Vicious Circle in Russian Jewry's Plight;
Anti-Semitism Traced in Nationalist Aims
Oxford University Press has is- • genev, one of the most enlightened
sued a volume dealing with Rus- and most westernized of all Rus-
sian Jewry, containing a compila- sian 19th-century writers, and one
tion by authoritative writers, for whom Christianity seems to
outlining data regarding Biro- have had little meaning, had no
Bidzhan, Zionism, occupational inhibitions against expressing anti-
patterns, anti-Semitism, religious Semitic views in private."
aspects, and numerous other socio-
The manner in which the anti-
logical and political elements.
Semitic virus has spread, the
Edited by Dr. Lionel Kochan,
endorsement given to the Proto-
University of Warwick Bearsted
cols of the Elders of Zion, the
Reader in Jewish History, this
prejudices that are inherent in
volume's noteworthy merits are
the Russian mind—these and
outlined in an introductory essay
other factors are reviewed both
by Prof. Leonard Schapiro of the
in Dr. Schapiro's and the other
London School of Economics.
essays that outline the Jewish
It is especially to be noted
position. Dr. Schapiro describes
that Dr. Schapiro states at the
the manner in which the eman-
outset that Russia is in "clas-
citation of Jews was adopted,
sical home of anti-Semitism."
in 1917, by Kerensky, whose
policies are highly acclaimed
Prof. Schapiro states in review-
here, and afterward, but he
ing the historical perspectives
shows the case of the Jew which
commencing with the policy of
called
for a "special kind of
Alexander II, enunciated in 1856
tolerance" and he indicates:
in his aim to bring Jews "into har-
"The
Soviet
regime is intoler-
mony with the general policy of
ant of all minorities and all
merging this people with the na-
non-conformists,
but the Jew is
tive population":
more vulnerable than most to
"There is no doubt that a large
this intolerance."
element in Russian anti-Semitism,
Soviet anti-Zionism, the impact
both official and popular, arose
from the fact that the Jew fol- of the forgeries contained in the
lowed a faith alien to the nation- Protocols, the anti-religious pol-
al Russian Orthodox Christianity. icies combine to create the sad
Dostoevsky openly voiced the view plight of Russian Jewry.
Dr. Schapiro states that the ex-
that the Jew was a harmful and
alien element in the Orthodox pose of Russian prejudices and in-
community. Some of the anti- tolerance has led to abandonment
Semitic comments in his private of some policies aimed against
letters are so sharp that they em- Jews. He is also of the opinion that
barrased the Soviet editors of his the cause of legal order which is
correspondence sufficiently to ex- "the cause of the Jew" is gaining
cuse them. At the other end of recognition and adherents and he
the spectrum lay the fact that tie commends the contents of the
Jew who . adopted Christianity, book he introduces because the
however formally, immediately be- issues are iet forth so soundly.
came free of all legal restructions He expresses the hope that "his-
and limitations. But in my view tory will give the Soviet Jews an-
this anti-Semitism was as 'the Jew other chance to work side by side
did not belong to the Russian way with non-Jewish Soviet church-
of life, that the aims and ideals men, intellectuals and scientists
associated with him—such as cap- for a return to the ideals of 1917."
italism, or a progressiVe philo-
Besides Prof. Kochan, who has
sophy—made him a creature apart edited the book and has written
in the traditional Russian world, an epilogue, and Dr. Schapiro, au-
less than human, even. Even Tur- thors of essays evaluating the Rus-
sian-Jewish situation include Y. A.
Gilboa, Prof. M. Friedberg, Prof.
S. Ettinger, Dr. C. Abramsky, R.
Ainsztain, Prof. E. D. Weinryb,
Dr. J. Rothenberg, Dr. J. Schecht-
man, Dr. Z. Katz, Dr. W. Korey,
Prof. A. Nove, Dr. S. Levenberg,
Prof. J. Miller, Prof. A. Q. Newth.
In his epilogue, Prof. Kochan
INC
poses serious questions: The fact
OF HARVARD ROW
is that Soviet treatment of the
nationality question has been
Designers of Fzne Furs
bedeviled by an inner conflict;
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is
it to create opportunities for
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tion of cultural freedom; or is it
to suppress national differences
as obsolete remnants of a re-
actionary past in the interests
of a unified and homogeneous
communist society? The effect
of this contradictory policy has
been more deleterious in the
case of the Jews than in that
of other nationalities within the
Soviet Union. It has revealed an
altogether anomalous position
in that a Russian Jew, acknowl-
AJCongress Attacked for 'Conspiracy'
as Gerald L. K. Smith Project Thwarted
NEW YORK — Gerald L. K.
