Kiev’s only synagogue has had no rabbi for two years, and there appear to be no prospects that a spiritual leader for the 200, 000 Jews in the Ukrainian capital will be named soon, it was reported here today by newsmen who have just visited Kiev. According to reports, the synagogue has a capacity of 800 worshipers. Another synagogue there has been turned into a motion picture theater, the report said.
The newsmen visiting Kiev found also, they reported, that the old Jewish cemetery near the Babi Yar ravine is being dug up at the present, as the area is being prepared for a large construction project. Many tombstones bearing Hebrew inscriptions and Stars of David have been pushed by bulldozers to one end of the burial grounds. The grounds have not been used for burials since the end of World War II, and Soviet authorities have set aside another site for a Jewish cemetery, the newsmen reported. The old cemetery adjoins the Babi Yar site, where about 100, 000 Jews were buried in a mass grave after wholesale slaughter during the Nazi occupation period.
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