Levine Book
`Fascinating'

The Soviet Union, from Kalin-
ingrad on the Baltic Sea to
Petropavlovsk on the Pacific, is
the fascinating subject of Irving
R. Levine in his new 400-page
book, "Main Street, USSR," pub-
lished by Doubleday & Co. (Gar-
den City, N.Y.).
As the title suggests, the book
is an account of Russian life
today — its people, problems,
pr o g r es s, successes, failures.
Above all, it provides insight
into the workings of every-day
life in Socialist Russia.
The book is valuable espe-
cially since it is an objective
account of
events in the
USSR, but this
is to be ex-
pected because
of Levine's
training. H e
is Moscow cor-
respondent for
t h e National
Broadcasting
Company, and
has been in
Levine
Russia for three and a half years
—longer than any other net-
work correspondent.
Through Levine's anecdotes,
which dot the pages of the book,
personal observation and con-
versation with Russians in all
strata of society, Americans will
learn something of what it is
like to be a Soviet citizen.

JLC Denied Visit with Mikoyan; Deposit 'Memorandum of Outrage

NEW YORK—A "memoran-
dum of outrage," addressed to
Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas
I. Mikoyan, was left Wednes-
day at the Soviet UN mission
by a Jewish Labor Committee
delegation. The document cited
examples of anti-Jewish abuses
and propaganda by the Soviet
Union's past and current
regimes.
The JLC had requested an
audience with the Soviet leader
in order to discuss the con-
tents of the memorandum, but
were denied a meeting.
The memorandum addressed
to Mikoyan said that for the
past 10 years, the JLC had
"catalogued documented evi-
dence showing that Jews in
the Soviet Union were the
victims of cultural pogroms en-
dorsed by both Stalin and
Khrushchev."
The JLC memorandum also
cited two broadcasts by Soviet
broadcasting facilities in Kiro-
vograd—one on Dec. 17, the
other on Dec. 23—in which the
commentators "ranted against
Jews in language echoing the
ghost of Josef Goebbels." The
earlier broadcast, the JLC
document said, "echoed the old

First and foremost, the
reader learns that the Russia
today is not the Russia of
Stalin—the dread period of
the "midnight knock on the
door." Levine tells how each
phase of Soviet society is
being geared to the new five-
year plan (extended now to
seven years), and what its re-
sults will mean to the people.

The author's treatment of
communications, industry, agri-
culture, housing, travel, salaries,
medicine, culture, education, re-
ligion are told in fascinating
style. Each subject is compared
to life as we know it in the
United States, and the analogy
is simplified because Russia's
aims are to emulate and eventu-
ally surpass, in each field, every-
thing that has been accom-
plished here,
His second last chapter, "Why
Was the Anti-Religious Museum
Liquidated?" will be most in-
teresting for Jewish readers.
There is this description of Jew-
ish life in Bukhara in Soviet
Central,Asia:
". . . The _Jews now worship
quite freely. On Rosh Hashana
and Yom Kippur, 500 crowd
the synagogue and for Friday
evening services, 200 frequently
are present. The sixty-year-old
rabbi is permitted to supervise
the slaughter of animals at a
state butcher shop, and there
are two stands at an outdoor
market where kosher meat may

be bought.

"The congregation pays 400
rubles ($40) rent per year for
their building. The only re=
ligious training is that re-
ceived at home, and when I
asked whether there was any
religious training in the syna-
gogue, a young man spoke up:
`They'd put us in jail if we
tried to do that." Levine indi-
cates that religion is now
"tolerated but not encour-
aged."

Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News

Levine's conclusion is most
enlightening: "Great changes
are in motion in Russia. Edu-
cation has produced sputniks;
it has also created a hunger for
contacts with the outside world,
for more goods, for a measure
of self-expression. The acquisi-
tion of property and the dim-
ming of fanaticism act as a
brake on adventurist Soviet
policies. Time may be on the
side of the democratic West in
eventually shaping a Russia that
is more moderate, more rea-
sonable, more amenable to liv-
ing and letting live."—F.S.

