A conference of the largest
number of major Jewish organi-
zations ever to convene in the
United States will meet in
Washington, April 5-6, at Hotel
Willard, to deal with the prob-
lem of growing discrimination
against Jews in the Soviet Un-
ion.
The two-day meeting of the
American Jewish Conference on
the Soviet Jews is expected to
draw Jewish organizational and
communal leadership from com-
munities in all parts of the
United States. Twenty-four or-
ganizations are participating in
the conference as sponsoring
groups.
The conference announce-
ment states that the conclave
has the most representative or-
ganizational sponsorship of any
Jewish meeting in American
Jewish history. These organiza-
tions represent the major por-
tion of this country's 5,585,000
Jews.
The conference announcement
notes that within the past two
years, there has been an intensi-
fication of Soviet denial of equal
religious, cultural, and national-
ity rights to Jews, and that in-
formal representations to Soviet
leaders and others have proved
unavailing.
The projected conference is
seen by its sponsoring organiza-
tions as a means of conveying to
the entire American public their
concern on this important prob-
lem. It is their expressed hope
that the nation and the world
may be aroused to halt "what
may be a threat to the very
cultural and spiritual survival
of more than three million Jews
within the confines of the Soviet
Union."
The meeting will be ad-
dressed by Supreme Court
Justice Arthur J. Goldberg,
and Senators Jacob K. Javits
(R.—N.Y.) and Abraham Rib-
bicoff (D.-Conn.), and spokes-
men for the 29 national Jew-
ish organizations.
Jews in the USSR must list
their nationality as "Jewish"
(Yevrei) just as other nationali-
ties—such as Russians, Ukrai-
nians, Georgians, and others—
must list theirs.
According to the 1959 Soviet
census, there are 2,268,000 Jews
registered under the nationality
card system. It is estimated that
there are, however, closer to
three million. Soviet Jews con-
stitute 1.09 percent of the popu-
lation. However, they are 11th
numerically among the more
than 100 diverse Soviet nation-
alities.
In October, 1961, the 22nd
Congress of the Communist
Party in Russia adopted as part
of its party program the follow-
ing guarantee: "Complete free-
dom of each citizen of the
USSR to speak and to rear and
educate his children in any lan-
guage—ruling out all privileges,
restrictions, or compulsions in
the use of this or that language."
Jews are the only national..
ity which is deprived of its
basic cultural rights. Until
1948, under the Communist
system, they were permitted a
cultural life in their own lan-
guage, Yiddish (though Heb-
rew was forbidden): news-
papers, publishing houses,
thousands of books, a variety
of literary journals, profes-
sional repertory theatres and
dramatic schools, literary and
cultural research institutes, a
network of schools, and other
means of perpetuating Jewish
cultural values. Under the
rule of Stalin, in 1948, all of
this activity was forcibly
closed.
Today there exists a Yiddish
literary journal, Sovietish Heim-
land, which resumed publication
in the fall of 1961 on a bi_
monthly basis, and a total of six
volumes have been re-issued in
Yiddish since 1959 in limited
editions.
This is extremely small
when compared with books
produced by two Soviet min-
orities, the Mans (504,000)
and Yakuts (236,000), who in
1961 alone, printed 62 and 144
books respectively in their
own language.
Jews are secondarily regarded
in the Soviet Union as a re-
ligious group. In 1959, the
Soviet government reported to
the Sub-Commission on Preven-
tion of Discrimination and Pro_
tection of Minorities of the
United Nations, that 450 syna-
gogues existed in the Soviet
Union. In 1963, in the official
publication of the Soviet Em-
bassy in Washington, D.C.,
"USSR," it was reported that
only 96 synagogues remain in
Russia. These institutions were
forcibly closed by Soviet auth-
orities.
Judaism as a religion is not
accorded equal treatment with
other religious groups in the
USSR. The last Hebrew Bible
was published in 1917. In 1958,
3,000 copies of a pre-Revolution-
ary siddur (Sabbath prayerbook
in Hebrew) were printed by
photo_offset. No special prayer-
books for the Jewish High Holy
Days or festivals have been per-
mitted to be printed.
Jews are also denied the right
to hold religious school classes
and communications with their
counterparts in other countries.
These rights have been permit-
ted to other religious groups.
Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News
JERUSALEM—Interior Min-
ister Moshe Shapiro said
Wednesday the government
would soon present an amend-
ment to the law of return
which would end the existing
procedure of automatic citizen-
ship to immigrants who are
Jews.
He did not indicate the length
of the waiting period the gov-
ernment will propose as a con-
dition before citizenship will be
granted. He did stress that the
change would reduce the possi-
bility of Israel being used as a
refuge by criminals and pre-
vent individuals from emigrat-
ing to Israel with the sole aim
of acquiring citizenship and a
passport.
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AJCongress Urges Bonn to Extend
Time Limit on Prosecution of Nazis
NEW YORK—The American
Jewish Congress urged that
West Germany's 20-year statute
of limitations against prosecu-
tion for major Nazi war crimes,
due to become effective next
year, be extended for another
20 years.
In identical letters to Secre-
tary of State Dean Rusk and
Karl Heinrich Kneppstein, West
German ambassador to the
U. S., Dr. Joachim Prinz, pres-
ident of the Congress, declared:
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"Our purpose is not the end-
less pursuit of these criminals
GRACE YOUR
merely for retribution. We are
to make clear to all
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the peoples of the world that
guilt for the crimes of the Nazi
WITH
era is indelible and inexpung-
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gfiz 23CSt 91,onz tarl
Dr. Prinz, a former rabbi of
Berlin, who was expelled from
Germany in 1937 for his anti-
Nazi activities, noted that most
of the states of the United
States allow no statute of limi-
tations for crimes involving
murder or for crimes for which
a capital sentence may be im-
posed.
(Related Story Page 38)
Made
Fresh
Daily in
Detroit
Jewish Restitution Groups
Gave $40,000,000 for
Nazi Victims Since 1949
NEW YORK, (JTA)—The an-
nual meeting of the Jewish Res-
titution Successor Organization
held here highlighted the fact
that it had distributed nearly
$40,000,000 for worldwide pro-
grams conducted for the benefit
of Jewish victims of Nazi perse-
cution, since the start of oper-
ations 15 years ago.
Monroe Goldwater was elect-
ed president of the JRSO for
the coming year, and Maurice
NI. Boukstein chairman of the
executive committee.
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Israel May Limit Citizenship Right
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pioneering in new concepts for training Israel's blind, has won
warm praise from the United States Ministry of Health, Educa-
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7-THE DETROI T JEWISH NEWS—Friday, March 6,
24 Major American Jewish Organizations to Meet
for Discussion of USSR Anti-Jewish Practices