A special prayer for the fate of Soviet Jewry, to be recited during the opening of the ark on Yom Kippur, has been distributed by the Chief Rabbinate to 15,000 synagogues in Israel and throughout the world, it was announced here today. The prayer, which was composed by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim, calls for Divine intercession to end the oppression of Russian Jewry.
Noting that Russian Jewry had been separated from the mainstream of the Jewish people, and “that they have been deprived of their freedom and their synagogues and houses of learning have been shut down,” the prayer asks for Divine intervention to “deliver them from their servitude and grant them freedom” to observe the Torah without interference, and to emigrate to the Holy Land.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