9

A book, recently published Policy," by K. Ivanov and Z.
canards against Jews that in-
cited the Russian people under in Moscow entitled "The State Sheynic, was termed a "com-
of Israel: Its Position and panion piece of the anti-
the Tsars.
* * * Semitic forgery, "The Protocols
of Zion," which was used by
Tsarist secret police and by
professional bigots to incite the
Direct JTA Teletype Wire
physicians plotted to assassinate masses of non-Jews against the
to The Jewish News
by medical mistreatment the Jews.
WASHINGTON — American top Kremlin hierarchy.
"What purpose does this
Jewish organizations intend to
The assassination of Mikhoels volume serve?" the JLC memo
ask Soviet Deputy Premier was followed by the liquidation asked, "other than to further
Anastas Mikoyan, who is now of Jewish cultural institu-
perpetuate a policy of violent
visiting the United States, to tions in the Soviet Union and
anti-Semitic assaults. Is it not
intervene for the restoration of by the wholesale arrest of Yid- designed to incite the Soviet
Jewish cultural activities in dish writers and artists, many populace against all Soviet
the Soviet Union, as well as of whom perished later in Jews, identifying them as 'tools
for the stoppage of anti-Jewish Siberia or were executed.
of imperialism.'
and anti-Israel propaganda over
"The graveyards of Russia
The charges against the
the Soviet Radio, it was learned
Jewish physicians were later and her satellites bear mute
here Tuesday.
annuled by Soviet Premier testimony to the fact that Jews
Simultaneously, it was pointed Nikita Khrushchev immediately have been the first to suffer
out that Jan. 13 marks two sad after the death of Stalin. The at the hands of imperialistic
anniversaries for Soviet Jewry. so-called "doctors plot" was and totalitarian powers."
The Soviet Deputy • Premier
It was on Jan. 13, 1948, that termed by the Khrushchev ad-
actor-director Solomon Mik- ministration as a frameup by is asked why the Jewish press,
heels of the Moscow Jewish Lavrenti Beria, chief of the Yiddish literature, Jewish
Theater and chairman of the Soviet secret police, who was theater and Jewish cultural in-
liquidated Jewish anti-fascist executed in Moscow.
stitutions are repressed.
The memorandum paints out
committee in the USSR was
Exactly eight days after these
assassinated on a street in two anniversaries occur the that to this date the families
Minsk by agents of the Soviet Soviet Communist Party is of scores of Yiddish writers
secret police.
planning—according to authori- purged and liquidated between
It was also on Jan. 13, 1953 tative reports—to raise the 1948-52 have never received
that Moscow published the "Jewish problem" at its 21st public apology nor their cases
discussed in the Soviet press.
charge that leading Jewish party congress in Moscow.

Still Hope to See Soviet Premier

NATI 0 NAL BANK,

OF DETROIT

STATEMENT OF CONDITION, DECEMBER

31, 1958

RESOURCES

Cash on Hand and Due from Other Banks
United States Government Securities .
Other Securities .
Loans:
•••
Loans and Discounts
Real Estate Mortgages
Accrued Income and Other Resources
Bank Premises
Customers' Liability—Acceptances and Credits .

$ 392,538,460.61
660,681,069.33
191,913,278.91

$ 539,261,660.80
133,866,299.36

.

.

673,127,960.16
9,091,775.71
15,597,874.35
3,976,886.35
_
$1,946,927,305.42

LIABILITIES

Deposits:
Commercial, Bank, and Savings
United States Government
•
•
•
•
Other Public Funds
Accrued Expenses and Other Liabilities
.
Acceptances and Letters of Credit
Capital Funds:
Common Stock ($10.00 par value)
Surplus
Undivided Profits

$1,627,638,052.94
83,130,839.20
55,491,668.00

$

28,974,000.00
90,000,000.00
29,007,681.56

$1,766,260,560.14
28,708,177.37
3,976,886.35

147,981,681.56
$1,946,927,305.42

United States Government Securities carried at $169,193,395.99 in the foregoing statement are pledged to secure public
deposits, including deposits of $11,810,317.78 of the Treasurer, State of Michigan, and for other purposes required by law.

BOARD OF

Howard C. Baldwin
Henry T. Bodman
Prentiss M. Brown
Harlow H. Curtice
William M. Day

Ray R. Eppert
Charles T. Fisher
Lawrence P. Fisher
John B. Ford
B. E. Hutchinson

DIRECTORS

Ralph T. McElvenny
John N. McLucas
F. W. Misch
Peter J. Monaghan
George E. Parker, Jr.

Nate S. Shapero

R. Perry Shorts

Donald F. Valley
C. E. Wilson

6a Neighborhood Offices Serving Detroit and Suburban Areas

Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation