Situation of Russian Jews Deteriorating;
Farbstein Asks for Slap at Soviet Union
PARIS (JTA)—The condition
of Soviet Jewry has slowly but
steadily deteriorated during the
last two years, according to an
interim report issued here this
week by the Conference on the
Situation of the Jews in the
Soviet Union. The report was
transmitted by Dr. Nahum Gold-
mann to members of the con-
ference of which Daniel Mayer,
French Jewish leader, is chair-
man.
The report revealed that, ac-
cording to official Soviet sour-
ces, 354 synagogues have been
closed in Russia during the past
seven years. The total of syna-
gogues fell from 450 in 1956,
according to the Soviet Union's
report to the United Nations
Subcommittee on the Preven-
tion of Discrimination, to only
96 according to 1963 figures
from official Soviet sources.
The report expressed the
hope that as "de-Stalinization
makes f u r t h e r progress, the
Jewish problem too will achieve
a solution." However, confer-
ence participants were urged
in the report to resume their
work because "circumstances
are pressing and the difficulties
faced by Soviet Jewry do not
permit indefinite delay."
The report cited figures
published in the Soviet press
showing that between July 1,
1961 and July 1, 1963 at least
140 persons were condemned
to death for economic of-
fenses in Russia and that
about 60 per cent of these, or
some 80 people, at least were
Jews. "This proportion is
especially disquieting when
one remembers that the Jews
represent only about 1.5 per
cent of the total population,"
the report noted. "In the
Ukraine, where Jews consti-
tute two per cent of the popu-
lation, they account for 80 to
90 per cent of those condem-
ned to death" in such trials.
a total of five books by deceased
writers, one anthology, the
newspaper, the Bir ob idj an
Stern, and the b i-monthly
Sovietish Heimland. In a mes-
sage accompanying the report,
Goldmann said that "consider-
ing the large number of Jews
still very attached to their na-
tional heritage, this state of af-
fairs can only be explained by
the fact that the Soviet authori-
ties themselves must be vigor-
olfsly opposed to any revival of
Jewish culture in the U.S.S.R."
The report said that not
only had there been no im-
provement during the past
two years in the sphere of
Jewish r e l i g i o u s life but
further deterioration, Syna-
gogues are still being closed
regularly and during 1962,
the report stated, synagogues
were closed at Sverdlovsk,
Zhitomir, Kazan, Grozny,
Zhmerinka, Chernovitz, Bel-
aya - Tzerkov, Kaunas, Lvov
and Piatigorsk. Most of these
t owns now have no syna-
gogues at all, the report de-
clared.
The report emphasized that
the Soviet press was "only will-
ing to harp" on those trials in
which the accused are Jews,
"laying heavy indirect stress
on the 'fatal connection' which
is supposed to exist between
offenses committed and the .na-
tional or religious identity of
the offenders. Such articles help
to back up the current anti-
religious campaign, especially
in its anti-Semitic aspects."
Goldmann cited reports of
The report asserted that the
cases in which Russian Jews
entire Yiddish literary output
"were imprisoned and condem-
from 1948 to 1963 amounted to
ned to solitary confinement
with hard labor for baking and
distributing matzoth by impro-
vised means" since the state
bakeries quit baking matzoth
two years ago.
The report warned that pub-
dish is not, as the Soviet Ency-
clopedia states, a dead lan- lication of articles in the Soviet
Ex-Nazi Police
Officer Testifies
on Gassing of Jews
HANNOVER, (JTA)—A for-
mer Nazi police officer, appear-
ing as a prosecution witness in
the trial of two former Nazis
accused of helping to murder
233,000 Lodz ghetto Jews in
1942, testified that he thought
the Kulmbach extermination
camp was a recreation center
for sick Jews.
The prosecution witness, Ott-
mar Roese, testified that he had
been told there was an old
castle at Kulmbach "where ail-
guage. It is what it ever was—
a language of faith."
Stressing the importance to
the Jewish people of the cul-
tural contributions of Russian
Jewry, Senator Aron Steinbruch,
vice-president of the Confedera-
tion of Brazilian Jewish Organi-
zations, told the delegates: "If
the Land of Israel was the
cradle of the ancient Jewish
people, the Russian land was
the birthplace of almost every-
thing which is today important
in the Jewish world. In terri-
tories now part of the Soviet
Union were born almost all
movements which impressed
their mark on today's Judaism.
We think of what Russian Juda-
ism meant to the Jewish people
and what its disappearance
might signify."
Other speakers addressing the
conference included Dr. Isaac
Goldenberg, president of the
DAIA, national representative
organization of Argentine Jew-
ry, who said that "morally and
spiritually, the important Jew-
ish minority is being stifled."
In a message to the confer-
ence, former Brazilian Presi-
dent Juscelino Kubitschek said
that he joined the delegates in
urging the Soviet government
to grant full rights to Jews. He
declared: "As a citizen of a na-
tion where Jews enjoy full free-
dom, I appeal to the govern-
ment of the USSR that they re-
formulate their policies with re-
gard to the problem."
