Soviet Officials Attack 'Barbaric Ritual' (Continued from Page 1) At certain times, the govern- ment uses the matter of circum- cision as a spearpoint to strike at the whole crumbling structure of the Jewish religion. A typical instance of this is what happened to Schechter, the circumciser of Chernovtsy. In Chernovtsy (capital of Buko- vina. which was once part of Ro- mania, and was annexed after the tear to the Soviet Ukraine) there are today about seventy thousand Jews. comprising approximately half of the city's population. The Jewish community of Chernovtsy was once famous for its flourishing religious and secular institutions. but at the time of the Schechter incident in 1959, only two small synagogues remained. A young Jewish couple was blessed with a male child. The parents, like most local Jews, had been reared in the Jewish tradi- tion, and wanted their son to he circumcised. (No one, of course. thought of making it the festive occasion it traditionally is, a most inadvisable idea). They turned to Schechter, one of those who clan- destinely performed such ceremo- nies in the community. He came and circumcised the baby. Some days later, the mother was fright- ened when the baby bled. The father tried to locate Schechter, but he was not in town that day, having gone somewhere else to performed these barbaric rituals for decades, that this was his live- lihood and he could do no other constructive work. However, he did not appreciate until this inci dent how vile his profession had been. But now, after it had all been explained to him, he was convinced that the operations he had performed on these babies were not only illicit but also op- posed to advanced Soviet medicine. Ile promised the assembled aud- ience that he would never again go back to this occupation and he . appealed to all the young parents not to he led astray by primitive religious symbolism and not to place their children in the polluted hands of circumcisers. Finally, to inject a bit of variety into this "evening of Jewish cul- ture." the organizers introduced a pair of "expatriates" from Israel (the authorities hold in readiness "local color teams" of Israeli "expatriates" who speak occa- sionally over the radio, television, or at lectures, to tell the "whole truth about Israel"). They related that they had lived a year in Israel and recounted the "facts of life" there. They talked about the terri- ble heat, the debilitating unemploy- ment, the life of fearful exploita- tion in the kibutz, the rule of reactionary rabbis, about the coun- try being one vast armed camp, and so on. This ended the "evening of Jewish culture." One can ima- ima- gine now the hundreds of Jews felt gine they filed out of the hall. perform another circumcision. The panicky parents called an ambu- , But that was not enough. The lance to take the child to a clinic. authorities felt that the wider He was treated by a young Jewish Jewish public as well as the non- doctor, who bandaged the wound Jewish Bukovinian Ukrainians and calmed the parents. Ile said it with their centuries-old known was nothing serious. They took the tradition of anti-Semitism, should baby home and the whole incident share equally in the benefits of would have been forgotten had it the "evening of Jewish culture." not been for the non-Jewish ambu- The full story of the Schechter lance driver, who reported the in- cident to the authorities. The authorities decided to deal seriously with the matter. They arrested the father and, through him, found out about Schechter. He did not deny having per- formed the ceremony and was arrested. Two months later, post- ers were put up in the town inviting the public to come to the Philharmonic Ilall in Chernovlsy for an "evening of Jewish cul- ture" connected with some atheistic activity. Few of those present were able- to guess what kind of "Jewish culture" they would witness. The Jewish pub- tic, avid for anything having to do with Judaism, hoped that. following the stereotyped lecture on atheism, they would be treat- ed to some Yiddish songs or a reading from Sholem Aleichem. Instead, there appeared on the stage all those involved in the Schechter incident. First, the father told the audience that under the influence of tradition he had placed the baby in the hands of the circumciser; that after the barbaric ritual had been per- formed under unspeakably unsani- tary conditions, the cut had bled again: and that thanks to the, achievements of modern medicine in the Soviet hospital, the child's life was saved. The father told the audiern'.• that this had cured him for good. He appreciated now what a mistake he had made and said that he would never repeat it. Then came the Jewish doctor who told his version of the story. lie explained how dreadful the inci- dent was from a medical point of view, how it negated the achieve- ments of Soviet science, and vio- lated the most elementary princi- ples of sanitation and hygiene. Then Schechter, the "star of the incident appeared in the Cher- novtsy Radianskaia Bukovina, complete with pictures of the father, the doctor and Schechter. This is what happened in the Chernovtsy community, where the .Jewish population has been cut off from its traditional moorings only since the end of the Second World War. But among the Jew s living in the heart of the Soviet Union, who have been divorced from their past for three generations, there are very few circumcisers left, and it is no surprise that large num- bers of Jews there are not circum- cised at all. Once, a naked and lovely two- year-old baby attached himself to me at a beach on the Black Sea. After a while his grandfather came to take him away. He apolo- gized and asked if the child was annoying me. Then his eyes fell on a Hebrew paper lying near me. and he was astounded. He would not leave me until he had heard as much as possible about Israel. Ile played with the baby on his knees: then with tears in his eyes, he said: "Look at my grandchild. a Jewish child. He has not been circumcised. What can we do; we have no circumciser in our town and my son does not want to risk going to the big city to find a circumciser illegally." He mur- mured again and again: "My grandchild is not circumcised, my grandchild is not circumcised." The measures taken to separate the Jews from their traditional ties also affect the rites which mark a turning point in the life of a Jew (bar mitzva, Jewish marriage. and burial), and the observance of Jewish festivals. If circumcision is not the most significant Jewish rite, the next is the admission of the Jewish boy to show," appeared on the scene, a religious maturity when he be- comes a bar mitzva. Because the broken man. He told the people that he had rite, in which a boy is called to ■ h Na the pulpit to recite the blessings over the Tora, is inextricably tied to the synagogue (unlike cir- cumcision which can be performed clandestinely). parents wishing to celebate their son's attainment to the status of bar matzva must take the risk of a public performance in a synagogue. And. indeed. I never saw a boy called to the reading of the Law on my numerous visits to the great synagogues of Moscow and Leningrad. Yet these cities contain hundreds of thousands of Jews. No one except the Soviet au- thorities would dare maintain that there are not at least a few hundred or a few dozen parents out of these hundreds of thousands of Jews, who do not wish, with all their heart, to see their thir- teen-year-old boy called to recite the blessings over the Tora. The ceremony is not only replete with religious significance but it has a tremendous value in terms of Jewish sentiment and the sense of attachment to the Jewish heritage. It is a fact, though, that none of them dares bring his son to the synagogue for a bar mitzva cele- bration. The reason for this is as simple as it is clear: the syn- agogue is accessible to everyone, including informers of every kind. The parents are justified in fear- ing that the boy's appearance in the synagogue will be entered sooner or later in his school rec- ord. This record would serve only to worsen his already delicate status as a Jew in the school. Why, the parents ask themselves, should they purposely handicap their son and place additional obstacles in the path of his pro- gress and studies? And so they heave a sigh and give up the idea of celebrating his bar mitzva. The same is true in the case of marriage. Religious marriage is not recognized by Soviet law. Only civil marriage is binding. Never- theless, there are quite a few parents who would want their chil- dren to be married by a rabbi as well. But they are deterred by a feeling that this might hurt the young couple who have just com- pleted their education and are only now beginning to venture into Soviet life and society. Why dam- age their prospects? And so they give up the idea of a ceremony. A little more daring is evident, nevertheless, where marriage is concerned, and one sometimes sees a wedding performed by a rabbi. But it is all done sur- reptitiously and hurriedly: and the percentage of Jews who have a Jewish wedding ceremony is very small indeed. 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