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December 25, 1970 - Image 40

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1970-12-25

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

40—Friday, December 25, 1970

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Boris Smolar's

'Between You
...and Me'

(Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA)
(Copyright 1970, JTA Inc.)

KHRUSHCHEV'S CONFESSIONS: Is there anti-Semitism today in
the Soviet Union? . . . Does the Soviet government now discourage
anti-Jewish feelings in the country; does she act against anti-Semitism?
Nikita IChrushchev, the deposed Soviet premier, answers startlingly
these and other pertinent questions concerning Jews in the USSR

in his book "Khrushchev Remembers" published this week by Little,
Brown and Company. He also gives an insight into the Kremlin's
policy with regard to Israel.
Khrushchev's book is one of half-truths. He tells all about Stalin's
brutal anti-Semitism, but not the full truth about himself. He attempts
to pose as a friend of _Soviet Jewry, but conveniently forgets a few
things. He avoids mentioning the role he personally played in en-
couraging the nationalistic feelings of the Ukrainians against Jews
when he was the "big boss" in the Ukraine as head of the Communist
Party there. He ignores the fact that it was he who did not permit
the erection of a monument at Babi Yar for the tens of thousands of
Kiev Jews who were mowed down in the ravine there by the Nazis
when they entered Kiev; and that even later, when he was the ruler
in the Kremlin, he still maintained this policy of not permitting the
putting up of monuments on mass graves of Jewish victims of the
Nazi occupation forces.
Khrushchev also avoids mentioning the anti-Jewish sentiments he
expressed when asked about discrimination against Jews in the Soviet
Union by foreign statesmen and even by Communist Party delegations
from Canada and France who wanted to know the truth about the
treatment of Soviet Jewry. He does not relate that during his visit
to Poland as premier of the Soviet Union, he bluntly told the head of
the Polish government. Wladyslaw Gomulka, that "there are too many
Abramoviches" holding posts in the Polish government system.
However, the deposed Soviet Premier deals at great length with
Stalin's anti-Semitic feelings and actions. He reveals many facts show-
ing Stalin's hatred of Jews. He emphasizes that while Stalin was
careful not to appear in his writings or public expressions as an
anti-Semite, he unreservedly displayed his dislike for the Jews when
talking in the Kremlin to the men around him.
From a Jewish pointe of view, the most confessing statement by
Khrushchev in his book is where he writes: "After Stalin came to
power, instead of setting an example of how to liquidate anti-Semitism
at its roots, he helped spread it. Anti-Semitism grew like a growth

Mayen David Adom's Valuable Services
Are Related on Its 40th Anniversary

By ELIAHU SALPETER

(Copyright Ig7e. JTA, Inc.)

It was a landmark occasion for
Magen David Adorn, the Israeli
equivalent of the Red Cross, now
celebrating its 40th year of
existence in this country, when it
received its first helicopter-ambu-
lance. It was a gift, as are the
more than 300 conentional four-
wheel ambulances providing emer-
gency transport for the sick and
wounded throughout the country.
When there is a bad traffic acci-
dent or when somebody has a heart
stack, the first thing one hears
is the call "Phone the Magen
David Adorn, quick!" Next thing,
however, people often realize—as
they wait and wait for the ambu-
lance or even after it arrives—
that the Magen David Adorn does
not quite manage to cope with the
expanding demands thrust upon it.
The scope of activities of the
organization — a voluntary outfit,
many of whose 4,000 doctors,
nurses and drivers (particularly
in small communities) contribute
their services free of charge — is
broad, indeed. First-aid stations
in any of its 63 branches provide
help in disasters small and large;
from treating ankles sprained at a
boy scout soccer match to saving
lives of fire or flood victims. The
Red Magen David ambulance or
first-aid tent is a familiar sight
at parades, mass meetings, folk
festivals or any other events.

Most familiar to the public, of
course, are the ambulances—which
are both the most important and
sometimes the most controversial
services provided by the organiza-
tion. Complaints or not, Magen
David Adorn ambulances are the
standard transportation to hospitals
- in all new-immigrant settlements,
particularly of expectant mothers
rushed to the nearest maternity
ward. Sometimes, the call comes a
inside Stalin's own brains. After Stalin's death, we arrested the little late, and the new Israeli is
spread a bit, but cnly arrested it. Unfortunately, the germs of anti- born on wheels. In Jerusalem re-
Semitism remained in our system, and apparently there still isn't cently, one of the ambulance drivers
celebrated the delivery of the
the necessary discouragement of it and resistance to it."
hundreth baby born in the car.

