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JEWISH NEWS
The Jewish
Press:
Measuring
Rod for
Judging
Communities'
Strength
Commentary
Page 2
Vol. XLI, No. 1
1=0 "T" 1=2 0 I "V
A
A Weekly Review
MICHIGAN
f Jewish Events
Man and His
'Dominion
Over Thy
Works'
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USSR Revives
Czarist
Bigotry
Editorials
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Kennedy Asked to Intervene
Against USSR Discrimination
WASHINGTON, (JTA}--A resolution calling. on the House unanimously to endorse a request for direct intervention by President
Kennedy with the Soviet government against anti-Jewish discriminations practiced in Russia was introduced in the House of Representatives by
Congressman Charles Buckley, New York Democrat.
The resolution asks President Kennedy "to convey to the Soviet Union an expression cf the grave concern of the people of - the United
States over growing anti-Semitism, and to seek assurances that prompt and appropriate action be taken to stop all forms of bigotry and race
hatred against the Jewish people now living in the Soviet Union."
Rep. Buckley asked the President to prevail upon Soviet authorities to permit Russian Jews "who desire to do so" to leave and seek haven
"in Israel and other free lands." The resolution asked that the President "take all possible immediate steps through the United States dele-
gation to the United Nations" to bring to world attention the facts about "the cruel mistreatment of the Jewish people living within the Soviet
Union to the end that such mistreatment should cease."
Rep. Buckley said that although Jews "are not being executed or shipped off to Siberia," Russian anti-Jewish activities are taking "a
subtle but vicious form prevalent in many parts of the Soviet Union today." He said that Soviet behavior towards Jews "makes it quite clear that
the Moscow terror has for its real target the eradication of religion itself."
Moscow Chief Rabbi Implores Congregants
to Avoid Communicating with Israeli Visitors
Report 36,000 Jews Prepared
to Remain in an Independent
Algeria Under Moslem Rule
NEW YORK, (JTA)—The New York Times described, in a dispatch from
Moscow, by Theodore Shabat, a scene in a Moscow synagogue in which the Chief
itabbi and a dozen lay Jewish leaders implored the congregation to shun contacts
with visiting Israeli diplomats.
About 200 congregants, most of them fur-hatted elderly men, listened in
resigned, silence. But there were scattered bursts of applause and shouts of "That's
right!" The theme of the meeting, called to discuss an article published in Trud. the
Soviet labor union newspaper, was that the synagogue "is not being used for the
purpose for which it is intended." The Trud article had charged that Israeli diplomats
were using Russian synagogues to meet with Russian Jews for alleged purposes of
espionage.
Chief Rabbi Yehuda Leb Levin opened the synagogue meeting with a plea for
absolute quiet. Next a man stood up waving the issue of Trud and assailing the
Israelis in Russian. The Chief Rabbi explained to the Times correspondent that since
some congregants could not speak Yiddish,_ they could use Russian.
One after another the lay leaders stressed that the synagogue was a house
of worship, not a,social hall. They cautioned worshippers against having communica-
tions or dealings with Israeli visitors. Several speakers warned against taking from
such visitors gifts of prayershawls and prayerbooks.
The meeting ended with a resolution asking congregants to avoid dealings
with Israelis and called on Israelis to stop giving presents to Russian Jews.
The scene was described by the Times as one of sharp contrast with that of the
office of Aaron Vergelis, editor of the Sovietische Heimland, the new Yiddish-language
periodical.
Vergelis said plans were being discussed to boost circulation of the periodical
from its, resent 25,000 and to convert it from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication.
He laughed off suggestions there' might be a resurgence of U.S.S.R. anti-Semitism.
"Unfortunately," he told Henry Shoskes, an American Yiddish journalist, "there
are Jews among the speculators and evidently some Jews have passed espionage in-
formation to Israelis. Such cases are a disgrace to the Soviet Jews. But it is not only
Jews who are involved in such business."
He told Shoskes the demand for the Yiddish periodical had far exceeded expecta-
tions. Asked about other Yiddish cultural activities, Vergelis mentioned theatrical
groups in various Soviet cities. He said many of these part-time groups had been
formed around groups of former professional actors of the Yiddish State Theater
which Stalin shut down in 1943.
Vergelis also dismissed as "not well thought through" the poem Babi Yar • by
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, which has been regarded widely as an attack on Soviet anti-
Semitism. The poem deals with a ravine 'near Kiev where some 40,000 Jews were
slaughtered by the Nazis in World War II. The poem lamented the failure of the
Soviet government to erect any kind of memorial 'at the massacre scene.
