. 1 •

M

The Case of the Minsk Rabbis

Tanganyikan Doctors at Hadassah School

DAR-ES-SALAAM, (JTA) — science. The Tanganyika govern-
ent will select the students.
thorities who arrested the rab- ripe in newspapers abroad
The Israel government, in co-
bis but to the newspaper which that the rabbis might be exe-
operation with the United States, a
printed the news of the arrests. cuted.
has volunteered to provide medi-
EDITOR'S NOTE: The pres-
Dinner at DARBY'S i
Soviet censorship regulations
In New York, Jews held pro- cal training for three Tanganyi-
ent zeare of arrests of Jewish
is a real treat
at
that
time
permitted
any
test
meetings
against
the
arrest.
religious leaders in Moscow,
kans
at
the
Hadassah
Medical
Leningrad, Vilna and =other foreign correspondent in Mos- A Day of Prayer for Soviet School in Jerusalem, the govern-
• Visit Our New 1
SKYLIGHT
cities, seems to be part and cow to cable abroad any news Jewry was proclaimed by the ment of Tanganyika has disclosed.
ROOM. Cocktail 1
parcel of a special coordinated published in the Soviet press on Synagogue Council of America.
Lounge and Bar I
The medical course would be
;:.
campaign. A similar intensified the assumption that Soviet Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the late
• AFTER
, ' 1z
drive against Jewish religious newspapers could be bought leader of American Jewry, seven years and would be
THEATRE
started
in November, 1962. An
Snacks . . . a i
leaders was conducted in the later abroad. The censor had called a conference of national
Delight
Israel
Embassay
spokesman
said
therefore
no
choice
but
to
pass
Jewish organizations to con-
Soviet Union in 1930, eulini-
L NCHEON i U
demn the arrest. A number of the cost of the course would
A Pleasure
nating in the mass-arrest of 14 my cable. • • •
amount
to
$28,000
for
each
stu-
Senators, including the late
cc
such leaders in Minsk. Mr. Smo-
dent
for
the
seven
years.
When
the
JTA
released
the
Senator William Borah, who
lot% who. as JTA correspond-
Applicants will be required to
:;" ent in Moscow, alerted the news in New York, it came like was chairman of the Senate
Res. UN 2 7642
a
bombshell
not
only
to
Jews
Foreign
Affairs Committee, be- hbld a Cambridge overseas school
world to this mass arrest, re-
certificate with credits in six sub-
lates his experience of the but also to non-Jews. The gen- came actively interested.
SEVEN MILE at WYOMING
!ID
eral press in New York gave
Soviet authorities realized jects, two of which must be in
case.
the JTA report great promi- that they could no longer ig-
• .• •
ti
RUSSIAN FILM
Anti-religious propaganda has nence on its front pages, and nore the protests. I was sum-
English Sub-Titles
its periods of ups and downs in the Associated Press, which moned to the Foreign Office
the Soviet Union. There are has an arrangement with the and told that I could send a
years — like now — when the JTA for news, considered it as cable denying "on good autho-
campaign against religion is one of the major news stories rity the rumors abroad that the
of the day.
rabbis would be executed.
highly intensified. There are
Before the day was over, all
WLL LEAVE YOU WITH
This was exactly a week after
also periods when it is delib-
the
American
correspondents
I sent my first cable to New
erately relaxed.
A LUMP IN NOUR T1-FOAT"
in
Moscow
received
cables
from
-- Louis Cook, FREE PRESS
York on the arrests of the
The year 1930. during which
their
editors
in
New
York
ask-
rabbis. Two days later, my tele-
I was stationed in Moscow as
ing
why
they
failed
to
file
the
phone rang in the middle of ,
correspondent of the Jewish
- Dick Osgood, WXYZ
Telegraphic Agency, was a news on the Minsk arrests. the night. The night censor was
year which started with unpre- However, the correspondents on the phone.
"Rating: DrELLENT"
"Will you come over imme- STUDIO
cedented fury against rabbis were at a loss to understand
what was wanted of them. The diately to my office? I have
- -Al Weitschat, DET. NEWS