ANTI-JEWISH REVELATIONS: Khrushchev's book includes a full
All in all, last year 160,000 calls
chapter on Stalin's anti-Semitism with many details never known
answered by Magen David
before. He relates that the venerated Jewish actor Mikhoels, who was were
Adam
ambulances traveling a total
the head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committse, was not killed when
of
over
5,000,000 kilometers. Thai
he fell in front of a truck — as reported — but was actually thrown
means
that 5 per cent of all Is-
out of the truck at Stalin's instructions. Mikhoels, he claims, had
raelis benefit directly from this
been killed secretly "like a beast" and his murderers were rewarded.
service each year.
Khrushchev also reveals that when he became the head of the
The organization also holds first
government,. after Stalin's death, he extracted from the archives of aid courses for volunteers as weh

the Soviet Ministry of State Security information that the Soviet secret
political police had also planned to murder Maxim Litvinov, Soviet
foreign minister for many years and eliminated from this post by
Stalin shortly before the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, because he was a
Jew. Litvinov was, according to discovered documents, to have been
ambushed and killed on the road while he was traveling from Moscow
to his summer place on the outskirts of the city. For some reason
the assassination was not carried out, and Litvinov died later from

natural causes.
Khrushchev also relates how Stalin ordered him to organise a
pogrom on Jewish workers in an aviation factory in Moscow by the
non-Jewish workers of that factory at the end of the working day
when trouble had developed in that factory. The order was given to
him by Stalin in the presence of Molotov, Beria and Malenkov. Khrush-

chev says he did not carry out the order, not only because he con-
sidered it a disgrace, but also because he was afraid that it might

Soviet Republic within the Soviet
Union. The entire Tartar popula-
tion was at that time deported from
the Crimea because of collabora-
tion with the Nazis during the oc-
cupation. Stalin, according to
Khrushchev, saw behind this pro-
posal "the hand of American Zion-
ists." He declared that the Com-
mittee members wet e trying "to
set up a Jewish state in Crimea in
order to wrest the Crimea away
from the Soviet Union and to estab-
lish an outpost of American im-
perialism on our shores." The
result was that all who were in-
volved in the activities of the Jew.
ish Anti-Fascist Committee — in-
cluding high-standing members of
the Communist Party—were either
executed or deported to camps in
remote parts of Siberia. Included
among the latter was also Molo-
tov's wife, who was Jewish.
He also goes into great length
about the notorious "Doctors' Plot,"
the trial of which was planned by
Stalin as an excuse for mass-
deportation of Jews from the Euro-
pean part of the Soviet Union to
Siberia. Fortunately, the trial
never took place because of Stalin's
sudden death. The accused physi-
cians were freed and exonerated.
Khrushchev devotes also a chap-
ter to the Arab-Israel conflict. He

later boomerang against him.
"Even though Stalin had given me a direct order," Khrushchev
writes, "I knew that if something like what be suggested were done,
and if it were to become public knowledge, a commission would no
doubt be appointed and the culprits would be severely punished.
Stalin would have stopped at nothing to punish anti-Semitism publicly.
Orders or no orders, he would have strangled anyone whose actions
would have discredited his name, especially with something as in-
defensible and shameful as anti-Semitism."
Khrushchev describes how Stalin had, in his presence, indicated
his anti-Jewish feelings to two top Soviet leaders in the Ukraine who
were themselves far from being friendly to Jews, thus encouraging
them to start intensified anti-Jewish propaganda in the Ukraine. When
Stalin spoke to Kremlin leaders about Jews, Khrushchev relates, he
often imitated the exaggerated,accent the way Jews talk, in the same
way people who despise Jews talk when they mock the negative
Jewish traits.
LOVE FOR NASSER: Of great interest is the part of Khrushchev'a
book in which he tells of Stalin's order to liquidate the Jewish Anti-
Fascist Committee, which culminated in the mass-arrest and the
mass-killing of several hundred Jewish writers and intellectuals who
were active in this committee.
shows a lot of ignorance but dis-
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee had been formed when the plays great love for Nasser and