Vergelis denied reports he planned to publish a Yiddish translation of the
poem, declaring it had "weakness" and that it was really an attack on fascism, the
intent of which "has been t*isted by many people."
LONDON, (JTA) — An estimated one-third - of Algeria's
remaining 110,000 Jews are prepared to remain in an_ inde-
Senate, House Hear Denunciations of USSR Excesses
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—Senator Jacob Javits of New York told the Senate
again that Russian Jews were being made "the economic scapegoats" by Soviet
authorities. It was the second time in less than a month that the Senator had taken
the floor to point up the, situation facing Russia's Jewish Community.
The New York Republican said that new evidences of the crisis facing Soviet
Jewry were the recent reports of death sentences for currency speculation in black
market against four Jews in Vilna and 12 within the U.S.S.R. itself. "There is a long
and tragic series of these," Sen. Javits said.
Rep. Herbert Zelenko, New York City Democrat, taking up the same theme
in the House, said 'that he had urged the United States delegation to the United
Nations to introduce a resolution censuring the Soviet Union "for the violation of its
obligations under the United Nations Charter in that it has persecuted _its Jewish
citizens and those of other faiths because of religion."
Soviet Will Reject Appeals by Jews Sentenced to Die
LONDON, (JTA)—The four Jews sentenced to death in Vilna earlier this
month on charges of alleged currency violations will have no right to appeal the
sentence handed down by the Soviet tribunal, it was reported in .Komsomolskaya
Pravda, official organ of the Soviet Communist youth movement received here this
week. The four sentenced to death were Aaron Reznitsky and his wife, Bassya, Mikhail
Rabinovich and F. Kaminer. Bassya Reznitsky was the first woman to be sentenced
to death by a Soviet court since the death of Stalin.
pendent Algeria under Moslem rule, the weekly Spectator
declared here in a report from Algeria.
The report said that the one-third - was made up largely of
Jews living in secondary Algerian cities of 50,000 to 75,000
inhabitants which have been relatively tranquil in the broiling
_battle between European elements seeking to keep Algeria
French and the FLN Moslem underground. Jews in the smaller
cities have not been exposed to the violence of Algiers, Con-
stantine and Oran.
A Jewish shop owner in one of the smaller towns told the
correspondent that "we are ethnologically and culturally closer
to the Arabs than to the French and in the immediate period
of independence there will be a critical need for our services
which will assure our safety."
The correspondent also attested that the two-thirds of
Algerian Jews who do not wish to remain in a Moslem-ruled
Algeria prefer to emigrate to France rather than to Israel,
since they are French citizens.
Israel Supreme Court Selects
Jurists For Eichmann Appeal
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News)
JERUSALEM—Justices Shimon Agranat, Moshe Silberg,
Yoel Sussman and Alfred Witkon have been named by the
Israel Supreme Court to hear the appeal by former Gestapo
Col. Adolf Eichmann against his sentence of death for his key
role in the Nazi wartime slaughter of 6,000,000 European Jews,
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned Tuesday.
Justice Yitzhak Olshan, president of the Supreme Court,
Will preside at the hearings, which will open March 22 and are
expected to last five days.
The hearing, like the trial last summer, will be held in
Jerusalem's Community Center.
West German attorney Robert Servatius, defense counsel
for Eichmann, has asked the Supreme Court to call 15 new
witnesses, including Israeli Justice Minister Dov Joseph, Jewish
Agency chairman Moshe Sharett, Israeli diplomat Ehud Avriel
and Yoel Brand, for the hearing.
The appeal brief, covering 60 typewritten pages, challenges
various aspects of documents introduced in the trial by Attor-
ney Gideon Hausner and the right of Israel to try Eichmann
in view of his abduction.
Supreme Court to Hear Schools -
Prayer Arguments Next Month
WASHINGTON, (JTA) — The United States Supreme Court is plan-
ning to set a date late next month or early in April to hear arguments
on the constitutionality of daily prayer recitations in public schools.
In the meantime, Congressman Paul B. Dague, Pennsylvania Repub-
lican denounced what he called "a militant minority" for seeking "to deny
the majority the educational, non-sectarian advantages of a daily reading
of the greatest book." He asserted that this "minority" wants to keep
"all references to the deity from our public schools."
Bishop John Wesley Lord of the Washington Methodist Church Diocese
said that while he opposed public school religious observances that might
embarrass or isolate children of minority religions, complete exclusion of
religion from the schools would be "false to the religious tradition of
America." The Methodist Churchman said that the Constitution bars
religious indoctrination "but it does not require ignorance" of religion.