Religion in the Soviet Union

Press, 30 December 1978, Page 12

Religion in the So viet Union

Sir. —In their determination to give a sinister twist even to the Sovie’ Government's acts of tolerance and gene osity towards creeds to which it does not subscribe, some people leave no pebble, no grain of sand unturned. B. Liddell, under the mistaken Impression that the Soviet Union’s three million J.ws all w'ish to train as rabbis, sympathises with the denial of adequate facilities for them to realise their ambitions, because there is only one Talmudic yeshiva in the Soviet Union. The provision of academies of higher learning to train candidates for the rabbinate is the responsibility of the Jewish religious authorities who, it must be assumed, know how many yeshivas are required to serve the needs of the Soviet Jewish community. A further point that should relieve any unfounded anxiety that Soviet Jewry is inadequately catered for is that thousands of Soviet Jews are Marxists or have ceased to practise their religion. — Yours, etc., M. CREEL. December 28, 1978. (This correspondence is now closed — Editor).