Rabbis Samuel Schulman, Maurice H. Harris, Joshua Bloch, Jonah B. Wise, J. Max Weis and Sidney S. Tedesche are among the 87 ministers in New York who have signed a statement this week in which they declare that while they denounce the persecution of religion by the Russian Soviet government, they nevertheless disassociate themselves from the recent protests by churches and synagogues against such persecutions in Russia. Others who have signed the statement are Rev. John Haynes Holmes, Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Rev. Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, Rev. Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr and Rev. Dr. Edmund B. Chaffee.
In their statement, the ministers claim that the general protests have failed to strike a proper note of humility and have not taken into consideration the historical and social background behind the present anti-religious attitude of Soviet Russia. They urge that a commission of research be created to study this question. The statement was prepared by the Executive Committee of the Conference of Younger Churchmen.
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