Bnai Brith Urges Measures to Aid
Jews in Soviet Union; State Dept.
Suggests Private Group Pressure
today by Sen. Keating, U. S. In-
formation Agency Director Ed-
ward R. Murrow informed him
that the Voice of America broad-
casts to Europe, the Middle East
and Africa have carried reports
during the last several months of
"persecutions of Jews and sup-
pression of Jewish institutions in
On the synagogue closing's, he the Soviet Union." Murrow said
said that although the Depart- USIA has also prepared a back-
ment "has not been able to con- ground report on the situation
firm" the reports; it is known for distribution among the foreign
that "the Soviet government con- press.
"You may be assured that we
tinues to endorse anti-religious
propaganda directed against re- will continue to do our part to
keep the world informed of these
ligion generally."
In another letter 'from an ad- and similar Communist violations
ministration official made public of human rights,", Murrow wrote.
* *
(Continued from Page 1)
various individual Jews has its
basis in anti-Semitism or wheth-
er this arises from the intensi-
fied campaign of the Soviet au-
thorities to stamp out black
marketeering and various forms
of speculation," Dutton's letter
said.
Bnai Brith Reports Increased
Soviet Anti-Jewish Pressures
Bnai Brith disclosed new re-
ports of official pressures to
discourage the practice of Ju-
daism and hamper Jewish reli-
gious leadership in the Soviet
Union.
Label A. Katz, president of
Bnai Brith, said the organization
had learned that during the
June-July period last year, Soviet
authorities had:
1 — Quadrupled a special
tax assessed against clergy-
men and made it retroactive
for two years.
2—Dismissed Rabbi Judah
Lichterov as director of the
Yeshiva in Moscow, the only
Jewish seminary in the. USSR,
replacing him with a new di-
rector.
3—Placed the prerogatives
of the Vaad Yeshiva, govern.
ing council of the seminary,
under Rabbi Yehuda Leib
Levine, chief rabbi of Moscow,
after disbanding the council.
Bnai Brith had reported the
disbandment of the council last
November, but this is the first
indication that it took place
during the June-July period, co-
incident with the arrests of six
Jewish lay religious leaders in
Leningrad and Moscow and the
removal from their posts of the
lay chairmen ,of synagogue con-
gregations in Kiev, Riga, Minsk,
Vilna and Tashkent. These are
the capital cities of five Soviet
republics.
The increased tax applies to
religious functionaries of all
sects in the Soviet Union, Katz
reported. It imposes a "special
hardship" on religious Soviet
Jews, he added, since Judaism
is not perMitted to maintain a
centralized structure or nation-
al federation, as are other re-
ligious groups in the USSR.
In 1958 the Jews of Moscow
contributed the equivalent in
rubles of $135,000 to construct
a new Yeshiva building, af-
fililiated with the Moscow
synagogue, now occupying a
single, second-floor room in
the synagogue building. The
plan to construct a Yeshiva
building was never consum-
mated, Bnai. Brith said, al-
though at th
he funds
were colle d it
under-
stood th
Soviet aut rities
had ap ved he plan The
dispo
o
e fu Is r un-
known
He said that the present op-
eration of the Yeshiva, with a
small enrollment of only 12 stu-
dents who are ultimately to
guide and assist the religious
activities of hundreds of thou-
sands of devout Jews, "clearly
implies a form of suppression
of Judaism in contradiction to
Soviet guarantees of freedom
of worship" The Jewish popula-
tion of the Soviet Union is esti-
mated between 2,500,000 and
3,000,000
Katz also called 'it "highly
significant" that only one of
the seminarians is from Moscow,
which has approximately
500,000 Jews, and that there are
no students from such major
Jewish population centers as
Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa, Minsk,
Kishinev, Vilna or Riga, all of
which have been traditional
centers of Jewish scholarship.
Instead, he said, the Yeshiva
enrollment is made up of stu-
dents from Georgia and central
Asia where contact with the
bulk of Soviet Jewry is regarded
as weak.
The Moscow Yeshiva was es-
tablished Jan. 6, 1957, amid a
festive ceremony in which
Rabbi Solomon Shliefer, the
late Chief Rabbi of Moscow,
participated. It began with ten
students. The anticipation by
Rabbi Shliefer, his successor
and others was that the enroll-
ment would increase substanti-
ally. This has not happened in
the five years of the seminary's
existence, Bnai Brith declared.
* * *
'Large Current of .
USSR Anti-Semitism
Seen by Ben-Gurion
PARIS (JTA)—Anti-Semitism
is still widespread in some coun-
tries, Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion of Israel said in an in-
terview with the correspondent
of Le Figaro, leading French
newspaper.
Asked •by the correspondent
whether he considers Soviet Pre-
mier Nikita Khrushchev as be-
ing anti-Semitic, the Israel Prime
Minister said he did not know
whether Khrushchev was person-
ally anti-Semitic but that among
the people in the Soviet Union
there was still "a large current
of anti-Semitism."
Katz id that
„ w ling- Branch 11 Conducts
ness o he re igi
e s of Study Group Series
Mose
to rais
t or hem
Branch II, Labor Zionist Or-
must ave
xtr rdin-
will hold the first
ary m of
is f rther ganization,
group meeting in a series
evid ce of
ong ewish study
discussions on the selected
consc usness
lists n the • of
essays of Hayim Greenberg in
Soviet nion."
his book, "The • Inner Eye," at
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Zig-
IF YO Ci HE
mond Moses, 22190 Sussex, Oak
likr•• (1
Park.
