Soviet Official 'Explains' Why Yiddish
Excluded From Broadcasts in USSR
LONDON (JTA),-The chairman
of the USSR Committee on Radio
and Television said here Monday
that, in his two years in the. post,
"I have not come across a request'
far broadcasting in Yiddish."
Nicolai Mesyatsev, who is on a
visit here as a guest of the British
Broadcasting Corp., made the
statement in reply to a question
from a Jewish Telegraphic Agency
correspondent. The Soviet official
said that the total hours of broad-
casting in the USSR were 12 per
each 24 hours in 123 languages.
The official said that in Biro-
bidjan, the "Jewish Republic" in
the Soviet Far East, there was
regular broadcasting in Yiddish
"but the problem simply does
not arise elsewhere. I have many
Jewish friends," he added, "and
I have never heard any of them
raising this problem. You can
create such a problem artifi-
cially," he commented, "but it
does not exist."
The JTA correspondent, who was
invited to continue the discussion,
pointed out that 500,000 persons in
the Soviet Union listed Yiddish as
their native tongue in the last
Soviet population census, and that
it would seem only fair for that
proportion to be reflected in the
Soviet broadcast schedules.
Mesyatsev replied that he did
not know about that figure but
he did know that his huge cor-
respondence concerning program
requests and suggestions did not
include anything pertaining to Yid-
dish.
"Take Constantin Simonov, he is
a Jew but his life and his culture
and his writings are Russian and
woven into the Russian fabric,"
he said. "This applies also to the
late Marshak, our greatest trans-
lator and others. Therefore, it
would seem inadvisable to create
an artificial problem about Yiddish
where it does not exist.
* * *
Jews in Chile, Bronx
Appeal to Moscow
SANTIAGO (JTA)—The Jewish
Central Committee of Chile sub-
mitted to a visiting Soviet par-
liamentary delegation an appeal,
written in Russian, for easing of
the situation of Soviet Jewry.
The letter was sent, on behalf
of the 35,000 members of the
Chilean- Jewish community, to
Nickolai Grigorievich, vice presi-
dent of the Soviet presidium. The
letter complained that the Jews
in the Soviet Union "do not enjoy
elementary rights which other
nationalists enjoy," and appealed
to the Soviet delegation to
"remedy this situation."
In New York Sunday, about
7,500 Bronx Jews marched for
several blocks along the Grand
Concourse, the borough's main
thoroughfare, then held a rally on
the steps of the Bronx County
Court House, to demand equal
rights for Soviet Jews as granted
them under the Soviet constitu-
tion.
It was the first time that the
Jews of the Bronx rallied in a
single borough protest for Soviet
Jewry.
The rally heard U.S. Sen. Jacob
Javits and other dignitaries decry
Russian treatment of Jews.
Borough President Herman Badillo
proclaimed Sunday as "Bronx
Soviet Jewry Day."
Rabbi Herschel Schacter, of the
Bronx Mosholu Jewish Center, was
chairman. He has assumed chair-
manship of the newly-formed
Bronx Council to Aid Soviet Jewry.
Rabbi Israel Miller of Kingsbridge
Heights Jewish Center, the Bronx
rabbi who head the American
Jewish Conference on Soviet Jew-
ry, addressed the rally.
* * *
Jewish Life in Russia
Is Doomed Within 15
Years, Expert Predicts
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The So-
viet Union's policy of destoying
Jewish life by forced attrition "is
likely to succeed completely in
10 to 15 years," Prof. Erich Gold-
hagen, director o,f the Institute of
East European Jewish Affairs at
Brandeis. University, said here.
He based his fears on the re-
strictive policies whiCh, among
other prohibitions deny Soviet Jews
the right to train replacements
for their small number of aging
rabbis and other religious function-
aries.
By the 1980s, the present handful
will have passed on; and, with it,
the process of transmitting the
Jewish heritage to another gen-
eration of Soviet Jews, Prof. Gold-
hagen said at ceremonies Sunday
opening a Bnai Brith Hillel Foun-
dation's exhibit on "The Tragedy of
Soviety Jewry," at the American
University here.
Unless pressures from outside
force a shift in Soviet policies,
"Judaism in the Soviet Union will
be reduced to a faint remnant
within the next decades," he
warned.
He said that Soviet officials, who
resent the concern of Western
Jews for their co-religionists in
the USSR, also "watch with satis-
faction how the Jewish substance
is being sapped as they constrict
and prohibit all serious attempts
at keeping alive the Jewish trad-
tion."
