UN Learns More About Anti-Semitism in USSR
By SAUL CARSON
(JTA Correspondent at the
United Nations)
(Copyright, 1964, JTA, Inc.)
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.—Dip-
lomats and Secretarial members
who understand the field of human
rights (and, incidentally, not all
do) as well as those who under-
gtand Soviet Russian trickery
(an ever-widening circle here)
are studying two apparently con-
tradictory phenomena. On the one
hand, they note, the USSR is show-
ing that it is sensitive to increasing
foreign criticism of its persecu-
tions against Soviet Jews. On the
other, hand, the Soviet Govern-
ment continues its anti - Semitic
barrage in the spirit of "Judaism
Without Embellishment," an in-
famous piece of anti-Semitic writ-
ing, published last year by the
Academy of Science in Kiev.
The Kremlin's sensitivity is seen
in various Soviet publications
USSR-Soviet Life Today, which
the Moscow authorities publish
in the United States as part
of a cultural exchange agreement.
Twice in the last few months,
this handsome periodical included
in its "Queries from Readers" de-
partment some questions relating
to the position of Soviet Jewry.
In the August issue, a Solomon
Fisher, presumably an American,
asked: "How is it that the Soviet
Union, with so many scientists
and generally learned people of
all nationalities, has no Jewish
people in the Government?"
The answer: "This is not so.
The assistant to premier Khru-
shchev is Venqamin Dymshits,
chairman of the USSR Economic
Council, a Jew by nationality. For
a more detailed answer to your
question, we refer you to the Ed-
itor's Note' in our March issue."
The answer in the March is-
sue contained the usual Soviet
apologia—without showing that,
on the basis of population in
areas heavily populated by Jews,
fully printed monthly magazine, the Jews have far less repre-
sentation even in lower govern-
ment organs than do other "na.
tionalties."
Then there is a copy of "Soviet
APPLICATIONS FOR
Weekly," a propaganda organ pub-
lished in London. Here, a long
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article. appeared, entitled: "Jews
On New or Existing Homes
in the USSR: Assimilation? Yes!
It's a Natural Process." The au-
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thor, identifying himself as one
Phone Us Today
of Jewish "nationality," is Pro-
FRANKLIN
fessor Braginsky, a well-known So-
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culture.
which the USSR delegation to the
United Nations is kind enough to
supply to correspondents here. One
of the publications is the beauti-
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His thesis is simple; it is em-
braced in the subtitle. Soviet Jews
are assimilating in greater num-
bers and should do so because
assimilation is in the essence of
the "Jewish spirit, that wonderful
alloy, which we think of as the
progressive culture of the whole
of humanity." (If that makes sense
to an American reader, he must
be an expert on Tajik—which this
writer is definitely not.)
The real significance of these
writings lies not so much in what
they say—but in the very fact
that they are printed in Soviet
organs. Such inclusion in the So-
viet propaganda organs shows that
the USSR, annoyed by the charges
of anti-Semitism, is on the de-
fensive. The USSR feels called
upon to explain—something it sel-
dom bothers to do, unless the
protests are widespread enough
and' originate in sources that can-
not be ignored.
One such source is the body
of organs at the United Nations.
And one such major organ is
the Economic and Social Coun-
cil (ECOSOC) with its subsidiary
Human Rights Commission.
The recent meeting of ECOSOC,
at Geneva, heard a lengthy address
by Israel's observer there, Am-
bassador Moshe Bartur. Eyes there
—as well as here at New York
Headquarters—were opened by
Mr. Bartur's disclosure that "Ju-
daism Without Embellishment"
was not the only anti-Semitic book
published recently by the Soviet
Union.
Mr. Bartur quoted at length
from two other recent Soviet
works. Both were issued by the
State Publishing House for Politi-
cal Literature, at Moscow. One
was • a book called "Image of the
Saints," by Paul Henri Thiry,
Baron of Holbach. You may won-
der who he is. Well, he isn't—
he was—the author of an infa-
mous 18th Century anti-Semitic
tract which stated among other
things that "the Jews have al-
ways, due to their religion, been
the enemies of the rest of man-
kind" and saw the Jews as "al-
ways cruel, perfidious, rebellious,
intolerant and false."
This is the thing published by
Moscow in 1962, in 175,000 copies
of a popular edition. By digging
up this canard, and issuing it in
1962, the Moscow publishing
House, as Mr. Bartur noted, left
"the reader with the impression
that he is confronted with a mod-
ern, up to date exposition of the
case" against the Jew.
Then, in 1963, the same pub-
lishing house in Moscow issued
another popular edition, in 105,-
000 copies, of a book entitled
"Catechism in Its True Color,"
by a Mr. Osipov. Here, the So-
viet reader was told, among
other things, that the rabbi-
nate is "a greedy, silver-loving
clergy, afraid to leave a single
piece on somebody else's plate."
In the face of such disclosures,
how can Soviet intellectuals look
any man straight in the eye and
deny that there is anti-Semitism
in the USSR, officially condoned
if not indeed encouraged and at
times fomented by the authori-
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, August 21, 1964 7
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ties? Prof. Branginsky, who refers
to himself as an intellectual (as in-
deed, he obviously is) should try
to answer that question, asked
here again and again.
But then, a man who sees the
Jewish spirit as one directed to-
ward assimilation obviously has
his own method of computation.
To honest people here, who can
also count, this kind of arithmetic
is simply not intelligible. And
when the next Assembly convenes,
some of these permutations are
likely to be tossed up in front
of the Sovieteers—with demands
for further explanations.
53rd Semi-Annual
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