and synagogues.
LIVERNOIS at DAVISON
Moscow
papers
did
not
carry
something very urgent and im-
As early as February of 1930
,
the
news
and'
no
Minsk
news-
portant for you to know."
the Soviet press boasted that no
It was an exceptional case
less than 63 synagogues 'had p aper was available in Moscow.
Upon
learning
from
me
the
for a correspondent in Moscow
been closed down throughout d
etails
of
the
case,
they
were
to be taken out of bed in the
the Soviet Union within the
e
first six weeks of the year. 11 ven at a greater loss, because middle of the night for news.
signal
for
ley,
could
establish
no
contact
When
I appeared.in the censor's
This was taken as a
an all-mit intensified drive with anyone in Minsk. There office, he apologized for calling
was also no point of going to me at such a late hour, and
against Jewish religion in every Minsk because no one there added:
So‘iet city and town. Within a
few days news came from who might have any details
"I am sure you will not con- •
would have dared to open his sider it a molestation . . . I am
Minsk:
"14 rabbis arrested here!" mouth. Supplying information under instructions to give you
Out e Delivery
Never before had such a . to a foreign correspondent was the news that the. Minsk rabbis
large number of Jewish reli- considered no less criminal than are released. and to give it to •
Uptown—UN 4-7700 — Downtown—TE 3-1100
gious leaders been arrested in maintaining illegal contact with you urgently."
• • •
any Soviet city. The Moscow organizations abroad.
I continued to follow up the
press, participating in the anti-
The JTA was the first to
religious campaign as it did, developments of the arrest from b r i ng to the world the news of
Moscow
by
pressuring
the
high-
abstained from reporting th
the
Soviet authorities for infor-I the arrest of the Minsk rabbis,
mass arrest of the rabbis in er
mation on whether and when a and was the first to report the
Minsk. Not so the Minsk Yid-
news of their release. Several
the a accused
d would
wouae
t k days later I was assured by the
dish
Communist newspaper trial of th
••oktiabr." The newspaper ob- Place. the exact facts on which Soviet Foreign Office that there i
in t th the rabbis
ra s would be no trial of the rabbis.
viously considered the arrests the charg es against
an "achievement" in its fight were based, who would defend
On the day when the release
them
in
court
in
case
of
a
trial,
against the Jewish religion.
of the rabbis was announced,—;
etc.
When the "Oktiabr" reached
Feb. 23 — the entire Moscow '
The Vice President of the
me the next morning in Mos-
press, from Izvestia to the
USSR,
Peter
Smidowitch,
an
cow, I saw that the matter was
smallest newspaper, attacked
elderly
and
kind
man
of
the
extremely serious. The Minsk
the JTA because of the furor
• Motor Lodge - Restaurant • Finest of Foods Served
religious leaders were charged "Old Bolshevick" type was in raised abroad over the arrest of
• Heated Swimming Pool
• Most Modern Facilities
charge
of
religious
affairs
and
with maintaining illegal con-
the Minsk rabbis. The released
• Spacious Docking Facilities
Bernie Patrona
nections with Jewish organiza- I had easy access to him be- rabbis were made to sign a
Entertaining Nightly
and his Orchestra
tnms abroad — a very grave cause he also was the head of declaration denying there was
(except Sunday)
charge in the Soviet Union. the Government office, Comzet, religious persecution in Russia
They were atso charged with which supervised the settle- —a declaration which I cabled
holding consultations with a ment of declassed Jews on the in full to New York.
certain American rabbi who a land. He promised me he would
Approx. One Hour's Drive from Detroit
Less than a month later, how-
few weeks earlier visited Minsk look into the matter and indi- ever, the Central Committee of
ON THE RIVER ROAD M29 between Marysville and St. Clair
cated
his
dissatisfaction
with
as a tourist.
the Communist Party published
