A Voice of America official said Friday that the VOA will broadcast to the Soviet Union a 12-minute program in Yiddish and Hebrew based on Yom Kippur prayers, including Kol Nidre this evening on the eve of Yom Kippur. The program, half of which will be cantorial recordings by Jan Peerce and Richard Tucker, will be beamed at Moscow at the hour Yom Kippur begins there, according to Vladimir Mansettov, head of the VOA cultural section.
The program will be announced in the Russian language, Mansettov told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He described it as “a special program.” The VOA since last December has been including Jewish material in its regular half-hour weekly religious programs in the Russian language beamed to the Soviet Union.
Mansettov said that the Yom Kippur program was prepared by Maurice Buchs, who was killed by teenage robbers 11 days ago near the VOA building while walking to his car. Buchs, who was Jewish, and Mansettov, who is not Jewish, had been colleagues at the United States Information Agency, of which the VOA is a section, for more than 25 years.
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