World Jewry Hopeful in Sweden, By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ STOCKHOLM, Sweden — A new era of positive Judaism is emerging in this Scandi- navian capital. Representatives of the Jewries of the world, gathered here for a 12-day in- ternational conference of the World Jewish Congress, are meeting here in a hopeful mood, with a cheerful outlook for the future, with a positive approach to Jewish needs and aspirations. There is no longer that at- titude of fright over untoward occurrences. Jewish leaders are not meeting to protest: they are here to create, to re- SWEDISH PARLIMENT BUILDING WHERE SESSIONS ARE solve issues in the best inter- NOW TAKING PLACE IN STOCKHOLM Observations On Jewries in Vienna, Oslo, Copenhagen * ests of a people that aspires to orbit. The absence of the a good life among good neigh- Jews from behind the Iron bors everywhere. Curtain represents the only All languages are spoken tragic factor in this all-Jewish here, but delegates and guests gathering—the Fourth Plenary get along best with Yiddish Assembly of the World Jew- and English. It's a toss-up as ish Congress. to which is the most interna- Even so. the Iron Curtain re- tional Jewish tongue. But He- strictions were considerably brew is popular, and those who broken by the arrival of a know the sacred tongue liter- delegate of three from Poland. ally beam when they have There was to have been a some one to converse with in Hungarian delegation, but at the language of the Bible and the last moment it was with- of Israel. drawn. At this writing, the It is the people who are of Hungarian note of explanation such great interest here. has not arrived. Nearly every Jewish commun- The fact that newspaper- ity in the world is represented men from the entire world —except those from the Soviet Continued on Page 32 THE JEWISH NEWS I Commentary Page 2 Vol. XXXV, No. 23 A Weekly Review of Jewish Events Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper—Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle Printed in a 100% Union Shop The Mirage of Birobidjan in the USSR Editorial Page 4 17100 W. 7 Mile Rd.—VE 8-9364--Detroit 35, August 7, 1959 $5.00 Per Year; Single Copy 15c Assail USSR Policies on Jews at Opening of WJ Congress Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News Israel Has the Potential to Show Way in Solving Racial Problems By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ JERUSALEM — The name of this city is derived from two words—ir and . shalom—meaning the City of Peace. Yet, there is no peace, either externally or internally. A glimpse at the no-man's-land that separates the Old City from the New, the Jordan-held territory that has nearly all the Holy Places from the Jew- ish-built capital -of Israel, is sufficient 'reminder that only a truce, a shaky armis- tice, accounts for the silenced guns. People hope for peace. It may come—very soon. But life goes on with reservations—with an allowance for the possible continuation of a state of war for many years to come. More serious is the internal war, the struggle between two contending Israeli factions, the conflict between two ideologies, between the modern, West- ernized Jews and their rather backward Eastern kinsmen. It is the struggle between the Orientals and. the Westerners that has cre- ated the major Israeli problems. This is a most difficult issue to discuss. Israel labors to integrate all elements into a single whole. This is a remarkable nation, with many faults that are common to all human beings, but with a major aspic- ation to fuse the representatives of all Jewries into a single unified community. It is a most difficult task when it is taken into consideration that - people from more than 60 countries are congregated here. _ Is it any wonder, therefore, that there is inequality, that the Western man has better opportunities than the Oriental, that there are two classes of people? There are tensions because there are differences of opinion and in ways of living. There are feuds. That is why there were riots in Haifa and Beersheba. It was feared also that there would be an outbreak of violence in Jerusalem. It did not materialize. The chances are that it will not occur. And, in the reason for the rioting, lies the explanation of it. There is quite a difference between the Negro-White problem in the U.S. and the Oriental vs. Western (Sefardim vs. Ashkenazim) in Israel. The causes are the same—stemming from i n e q u a 1 i t y, from poorer conditions among the Orientals, from a lower standard of living and less satisfactory housing conditions among the latter. The approach to the problem, however, is different. There is a greater spontaneity in facing it here. There is more definite frankness. In one of the high schools in Detroit, there were Negro-White tensions. But the Negro leaders were hesitant in their handling of the issue. They may have feared the "underworld." It was an "underworld" element among the Moroccans and North Africans that caused . the trouble in Israel, that smashed a few shops and resorted to violence for a few hours. The leaders of their communities were quick to act. They called for order, condemned the rioters, demanded that their people abide by the laws of the land. The government instituted an investigation, and out of it must come an understanding of the differences; an appreciation of the complaints; an attempt to create equality equality of opportunity for all. The "inequalities" must be recognized a full understanding of the prob- lem. Western Jews arrive in Israel with high standards—and retain them. Orien- tal Jews come to the land with low standards, and while the highly Westernized and modern Israel lifts them abOve their low gradations, their conditions cannot match those of their more progressive kinsmen too quickly. It is the army that is the great equalizer. It is during military training that the youth of Israel are alike, all of them, without distinction as to color of skin or social background. But when the army career ends. the Oriental goes into a fac- tory, or works on the land, while the youth with the Western background has (Continued on Pages 16 and 17) STOCKHOLM—The Cold War between East and West, particularly as it continues to seriously affect Jews in countries behind the Iron Curtain, occupied the at- tention of delegates attending the Fourth Plenary As- sembly of the World Jewish Congress, which opened here on Sunday. In an attack on policies emanating from Moscow, Dr. Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress, on Tuesday, sharply assailed the Soviet Union for attempting "not only to extirpate Jewish institutional and cultural life," but of striving also to wipe out "the very sense of Jewishness among the 3,000,000 Jews" under the Kremlin regime. Approximately 300 delegates from more than 40 countries in the world heard Dr. Prinz declare that the Jews in Soviet Russia "are isolated and defenseless. The only hope for Soviet Jewry is that world-wide pub- lic opinion may persuade Soviet authorities to abandon their anti-Jewish policies and restore a minimum of opportunities for the preservation of Jewish cultural and religious identity." There is "evidence at hand" of the Soviet Union's official attitude toward the Jews under USSR jurisdic- Lion, said Dr. Prinz. He summarized this evidence stating: "Officially, the Jews of Russia are constituted as a distinct nationality, and the identity card of Soviet Jews describes their nationality as 'Jewish.' Yet, the Jewish nationality group is the only one among those so recog- nized which enjoys no such corporate existence. "There are no Yiddish newspapers in the Soviet Union, no Jewish publishing houses, no Yiddish theaters, no Jewish cultural or communal institutions. "This anti-Jewish bias goes beyond the anti-religi- ous policies of the government. Even the secular Jew has no means of preserving his folk culture. "Soviet Jews are, likewise, barred from participat- ing in international Jewish bodies, from subscribing and receiving Jewish books and periodicals published abroad. "The fufillment of this policy received its climatic expression in 1948, when several hundred Jewish writers were imprisoned, and a number were executed. "Disabilities imposed against Jewish religious life are even more severe and stringent than the examples cited. "While Soviet authorities are encouraging tourists to visit their country, my personally-collected informa- tion shows that only one American Rabbi, who so desig- nated himself on visa application, has been granted authority to enter the Soviet Union." It is up to the world, said Dr. Prinz, to rectify "this appalling situation" and free Soviet Jewry from its status as "victims of dual deprivation." Earlier, a demand that all governments in all coun- tries recognize the right of Jews to maintain their com- munal life and institutions was voiced at the Assembly in a report on the situation of Jews in various lands. The report cited official efforts made by the WJ Congress to contact Soviet Jewry. "We are unhappily (Continued on Page 324