20—Friday, February -11, 1972
nirpon. JEVASII NEW, Polini
THE
ts- f
`.
Boris Smoltir's --
First boysitribrusTeAnunsnniaugAinY;*O1009-1Aem
(JTP)7,--Ther 11172,--lro- 1 The elderly and infirm,
gram of Poland'sJewish': ioclal *else 4itsrm-rofirt
and Cul
tural Association'
sited that this emintrY'S Je.ws are
expected to he -loyal _inemberi 'of
the Polish Communist Party first
and Jews second. ' -
Outlining therassoeiation'S pro-
gram at a conference of repre-
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA
sentatives of its. branches General
Secretary Ruts. Gutkowske de-
(Copyright 1972, JTA Inc.),
= .
clared that there' are ,two ,tasks
MOSCOW REVERBERATIONS: It is now three months since Chief before the association:,' tl_wimple-
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin of Moscow died, but nothing is heard as yet mentation of the.vdecisions .ot.- the
about a rabbi to succeed him. The Moscow Jewish religious community Sixth Conference ,Of - :tibe Polish
f aces the possibility of remaining for a long,time--perhaps for years— Wor k ers' -Parte ,'Itinik- ,Carging out
without a rabbi whowould be acceptable to the Council 'on Religious
I*r al ac-
Affairs—a government .organ attached to the . Soviet Cabinet — which: tivity.
4
supervises all -religions in the USSR. '
She said the mmiteindis,- must
The candldate- Seeking succession to Rabbi Levin's post is the
see Itself ak pilit Of
60 year old Rabbi Sc.hwarzb)at of Odessa, youngest of the nine aged
Poland and
-
the
rabbis still alive In the Soviet Union.. :Rabbi Seliwarzblat is acceptable - framework of the party; even
to the Soviet authorities but not to the- Jews •111 the Moscow Choral
when It cornea Jewish elltural
Synagogue. He has written anti-Israel articles in the Soviet-press.
Although Rabbi Levin was• only the rabbi of the Moscow Choral
-(Since 196
1; the 32,600 - JeWs in
Synagogue, -he Was' considered Chief Rabbi because the Moscow Poland have dwindled to under
synagogue is, the largest in the Soviet capital.
9,000, due .to- emigration and
The present situation of the-Jewillvieligious community in Moscow deaths.)
is similar. to the situation in which the ;Armenian Church in the Soviet
The few Jewish leaders left are
Union found itself ifter. its: patriarch—generally called Catholicos—: loyal members of the party and
was assassinated in 1938: The Armenians, whose number in the Soviet the active mernberirat.he associa-
Union is approximately the same as the number of Jews there, remained tion also belong to the party.
without a patriarch for 17 years. It was only in 1955 that the Soviet
authorities permitted the "importation" of a patriarch from Corn,
munist Romania. Today's religious head of all Armenians in the Soviet Israel Recognizes New
Union is Catholicos Vazgen I, who was brought from Bucharest where Nation of Bangladesh
he was Archbishop. He was 45 years old when he was brought from
JERUSALEM (.ITA),.-Israel has
Romania to the Cathedral of Echrniadzin in Soviet Armenia, the seat officially. recognized
the new state
of the patriarch.
of Banglade.sh. _
Whether the Soviet authorities will permit the "importation" of a ' The recognition decision was
rabbi from abroad to take the place of Rabbi Levin seems to be ques- taken after - telephone consulta-
tionable. At one time it was reported vaguely in the United States tions- with all members of; L he
that following Rabbi Levin's death, the Kremlin 'might' permit an cabinet last week insteid' of wait-
Orthodox rabbi from Communist Hungary to be brought to Moscow. ing for Sunday's regular cabinet
This does not seem to be the case' now. The talk now is of sending a. meeting.
young Soviet religious Jew to Hungary to study for .the rabbinate in
sraell recognition was first re-
Israeli
the still-functioning Rabbinical College there. This is' a long, drawn quested last April in a letter from
out process. Meanwhile, the Moscow Jewish religious community
Acting
faces
Nazrul Islam and
the alternative of either accepting RabbiSchwarzblat or remaining Foreign President
Minister Mustaque Ahmed
without a rabbi for quite an indefinite time.
of the Bengali provisional govern-
ment which was then fighting a
AMERICAN SUGGESTION: There has been a suggestion to send war of secession from Pakittan.
an American rabbi to Moscow for several years. Some American rabbis
even have offered to serve in Moscow.
City life. Millions of people being
This suggestion hardly will be acceptable to the Soviet government lonesome together.
which seems to be determined to keep the Jewish religious community
—Henry David Thoreau.
in the Soviet Union isolated from the Jewish communities in other coun-
tries. In this, respect, the Soviet policy with regard to the
Jews
stands
out as especially discriminating, since all non-Jewish religions in
the
Soviet Union—the Russian Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church,. the
Armenian Church, the Moslems—are permitted by the-Kremlin to main-
tain relations with their respective religious groups abroad: Leaders
of the Moslem religion are, even permitted to organize pilgrimages
from the
Soviet Union to Mecca.
TTP
It stands to reason that, under pressure from world- Jewry, the
Soviet. government May eventually "import' a rabbi for the Moscow
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JERUSALEM (JTA)—Thirty-one
Relating further crime statistics,
murders were committed in Israel Hillel said there were 197 cases
during 1971 and 25 of them have of rape last year of which 147
S..,
MORRIS BUICIC
DISCOUNT CENTER
011 C
Choral Synagogue from Communist Hungary as it did by "importing",
from Communist Romania the present head of the Armenian Clidt-th7
The sending of a rabbi from , the United States also may not be accepta-
ble to some_in the,-Moscow Jewish religious community
if the rabbi
will not be of4D4Akedex denornination.
•
•
TIMELY DEMAND: The immediate convening of a conference .of
leaders of the synagogues still existing in various cities in the USSR—
including cities in the remotest parts of Siberia and in Middle Asia—
would help solve the problem of the continuity of the rabbinate
in
Moscow. It also would- bring forward the need for the
establishment of a
central Jewish religious body to serve as a link
betweeh the separated
and isolated synagogues, as well as a central address for communica-
tions. In other words—as representative body of Soviet religious Jewry.
Without such a central body, Jewish - religious life stands in danger
of melting away and disappearing within a short time. - All other
religions in the Soviet Union have been permitted to maintain such
central bodies, which incidentally act as the representative bodies of
their churches vis-a-vis the Soviet government and are recognized as
such. The Jewish religion is the only exception. When I visited Moscow
at the end of 1968, I learned that as for back as 1960 Jewish religious
leaders in Moscow started conversations with the authorities
on the
question of Creating a central religious body also for Soviet Jewry, but
nothing carmnt these talks.
Soviet - officials whom I questioned- in Moscow as to why no cen-
tral Jewish representative body is permitted to exist when other
religions were given such permission, asserted that "the state does
not prevent the formation of a central Jewish religious authority."
This assertion was checked later in New York-by the American Jewish
Committee in an inquiry sent to the Soviet Ambassador in Washington.
The answer indicated that there is nothing -in the Soviet laws which
would prohibit the .creation of a representative Jewish religious body
in the Soviet Union.
NOW::
ONLY
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TRAVEL
ELLIOTT sERvicE
NORTHWEST
WONDEPLAND
)
GA--, (7411120-
NORTHLAND
EASTLANC
EL 6-2345
WESTLAND
9374015.
EIRMJNGHAM
'MI 2-1710
SOUTHL AND
- -287-4222
DO ..*v. NTOWN
WO 2-5200—
writ.