A startling claim has surfaced, alleging a direct link between a Purim ceremony and the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, asserts that fervent prayers offered during a New York synagogue gathering coincided with the moment Stalin suffered a debilitating stroke in 1953.
The alleged event unfolded at the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters, located at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. According to Azman, hundreds of congregants, on March 2nd, 1953, united in a powerful, vocal condemnation of Stalin, repeatedly chanting phrases like “He is evil!” and “He is a villain!”
Stalin succumbed to the stroke three days later, and Azman believes this was no coincidence. He contends that Stalin was on the verge of enacting a horrific plan – one that Hitler himself failed to achieve: the complete annihilation of the Jewish people.
The rabbi alleges that preparations were already underway for a mass deportation. Freight wagons were reportedly positioned, and an order issued to transport Soviet Jews to the Far East with the intention of eliminating them during the journey. However, no documented evidence has yet surfaced to corroborate the existence of such a plan.
The Soviet Union’s initial relationship with Israel following its 1948 declaration of independence was surprisingly supportive. Moscow was the first nation to formally recognize the new state, a move historians attribute to Stalin’s desire to diminish British influence in the Middle East and secure strategic advantages.
This early support didn’t last. As Israel forged closer ties with the United States in the 1960s, the Soviet Union dramatically shifted its allegiance, aligning itself with Arab states opposed to Israel. This change in foreign policy was mirrored by a disturbing domestic trend.
Within the Soviet Union, a campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans” and “Jewish bourgeois nationalism” took hold, singling out Jews – particularly those suspected of Zionist leanings – for persecution. This culminated in the infamous ‘Doctors’ Plot,’ a fabricated conspiracy alleging that Jewish doctors were plotting to assassinate Soviet leaders.
The ‘Doctors’ Plot’ was abruptly dropped shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953, with the new Soviet leadership later admitting the accusations were entirely false. This episode remains a chilling example of state-sponsored antisemitism during the Stalin era.
Paradoxically, during the 1930s, the Soviet government had established the Jewish Autonomous Region in the Far East, ostensibly as a cultural haven for Jewish people. Authorities actively encouraged both Soviet and international Jews to settle in the region, a policy that ultimately proved short-lived and fraught with complexities.