Nazis declared war against the Soviet Union. Its aim was to strengthen
Jewish sympathy the world over — especially in the United States —
toward Russia in fighting the Nazis as a common enemy. The Soviet
government, including Khrushchev, considered the work of the Jewish
Anti-Fascist Committee "indispensable" to the interests of the Soviet
Union, Khrushchev says.
After the defeat of the German armies at Stalingrad, and their
retreat from the Ukraine, members of the Committee addressed a
memorandum to Stalin suggesting that the Crimea be made a Jewish

the Egyptians. He feels quite un-
comfortable with the fact that in
the Six-Day War, Egypt was so
badly defeated by the "Israeli ag-
gressors," but claims that his pol-
icy with regard to Egypt, when he
was premier of the Soviet Union,
"has already borne fruit for the
Soviet people."

as lectures in schools and factories. driver. Not only is he not qualified

But its greatest pride, so say its
officials, is the blood bank, which
now supplies 70 per cent of all
plasma used In transfusions in this
country. During the nerve-wrack-
ing days of the Egyptian buildup
before the Six-Day War, a large
part of the ambulance corps was
parked in public squares collecting
blood for emergency wards and
for the army. Long, long lines
of donors were in front of each
collection station. The blood bank
is actually organized as a kind of
"mutual loan society." Each donor
is given a "credit," and he or his
family is entitled, within 12 months
from the donation, to any plasma
needed. Others, except needy
cases, have to pay a standard fee.
Payment for services provided
is part of the income paying the
budgets of the organization. Con-
tributions, membership dues and
income from annual raffles, pro-
vide most of the rest. Except for
the national services, each branch
has its separate budget, most of
which must be covered locally.
Municipalities provide up to one
third of the local budgets.

As the Israeli correspondent of
the International Red Cross, Magen
David Adam acts in Israel and on
her behalf in all humanitarian mat-
ters such as mail and parcels to war
prisoners, exchange of civilians
stranded on the other side of the
cease-fire lines, efforts to arrange
exchanges of wounded prisoners,
international disaster aid, etc.

It is, however, tasks that are
not common for Red Cross orga-
nizations in advanced countries—
like being the main source for
ambulances to transport emer-
gency cases to hospitals—that tax
most heavily Magen David Adom's
strained budgets and also mar its
favorable image in the public eye.
The most frequent complaint is
that it takes too long for the am-
bulance to arrive, when each min-
ute may be vital. Regulations that
require (but fortunately are not
always observed) that the call for
an ambulance be made by a doctor,
contribute to the delays. It is
particularly absurd in a country
which has an abundance of doctors
in the cities but who are unwilling
to make house calls after hours.
Another frequent complaint is that
the only first aid personnel arriv-
ing with an ambulance is the

to provide medical help, but he
is simply unable to move the pa-
tient to the car without the help
of neighbors, who of course are
not always available and very
seldom trained in the proper way
of moving sick or wounded.
In part, this is of course a ques-
tion of budgets, which are always
strained. But people now begin to
ask whether it makes sense at all
to demand all these community
services from a voluntary organi-
zation which in fact depends pri-
marily on charity to finance its
vital functions.

JDL Harassment

of Federation Must
End, Court Orders

NEW YORK .(JTA)—The Jew-
ish Defense League is under a
state Supreme Court order against
harassing the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies, a recent target of
actions by the JDL.
An injunction issued Friday by
Justice Edward Greenfield de-
clared that the JDL "had no
right to interfere with the home
lives or private businesses of of-
ficers and trustees" of the feder-
ation.
The justice accepted the basic
contention of the federation that
the JDL had illegally disrupted
several federation fund-raising ac-
tivities and picketed private busi-
nesses of federation officials.
The specifics of Justice Green-
field's order will be -spelled out
later in legal papers scheduled to
be submitted to him by the JDL
and the federation.

The jurist declared, in his
ruling, that there were indica-
tions that the JDL had "trans-
cended the bounds of permiss-
ible conduct and threatens to do
so in the future." He said that
the court "cannot be drawn . into
the controversy as to what is a
proper purpose for Jewish phil-
anthropy."
Justice Greenfield also held that

"the right to disagree freely does
not encompass the right to impose
one's will on others through illegal
coercion or disruption."

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