Among the arrested Orthodox the Minsk authorities.
Far Information, FAirview 9-2236
an order urging the discontinu-
Interest
in
the
arrest
of
the
leaders were rabbis of great re-
ance of closing of houses of
Minsk
rabbis
grew
stronger
nown throughut the entire Jew-
worship. The anti-religious cam-
ish world. They were great Jew- not only in the United States, paign had entered its period of
but also throughout the relaxation.
ish scholars. Naturally, I lost no
time in composing a cable for world. The case became a
(Miss Thelma Nuremberg,
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency world affair. The arrest was
special writer for the New
considered
a threat to all
(in the mass-arrest and rushed
York Times, in her book,
religions, and speculation was
with jt to the Soviet Foreign
"This New Red Freedom,"
►
( ffice to get the censor's stamp
published in New York in
,
without which no press cable Yugoslavia Newspapers 1932, wrote: "During the reli-
was forwarded by the Moscow
gious persecutions which star-
Demand U.S. Return
telegraph.
tled the world in 1930, the
The censor, obviously sur- Artukovich for Trial
Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
Pr ised. read and re-read the
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
through its able correspond-
to The Jewish News)
text of my cable, and then
ent, Boris Smolar, released to
asked. .
LONDON — Yugoslav .news- the newspapers information
YOUR
Do you seriously expect me papers have begun a new cam- concerning the priests and
to Pass this news?" paign demanding the extradi-
LAST
the rabbis under trial. This
"Why not?" I replied. "It tion from the United States of correspondent was able to in-
CHANCE
emanates from an official Soviet Andrija Artukovich, called "The terview some of the people
To see this
source: from a Communist Eichmann of Yugoslavia," who who had been arrested for
memorable epic
in 70 mm, 6
newspaper in Minsk."
lives now in Los Angeles, ac- complicity in counter-revolu-
track Stereo
The censor was puzzled. "You cording to the Belgrade press tionary plots attributed to the
Hi-Fi Sound and
Technicolor.
mean to say that the news of received here.
accused clergy. During this
the arrest was printed in one
"Borba" and other leading period of reporting, Mr. Smo-
of our newspapers?" he asked. Belgrade newspapers are also lar was not the most popular
"Yes. - I said, "this is exactly demanding that other war foreign correspondent in the
what I mean. and here is the criminals and "murderers of Soviet Union. There was a
newspaper."
111M11111X,
Jews" now residing freely in heated controversy between
I pulled out from my pocket various Weste r . n countries, in- the Gay Pay U who wanted
PAUL NEWMAN
•
EVE MARIE SAINT
the copy of the "Oktiabr" to cluding the United States. be to deport him, and the press
PETER LAWFORD •
shoal him the story there. He sent hack for trial.
LEE J. COBB • SAL MINED
department of the Narkom-
could not read Yiddish, so he
Artukovich, who was Minister indel (People's Commisariat
Adults $1.50 — Evenings and
asked me to read the news to for Internal Affairs in Croatia for Foreign Affairs) which
Sundays.- Wednesday and Sat-
him in Russian and to be sure during the reign of the pro- defended him, although it
urday Matinees $1.00 — Chil-
dren
to give him the correct
50c at all times.
Nazi government there, is held was a risky business to do so.
translation.
by the Yugoslays to be "per- The correspondent was per-
Schaefer ot
"What idiots!" he exclaimed sonally responsible" for the mitted to remain, and he con-
Most Modern MERCURY W.McNochols
after I finished reading the murder and deportation to tinued to report the religious
Comfortable
Detroit 35
Theatr••
text. "What incompetent idiots!" death camps of about 35,000 persecutions until they sub-
UN 2-8100
He was referring not to the au- Croation Jews.
sided.")

Co

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency)

9.

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