Smith has accused the American
Jewish Congress of conspiracy in
stopping a federal grant for the
construction of a road leading to
his Christ-of-the-Ozarks statue and
Passion Play amphitheater, in
Eureka Springs, Ark. An AJCon-
gress spokesman denied the con-
spiracy charge but said the or-
ganization was otherwise "de-
lighted" to accept Smith's accusa-
tion, made to the Associated Press.
When reports of the pending
federal grant—$182,000—reached
AJCongress late last year, it pro-
tested to Transportation Secretary
John A. Volpe and Commerce
Secretary Maurice Stans, assert-
ing that it would be "monstrous"
for the federal government to
assist Smith's bigotry.
The Commerce Department
worldwide plot "to prevent Chris-
tian people from observing Christ's
last days on earth."
Smith's Passion Play is modeled
on the Oberammergau Passion
Play in Bavaria, West Germany,
which has been condemned as anti-
Semitic by Christians as well as
Jews and has been the subject of
AJCongress protests since 1958.
Have An Affair to Remember
edged as such in his passport,
lacks the territory and the
means of cultural self-expres-
sion available to his fellow cit-
izens."
The many issues that affect the
Russian Jew's position include the
request for emigration to Israel
as well as for. cultural and reli-
answered that no federal funds
had yet been spent and that
gious freedoms. Dr. Kochan makes
Congress' protest would receive
this important concluding observa-
"the most serious investigation
tion:
and consideration." Other organ-
Might the Soviet government
izations also pretested the grant.
not be better advised to offer op-
The decision to withho'l ap-
portunities for emigration to those
proval for constructicn of the
Jews so inclined? This would meet
road
was announced by Volpe
the needs of those Jews who are
June 21.
anxious to maintain their Jewish
On learning that the grant had
identity. The demand for an op-
portunity to maintain a Je,wish been held up idefinitely, Smith
differentiation in Russia would denounced the American Jewish
thus diminish and perhaps, in Congress and declared that his
time, completely disappear. Such attorney would give the Justice
a policy, already remote in itself, Department the names of "11 to
must also necessarily wait on the 16" persons who he said had par-
solution of the Middle Eastern ticipated in a "conspiracy of
organized Jews" against the road
question, in which the Soviet Union
project. He linked this with a
is so heavily engaged on behalf of
the Arab states. Yet it may well
appear a reasonable objective.
Failing such a turn of events,
there seems no likelihood but that
the vicious circle will continue to
encompass the inter-relationship
of Soviet Jewry and the Soviet
government."
MORI LITTLE
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11,000 Nurses Go
on Strike in Israel
TEL AVIV (JTA) — A strike of
11,000 nurses employed at all Is-
raeli hospitals began Sunday morn-
ing despite 11th hour attempts by
the government to avert it.
The strike shut down all but
emergency medical services and
threatened to destroy the wage-
price package deal painstakingly
worked out by the government
earlier this year to fight inflation.
The government claims that if
the nurses' wage demands are met,
the delicate economic balance be-
tween wages, prices and taxes
would collapse.
The nurses say their demands
are not outside the framework of
the package deal. They say they
are not demanding higher wages
but that the nature of their work
entitles them to be placed in a
higher wage category.
According to the government.
this would be the "first crack"
in the carefully maintained status
quo on wages. The government
proposed to establish a special
committee to "measure" the
volume of work performed by
nurses.
Premier Golda Meir added her
own weight with a fervent plea to
the nurses not to strike. But the
strike was declared nevertheless,
beginning at 7 a.m. local time Sun-
day.
Authorities said e mer gen c y
medical services were being con-
tinued, but many surgcal cases
were not treated because patients
in wards were not being prepared
for the operations.
Meanwhile, doctors worked over-
time trying to perform work usu-
ally done by the striking nurses. It
was stated that if the strike con-
tinued much longer it would cause
hardships which may result in
serious consequences.
Michigan State University at
East Lansing was the first land
grant college.
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS
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