Friday, July 27, 1945
Page Three
THE JEWISH NEWS
Soviet Citizens in Palestine
Unharmed, Reporter Learns
Not One Single Incident Found to Substantiate Charges
that Jews Are Persecuting Russians in Attempt to
Keep Them from Returning to USSR,
By BERL CORALNIK
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—An investigation conducted by this cor-
respondent has uncovered not a single incident to substantiate the
charges that "reactionary Jewish organizations" in Palestine are
persecuting Soviet citizens and attempting to induce them not to
return to Russia, which was charged in a Tass dispatch from Cairo.
According to a reliable source, the Soviet repatriation mission,
under the leadership of Lt. Col. Karassov, received all possible
cooperation and the fullest information concerning the whereabouts
of any children who might be considered Soviet citizens.
The mission visited them and spoke with them. The children,
the JTA informants say, were not coached by anyone and, in fact,
were unaware that the Russian officials were going to visit them.
With the exception of one girl, however, all the youngsters signified
a desire to remain in Palestine. It is reported that only 40 Soviet
citizens have registered for repatriation, the majority of them non-
Jews.
The influential Laborite daily Davar, commenting on the Mos-
cow charge, says that "somebody evidently is interested in de-
grading prestige of the Moscow radio in Palestine, and is, therefore,
spreading lies and insinuations." Davar reviewed the Soviet ac-
cusation that one Michal Shulkin had been ousted from his apart-
ment because he was a Soviet citizen and sympathizer, and says
that these "strange efforts to ascribe political significance to a
tenant's quarrel seem ridiculous."
The entire Hebrew press has not attacked Russia in any way or
form in recent years. In fact, it has often stated that the Soviet
Union has been one of the most important factors in combatting
fascism and defeating Germany.
I interviewed both Shulkin, who is a Polish refugee, and his
landlord, whose name is Cohen. Shulkin asserted that Cohen had
refused to allow him to use a balcony attached to the house and
had called him a Soviet spy. When a Sov?et repatriation mission
came here recently Shulkin complained to them. Cohen, on the
other hand, denies he ever abused Shulkin and said that his chief
objection to him was that he was illegally occupying an apartment
which had been rented by Cohen for single occupancy by a
kindergarten teacher who is now Shulkin's wife.
I was unable to turn up any other instances of "persecution"
of Soviet citizens. The entire matter seems to be a tempest in a
teapot, resulting from someone misleading the Cairo correspondent
of Tass, from whom the story emanated.
Weekly Review of the News of the World
(Compiled From Cables of Independent Jewish Press Service)
AMERICA
PALESTINE
Meyer W. Weisgal, Jewish Agency repre-
sentative in the United States and personal
representative of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, presi-
dent of the Jewish Agency, left for London
July 15, to participate in the first world Zion-
ist conference since the war.
WAC Corporal Lester, 24 year-old daughter
of Mrs. Bertha Lester of Brooklyn, is serving
as personal switchboard operator for Presi-
dent Truman at the "Big Three" Conference at
Potsdam. Cpl. Lester handles all of the Presi-
dent's transatlantic calls.
The Jewish background of George Gershwin
is diluted in the Warner Brothers motion pic-
ture version of his life, "Rhapsody in Blue,"
Manny Farber intimates in a review of the
film in New Republic, liberal weekly. "The
Jewishness of the Gershwins is made vaguely
evident by fearfully playing an occasional
Jewish melody in the background and by
using, for comedy purposes, a limited number
of Jewish attitudes some of which are pretty
funny. Robert Aida, who plays the Gershwin
role, is much less virile, eloquent and Jewish
than Gershwin," Mr. Farber writes.
A group of native fascists have filed libel
suits, totalling $140,000, against the Chicago
Jewish Sentinal. A $50,000 suit was filed by
George Vose, former Gerald K. Smith aide,
who claims he was libeled by statements in
the paper based on an expose published in
Reader's Scope, a party to the suit. Another
suit asking ► total of $90,000 was filed by Joe
McWilliams, ex-Yorkville "fuehrer," George
E. Deathridge, Eugene N. Sanctuary, ErneSt F.
Elmhurst, Robert E. Edmondson, Lawrence
Dennis, E. J. Parker Sage, William H. Lyman
Jr., and Charles B. Hundson, leaders in the
native fascist, anti-Semitic movement.
