Jews Protest Over Bread Ban

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29798, 14 April 1962, Page 11

Jews Protest Over Bread Ban

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, April 13. Hundreds of pickets outside the Soviet mission to the United Nations and behind-the-scene pressures within the organisation itself are hoping to persuade the Moscow Government to lift a ban on matzoh, the traditional unleavened bread of the Jews, during the Jewish Passover celebration.

The New York “Herald Tribune” said today that the three million Jews in the Soviet Union had been denied matzoh, which was an unleavened bread baked under strict religious prescription to preserve its purity. It occupied a central place ip the observance of the eight-day Passover festival, when Jews were obliged to refrain from eating leavened food. The bread was also a symbol of liberation from tyranny and the inspiration for lessons on the Passover ritual. Banners Carried More than 300 pickets carried banners and placards, some written in Hebrew, past the Park Avenue headquarters of the Soviet mission yesterday. They paraded for several hours, stopping traffic in the area until the Second Secretary of the Mission (Mr Vladimir Filitov) agreed that a delegation would be heard if the picketing was stopped. The Soviet Union had refused to allow the matzoh flour to be sent as a gift from abroad because, as one official said: “The Soviet Union

is a rieh country and doesn’t need gifts,” the “Herald Tribune” reported. In former years a state bakery in Moscow was set aside for making matzoh for Passover and the Government allotted flour to other area% for baking in communal kitchens. Both those methods were outlawed this year, the newspaper said.