two Boris Smolar's You ...and Me' 'Between (Copyright 1969, JTA Inc.) MIXED MARRIAGES IN USSR: The young man in Kiev who volunteered to take me to Babi Yar—the ravine where the Nazis ma- chine-gunned 80,000 Kiev Jews in 1941, in cold blood—was a half-Jew. His father was Ukrainian and his mother Jewish. "And how do your identity documents classify you?" I asked. "Are you identified as a Jew or a Ukrainian?" In the Soviet Union, children of mixed marriages can, on reaching the age of 16, choose their nation- ality. Soviet authorities encourage such youngsters to adopt the na- tionality of their non-Jewish parent. "My identity documents," he replied, "classify me as of Ukrainian nationality. But I really don't care. I preferred to be identified as a Jew because of my love for my mother. My father, who has been happily married to my mother for more than 20 years, had no objection. Strangely enough, it was my mother who insisted that I choose the Ukrainian identity. My mother thought that it would help me, as a student, in the advancement of my career if my documents showed that I am of Ukrainian nationality rather than Jewish. "What my mother does not know yet," he continued, "is that I am soon going to marry a Jewish girl anyway. We are both students in the same class in the university. Nationality means nothing to us. I am sure that neither my mother nor my father will object to our marriage. After all, I am doing the same thing they did. Besides, mixed marriages are a normal development in our country." JEWISH SENTIMENTS: Mixed marriages between Jews and non- Jews are a part of the normal way of life among young people in the USSR, especially among students. There is practically no prejudice among the student youth. Contributing much to intermarriage is the fact that the youth—Jews as well as non-Jews—have no attachment to religion. This does not mean that Jewish youngsters want to divorce themselves from the Jewish identity which is marked in their personal documents. On the contrary, they proudly cling to this identity, although they know nothing about Jewishness. They have no access to knowledge of Jewish history, they are alien to Jewish spiritual achievements, they cannot speak the Yiddish language and do not know a single word of Hebrew, the study of which has been prohibited in the Soviet Union for about 50 years. They read about Israel, but only in the Soviet press which is anti-Israel. A young Jew in Russia today knows he is Jewish only because his documents are marked with the word "Evrei," which in Russian means "Jew." The great majority of the Soviet-born Jewish youth do not con- sider this designation an insult. On the contrary, this identification in their passports strengthens their desire to know more about Jews and their past. Some of them find that the word "Evrei" in their documents often stands in their way of being accepted as a student in the univer- sity, or of being promoted in employment. Yet, the will to know more about Jewishness is strong among them. On the whole, it can be said that the average young Jew in the Soviet Union feels like an orphan who is eager to find out more about his parents whom he has never seen. There is very little that his father or mother can tell him about the meaning of being a Jew, because most of the Jewish parents in the USSR today are themselves either Soviet- born or raised under the Soviet regime. He looks therefore, for Jewish guidance toward his Jewish grandparents—if they are still alive. SIMHAT TORA SPIRIT: To get an idea of the Jewish feelings among young Jews in the USSR, one has to see the Simhat Tora cele- brations in front of the Moscow and Leningrad synagogues. In other Soviet cities with large Jewish populations—like ,Kiev and Odessa—such street celebrations are not permitted. The magnitude of the Simhat Tora celebration in front of the Mos- I cow Central Synagogue can be compared only to the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, New York. Thousands and thousands of I enthusiastic youngsters—boys and girls alike—fill the Archipova Street, outside the synagogue, from one end to the other. Inside the synagogue, which is only 10 minutes' walk from the Kremlin, thousands of Jews of all ages crowd the aisles and balconies, leaving not a single inch of free space. I did not have to push my way into the synagogue. I was liter- ally carried by waves and waves of people who sought entrance to witness the "Hakofos." It was a rainy evening, but outside the syna- gogue there was singing and dancing under the pouring rain. Torches were made from newspapers, adding to the joyful atmosphere. There was a spirit of great merriment among the 15,000 youngsters who re- fused to disperse after midnight, when the "Hakofos" ceremonies inside the synagogue were long over. Police had diverted the traffic from Archipova Street early in the evening, and police units benevolently watched the huge dancing crowd all evening. There were police cars and ambulances stationed on the side streets, but there was not a single accident during the entire evening. It was the most Jewishly-inspired scene I have ever witnessed. You never saw such Simhat Tora cele- brations in front of any synagogue in the United States. