is definitely anti-Israel and anti-Zionist.”
“For some reason,” he said, “anti-Semitism, anti-Israel view and anti-Zionism expressed officially somehow awaken a yearning in Soviet Jewish youth, who may have already been almost totally assimilated, for some relevance with Judaism and Israel.
“The miracle as far as Soviet Russia is concerned,” he said, “is that after 50 years of persecution big pressure on its Jewish citizens, the anti-Semites have not killed the spirit of Judaism.” Rabbi Hollander attended recent Moscow events honoring Rabbi yehuda Leib Levin in that city’s Central Synagogue.
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.