Subject for the evening will
UPSIDE DOWN YOU WON'T
be "The Nature of Jewish Cul-
FIND A FINER WINE THAN
ture." A social hour will follow.
The study group is under the
direction of Herbert Pincus.
Guests are welcome. For in-
formation, call Pincus, KE
Milan Wineries, Detroit, Mich.
3-0216.
Leading Communal Figures Greet Miriani's
Association with Aronsson Printing Firm
Former Mayor Louis C. Miri-
ani this week became executive
vice president -administrative of
the Aronsson Printing Co. on
West Lafayette. It is the first
i the 46-year history of
time in
the firm that anyone outside
the Aronsson family circle has
become an active partner in it,
the former Mayor being given
the right, in addition to assum-
ing an administrating role in
the company, to acquire its
stock.
Maurice Aronsson, who
founded the firm in 1916 with
two presses, becomes -the first
chairman of the board of the
company. His son, Herbert, be-
came president and treasurer of
the firm and his son-in-law,
Ronald M. Kottler, executiv
vice-president. •
The Aronsson Printing
has grown to one of the
printing establishments in
igan, with 41 presses unde
roof on 40,000 square fe
floor space, besides ware
facilities. There are 150
ployees, all on a profit-sha
basis.
A vast expansion program is
planned, $380,000 already hav-
ing been allocated for that pur-
pose last year.
A luncheon on Wednesday,
at the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel,
at which Miriani'
with the Aro
n firm w
announced,
ended by
many
o 'nent industrial
and
nk . g figures, public
offi Is
d leaders in the
S O
1 ser ice field.
aurice
lo g desire
ti e to his
a hropic in
h es to do
iani's as
fi
and th
po
in it o
in-1
Ar
Maurice A
rbert Aronsson Louis C. Miriani
of the
act'
ign, communally and is active in the
and Detroit Service Group.
movements, holds
any
os s in industri realty., nk-
FURNITURE
ing and of
ts. A mer
SERVICE
presiden
ood
ntry
Club,
er of
Refinishing - Restoring
Fran
, Sta rd and
Furniture
Cove
Clubs.
Repaired &
Refinished
in
Her
Axons n holds a
Any Color of
numbe f impo nt local posts,
Your Choice.
Antiques Old
is active in
Allied Jewish
Furniture Made
Campaign
Like New. Cig-
its arts and crafts
PIANO
arette
Burns Re-
FINISHING
lzt
divisio
in the Detroit Serv- OUR, SPECIALTY
paired. All work
p. He is a member of jaicoLoRSTOCHOOSE guaranteed.
t e boards. of Hillel Foundation
City-Wide and
Suburban
Larry Paul
and Wayne State University
Free Estimates
Press. He is a graduate of Bab-
son Institute, Wellesley, Mass.
ale UN..4-8440
'13 2 c 3 w. mc titckiot-S
Ronald Kottler also is known
FOR THE BEST DEAL NOW AS ALWAYS .. .
YOU CAN BE SURE WHEN YOU DEAL WITH .. .
HARRY ABRAM
on the NEW "62"
onsso
t.
elevai
his
ow
it of
th his
to high
and son-
CORVAIR & CHEVY 11
SHORE CHEVROLET CO.
mer chairman
12240 Jos. Campau
TW 1-0600 — Res. UN 4-9039
Detroit Artist;
Broner, Exhibits
Works in California
The Los Angeles County Mu-
seum, the Pasadena Art Museum,
the Otis Art Institute in Los An-
geles and the Feingarten Gallery
in Beverly Hills will show the
works of Robert Broner of De-
troit, an artist of national recog-
nition. .
Broner is having an exhibition
in the Pasadena Art Museum this
month and at the Otis Art Insti-
tute in Los An-
geles in Febru-
ary. The Los
Angeles Coun-
ty Museum h
just purch
a large
print.
Bron
ill
have ne-man
s h . of his
ts at the
eingart en
allery in Bev-
erly Hills start-
ing March 0.
His wor
represente
t
ction
of pri s the
Broner
M u s
Modern Art; e Brooklyn Mu
urn, the Gu nheim Museu
the New Yor
ublic Library,
Smithsonian In
te, the Na-
tional Gallery, th
*ladel
Museum, the Detroit • e of
Arts and in such private collec-
tions as those of N.Y. Governor
Nelson Rockefeller,' Lessing J.
Rosenwald, Gertrude Mellon, the
Winstons and the Fleischmans.
He is represented in the U.S.
State Department show which is
touring Europe. He will have a
one-man show in the Chicago Art
Institute in spring.
Broner, whose wife has won a
number of literary awards, is the
Detroit correspondent for "Art
in America." An art teacher, he
lives at 18981 Greenlawn
BE SURE THERE' IS A
BLUE AND WHITE BOX
IN YOUR HOME
PHONE UN 4-2161
T TREES IN ISRAEL
HE NAME OF YOUR
VED ONES
erpetuate the memory of family and friends
. . . celebrate Bar Mitzvah . . honor any
happy event by planting trees in the forests
and fields of Israel!
CELEBRATE J. N. F. SABBATH
All synagogues will participate in the Jewish National Fund Sab-
bath January 20th. Help observe JNF Sabbath by planting a tree
in Israel. Your tree gives new life to the soil.
JEWISH
NATIONAL
FUND
18414 WYOMING AVE.
ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO JNF ARE TAX DEDUCTABLE