The authenticity of the alleged denial by the Minsk rabbis that religious persecution exists in Soviet Russia, is questioned by the American Jewish Congress in a statement issued through its Executive Director, Bernard G. Richards.
Pointing to discrepancies in the alleged denial, and calling attention to a similar document issued in 1928 by 30 Russian rabbis of Moscow which, as later disclosed, was signed under duress, by the Soviet authorities, the statement declares that denial cannot be accepted at its face value and expresses the belief that there is strong reason to assume the document was not signed by the rabbis themselves.
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