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: Two questions interested me. One question was: How did so many young Jews in Moscow — who are strangers to Jewish religion—find out that tonight was Simhat Tora? The second question was: What brings them to the celebration when they are actually not religious? I posed these questions to dozens of youngsters in the crowd. The answers to the first question were various. A girl said she learned it from her grandmother who observes all Jewish holidays. A young man said his father had telephoned the synagogue and was given the infor- mation. A young couple said they heard the Simhat Tora date announced over the radio, adding with a mischievous smile, "not on the Soviet radio, of course!" A small group of students said that the date was announced clandestinely on the bulletin board in the university. To the second quegtion, however, I received a unanimous reply from all whom I queried. The answer was: "We came here because we are Jews." The fact that this was a religious holiday did not matter to them. I tried to find out why they don't come to the synagogue on Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur. The answer was: "Because these are gloomy holidays." To them, Simhat Tora is not a religious holiday, but a holi- day that reflects optimism and joy. They,geek to express their belong- ing to Jewry through singing and dancing, not through prayers. They would probably be equally impressed with Passover and Hanuka if these Jewish holidays were given public expression through mass seders or through Hanuka concerts. But they would not even con- sider these holidays as, religious; they would consider them as corn memorating events of Jewish history which led to Jewish freedom. Ads in NY Times Pro, Anti Israel NEW YORK (JTA)—Two ad- vertisements on Israeli issues ap- peared in the New York Times Tuesday with a broadside against a "Kosy-Nixon Mideast deal to im- pose withdrawal resolutions" in- serted by a private individual and a denunciation of President de Gaulle's embargo on military equipment and spare parts to Is- real, placed by the New York Metropolitan Region of the United Synagogue of America (Conserva- tive). An ad, which urged President Nixon "to promptly and unequiv- ocally" reject Soviet Middle East proposals calling for the with- drawal of Israeli forces from the occupied Arab territories, stated that it was "published as a public service by Sol A. Dann of Detroit. The ad claimed that "Russia's withdrawal resolutions would weak- en and destroy Israel, the only democracy in the Mideast that opposes and prevents Russian Communism from dominating the entire Mideast as one vast Poland or Czechoslovakia, thereby jeop- ardizing the interests of all free nations." The United Synagogue ad said: "50,000,000 Frenchmen can't be wrong ... but one is." It declared, "We cannot believe that the Gen- eral's one-sided and biased views are shared by the people of France. We call upon men of good- will everywhere to speak out by word and deed protesting General de Gaulle's unilateral imposition of sanctions against Israel. On Monday, the New York Times carried two full-page ads attacking Israel. One was by the American Friends of Lebanon, the other by the anti-Zionist propa- gandist Alfred M. Lilienthal who found even the Council for Judaism too mild and left it to conduct his own campaign vituperation against Israel. Lilienthal and Rabbi Elmer Berger, who was ousted from the post of national director of the Council for Judaism, are the only known Jews who had visited with Nasser and other Arab leaders to confer with them in their cam- paigns against Israel and Zionism THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 8—Friday, January 24, 1969 e 1(alt Presents BY POPULAR DEMAND Spring Time in Scandinavia Personally Escorted Group for 3 Marvelous Weeks In SCANDINAVIA Visiting Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland May 21 to June 11, 1969 $134900 featuring: 1! all inclusive * FIRST CLASS HOTELS WITH PRIVATE BATH * MOST MEALS PLUS THE SPECIAL BONUS OF GOURMET- DINING AT THE BEST RESTAURANTS IN SCANDINAVIA—"SMA HJEM” IN BERGEN, "ROYAL NOR- WEGIAN CLUB" IN OSLO. "OPERA- KALLERAN" IN STOCKHOLM, "FISHER- MAN'S HUT" IN HELSINKI AND "SEVE04 SMALL HOMES" IN COPENHAGEN. * TICKETS TO BERGEN FESTIVAL, TICKETS TO THE ROYAL COURT THEATER AND BALLET IN STOCKHOLM, TICKETS TO CONCERT IN COPENHAGEN. * FANA FOLKLORE EXCURSION IN NOR. WAY. * SPECTACULAR FJORD TOUR OF NOR- WAY. * SIGHTSEEING, TIPS, TAXES AND TRANS- FERS INCLUDED. * ROUND-TRIP JET ECONOMY AIR TRANS- PORTATION FROM DETROIT. NOTE: Bee Kalt's Orient Tour for Apr. 27, 1969 departure is sold out. 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