MURRY KOBLIN
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ing Jews were sent to recuper-
ate and I was foolish enough to
believe it." Roese, who was
wartime commander of the
Nazi security police in Lodz,
gave the testimony at the trial 18039
of former SS Lt. Col. Otto Wyoming
Bradfisch, 69, and Guenther
Fuchs, 52, who had been Ges-
tapo "chief for Jewish affairs"
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press describing synagogues as
"centers of illici t trading"
breeds anti - Semitism among
the masses "and it is inevitable
that this causes some excesses."
Goldmann then referred to a
previously publicized anti-
Semitic incident at Dhagestan
on Aug. 9, 1961, when Jews
were accused of ritual murder.
He asserted that this was not an
isolated case, and that similar
charges were made at Uzbek-
istan in 1962 in Georgia and in
1963 in Vilna.
*
*
*
WASHINGTON ( J T A ) —
Congressman Leonard Farb-
stein, New York Democrat,
in a statement on the Floor
of the House of Representa-
tives called upon the Con-
gress this week to act favor-
ably on his resolution, intro-
duced earlier this year, to
have the U.S. Mission to the
United Nations seek adoption
by the United Nations of a
resolution condemning mani-
festations of anti-Semitism in
the Soviet Union.
"It is singularly appropriate
at this time, in view of the ap-
proach of the Jewish High Holi-
days, to call attention to the
fact that although the Soviet
Union has agreed they will not
pollute the air with their super-
bombs, and loudly publicize
their desire for peaceful co-
existence with the peoples of
the world, t her e continues
within the Soviet Union itself
practiced persecution of its
Issue Jewish Book
Jewish population," the New
York Congressman said.
Annual of Literature
"Apparently," he continued,
More than 780 books of Jew-
ish interest published in the "this country has been suc-
U.S., Israel and Great Britain cessful in persuading Mr.
during the year ending May Krushchev and his cohorts that
1963 are listed and briefly de- it uncivilized to explode poison-
scribed in Volume 21 of the ous ingredients in the atmos-
Jewish Book Council of the Na- phere—we have been unable to
convince him that the subtle
tional Jewish Welfare Board.
The 243-page volume, unique harrassment of Soviet Jewry is
in that it has articles printed similarlarly uncivilized a n d
in three languages—E nglis h, closely parallels the initial ac-
Hebrew and Yiddish—is one of tions of Germany's Hitler
the media through which JWB against the Jews." He also listed
and its Jewish Book Council some of the evidence of perse-
promote an interest in and ap- cution presently taking place
preciation of Jewish literature. within the Soviet Union.
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Intellectuals of 12 Latin American
Nations Appeal to Moscow for Jews
RIO DE JANEIRO, (JTA)—
The Soviet government was
called upon by a conference of
intellectuals from 12 Latin
American countries to "elimi-
nate limitations which continue
to oppress the Jews of the
USSR."
In a resolution adopted unan-
imously at the closing session
of the conference, the 50 dele-
gates deplored the liquidation
of Jewish schools in the Soviet
Union and the elimination of
Yiddish and Hebrew publica-
tions. The resolution stressed
the fact that the Bible was ob-
tainable in Russia in various
dialects but not in the original
Hebrew and that Yiddish was
forbidden while new alphabets
were created for obscure Rus-
sian peoples.
"We do not request preferen-
tial treatment for Jews," the
resolution stated, urging the
Soviet government to implement
its own nationalities policy and
the Soviet constitution in order
to assure the cultural survival
of the Jewish minority, permit
Jewish religious practices and
allow Jews to emigrate for the
reunion of families.
The conference cabled Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev ad-
vising him that the resolution
had been handed to the Soviet
Embassy in Rio de Janeiro.
Copies of the resolution are to
be sent to Secretary General
U Thant of the United Nations,
the UN Commission on Human
Rights, the President of the
General Assembly and the Or-
ganization of American States.
German Arciniegas, a Colom-
bian writer and diplomat, de-
ploring the discrimination in
the Soviet Union against Jewish
culture and the Yiddish lan-
guage, declared: "Jewish culture
obviously surpasses that of
Uzbeks, Yakuts and Usitans.
Why with one hand stimulate
the development of stammering
languages and with the other
deprive the Jews of their
schools? Why interrupt a multi-
secular chain of culture which
proved so useful to the progress
of the Western World and was
not foreign to the very forma-
tion of the Soviet State? Yid-
at Lodz in Nazi-occupied Po-
land.
The witness said that he later
learned what was really taking
place in the northern Bavaria
camp and "immediately drove
out there to take a look for
myself. It was awful. They were
just herding a group of scream-
ing people into the gas vans,
and their shrieks subsided only
a full 20 minutes later."
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