Seven hundred textbooks at Harvard Uni-
versity are now being examined by the educa-
tional committee of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews "with a view to purging
them of contents, if such be. found, tending to
increase prejudice," Dr. Henry Noble Mac-
Cracken, president of Vassar College, revealed.
A resolution demanding that the United
Nations try, as war criminals, all German
scientists who forced Jews to act as "guinea
pigs" in dangerous medical experiments, was
adopted by the Jewish Palestine Medical As-
sociation at their annual convention in Tel-
Aviv.
The national day of mourning, Tisha b'Ab
(Ninth Day of Ab), marking the anniversary
of the destruction of the Temple, was more
noticeably observed by Jewish Palestine this
year than in previous years, especially in Je-
rusalem. Huge crowds flocked to the Wailing
Wall July 7 in the evening, particularly new-
comers, including survivors of Dachau, Buch-
enwald, Belsen and other concentration camps.
All plaCes of entertainment, restaurants and
cafes were shut down, and the Jerusalem radio
broadcast a special Ninth of Ab program of
Hebrew readings from the Lamentations.'
Wide searches, - apparently for arms, were
carried out by army and police July 17 in the
vicinity of the Petauch-Tikvah-Tel Aviv road,
where a daylight curfew was imposed for sev-
eral hours.
.
OVERSEAS
Municipal officials in Slovakia, contrary to
the Government's assurances to UNRRA, dis-
criminate against the Jews in the distribution
of UNRRA foodstuffs, it was charged in an ap-
peal addressed by Slovakian Jewry to Jewish
leaders in Prague.
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Lord Samuel and Dr.
Rabbi Baeck, Germany's Chief Rabbi recently
released from a concentration camp, were
amOng the participants at a reception held at
Palestine House in London for the Board of
Governors of the Hebrew University.
Dr. Israel Goldstein was received by Con-
sistory of the Jews of France, official religious
body, at a reception in his honor at their
headquarters in the Rue de la Victoire Syna-
gogue building in Paris. He promised to im-
press American Jewry with the need, in Eu-
rope, for religious books and material.
(See Also Page' 17)
2,000 Greek Jews
Return, Ignored
By Government
Only 10,000 Remain Alive
Out of Prewar Population
of 80,000; Needs Cited
ATHENS, (JTA) — Two-thou-
sand Greek. Jews repatriated
from Polish death camps have
been confined in a reception
center for more than a month
awaiting transportation to their
home towns, and the Greek
Government has taken no steps
to remedy the situation.
The repatriated deportees are
living under what an UNRRA
representative described as "de-
plorable conditions," and there
is a strong possibility that they
may be compelled to remain in
the camp for an indefinite period
as no ships or vehicles have been
provided for their transportation.
Reports reaching here daily
tell of how the Jews of Salonika,
for instance, are being terrori-
zed by the "Epsilom Epsilom,"
an anti-Semitic group with
fascist tendencies. In Salonika
there are only 1,000 Jews re-
maining of the prewar popula-
tion of over 45,000.
In all of Greece, according to
Rabbi Eli Barzilani, head of the
Jewish community in Athens,
only 10,000 Jews remain of the
80,000 who lived in the country
before the German occupation,
including the 2,000 who have re-
turned.
The prewar Jewish population
of the principal cities and pro-
vinces of Greece and the present
population is given as follows.
Salonika
Athens
Larissa
Volos
Corfu
Crete
Jennina
Thrace
Castorla)
Florina )
PREWAR
45,000
7,000
1,500
2,000
3,000
1,000
3,500 .
6-7,000
4,000
PRESENT
800-1,000
3.800
850
1,000
80
None
40-50
None
300-400
A Jewish delegation arrived
here recently to request the gov-
ernment to facilitate the emigra-
tion to Palestine of those Jews
desiring to settle there. Jewish
doctors from Palestine have also
come here to render aid.
UNRRA also is attempting to
help the Greek Jews. It has re-
quested Washington to include a
proportion of kosher meat in the
relief shipments to be sent here
from the U. S.
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