The 14-panel exhibit, on display
for an indefinite period, illustrates
with vivid photographs, and docu-
ments with charts and statistics,
the plight of Soviet Jewry. The
concluding panel, titled "I Shall
Not Die," depicts dramatically
the continuing will of Soviet Jews
to live Jewishly. During the ac-
ademic year, the exhibit will tour
other American and Canadian col-
lege campuses.
Israel Chess Team
Keeps Lead in Olympics
MIAMI (JTA)—The Israel chess
team retained its lead in Group III
of the 17th Chess Olympics in Ha-
vana Sunday night after playing
to a 11/2 - 11/2 draw with the United
States team in the fourth round
of the Olympics preliminaries, it
was reported here from Havana.
Israel now has 9 1/2 points to 8 1/2
for the second-place U.S. team.
In Sunday night's matches, Mig-
uel Czerniak of Israel defeated
William Addison of San Francisco;
Nicholas Rossolimo of New York
defeated S. Kagan of Israel; and
the game between Israel's Yeir
Kraidman and Larry Evans of
New York was a draw. A fourth
game between Joseph Porath of
Israel and Robert Byrne of In-
dianapolis was adjourned.
JDC Members to Meet
in NY to Plan
NEW YORK—The 52nd annual
meeting of the Joint Distribution
Committee, major American
agency aiding needy Jews over-
seas, will be held Dec. 7 at the
New York Hilton Hotel, it was
announced this week by Louis
Broido, JDC chairman.
More than 500 Jewish com-
munity leaders from the United
States and Canada are expected
to attend, Broido said. They will
review JDC's 1966 program which
provided assistance to close to
400,000 needy Jews in 30 coun-
tries in Europe, North Africa and
the Middle East, including Israel.
They will also adopt a program
and a budget and will elect officers
for 1967.
The Joint Distribution Comm
tee receives funds for its world-
wide assistance programs mainly
from the campaigns of the United
Jewish Appeal.
Budget
Diplomacy is to do and say
The nastiest thing in the nicest
way.—Isaac Goldberg
Call GEORGE
at
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CO MON P
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Jews in Soviet Union
Greet B-G on 80th
TEL AVIV (JTA) — David
Ben-Gurion, Israel's honored
elder statesman, whose 80th
birthday is now being celebrat-
ed throughout the country, has
received a number of birthday
greetings from the Soviet Union,
it became known here. Some of
the greetings from the USSR
were in excellent Hebrew,
others had bien written in
Russian.
A number of the pieces of
mail adressed from the USSR
to. Ben-Gurion had carried only
his name, without any specific
address, but the Israeli Post
Office directed the mail to Ben-
Gurion's residence or office.
Friday, November 4, 1966-35
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
FOR ALL!
LOOK AT THE RECORD
• RATED "OUTSTANDING" by Detroit Bar Association.
• APPOINTED by Michigan State Supreme Court to
"... It Is vital to have judges with
human Instinct, men who know the
law and can be as Arm as necessary
while being as gentle as possible .
n
DITROIT IPA nib
the Joint
Committee on Court Reorganization.
• APPOINTED by the President of the Michigan Bar Ass*.
ciation to Special Committee on Mental Health.
• The son of deaf parents, Judge Pernick has programmed
many developments both on the Local and National level,
bringing about improved conditions for all handicapped
persons.
• ENDORSED by Veterans, Civic and aIi Labor Organizations.
Pot
WRITE IN or PLACE STICKER
BERNARD KAHN
FOR OAKLAND COUNTY JUDGE
LIFT THE SLOT - WRITE IN
OR PUT STICKER
ON NUMBER 38
38
AN*Vis-; <V
- ii:4,,Wgi,4fi" * Xfa l*ANS-
38D
Judge. Of The
Circuit Court
39D$
Judge 1
Probate
For Term Ending (For Ten
January 1, 1967
January
(Vote for not
(Vote
more than one)
more 01
ON NON-PARTISAN JUDICIAL BALLOT
.
4.icAz4csstvwsigroarrogo
AlskOCr-4
Trial lawyer. Special Assistant Attorney General. Former Political Science Instructor
Wayne State University. Past President P.T.A. Cubmaster. Reserve Officer, World
War II, Combat Veteran. W.S.U. Law School Alumnae Board of Governors. Teacher
Atlas Shalom Religious Seh001.
THERE IS NO CANDIDATE ON THE BALLOT
DON'T LET THIS JUDICAL POST GO BY DEFAULT
ELECT A HIGHLY QUALIFIED ATTORNEY
38E
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Take This to the Polls on November 8th
.-39E
Eugene
MOl
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a