Purely Commentary
The Jewish Apologists for USSR BIM
Facts in Their Muddling of Issues
You no longer get shocked by what comes out of the apologetics
mills of the Soviet Embassy, the Soviet government, its Novosti News
Agency and the court Jews who carry the bluff out of fear for their
own hides.
The best example of nonsense emanating from Novosti is the article
that has just been released, signed by Ruvim Groyer, which com-
mences with this sentence: "Zionism, professing to be concerned with
the 'Jewish question,' is actually trying to discredit the socialist system
and is spreading all sorts of fabrications about the 'position of Jews' in
the Soviet Union and other socialist countries."
In all the counter-propaganda against Soviet discrimination there
has never been any intention of conducting an anti-socialist campaign.
That "Jewish question" issue used in quotation marks by the Jewish
tool of the Soviet bluff merely relates, insofar as the appeal for the
justice for'Russian Jewry is concerned, to the suppression of Jewish
rights by the Kremlin. -
Also, a Novosti feature signed by Semyon Rabinovich, another
Jewish apologist for the Soviet tactics, talks about the successes of
11 Jewish artists and writers in Russia and introduces its subject with
this paragraph:
" 'We do not want to let go of the 'banner common to all man
kind.' These words were pronounced by the popular Yiddish writer, -
Isaac Loeb Peretz (1851-1915), who maintained that the culture of
his people should not confine itself to narrow national bonds and
that it must not be overgrown, to use his own words, with jingoish
wormwood: In Soviet society Jewish culture is inseverable from the
culture of all other Soviet peoples."
Russia's concern about the protests is evident in every release
that comes from the Soviet sources. That should have inspired a
desire to abandon bias, to grant Jews the right to study Hebrew and
to resort to theological inspirations if they so choose, to go to Israel
if they wish. But every Jewish medium of expression has been thwarted
and yet the Russians resort to Peretz as proof that what is desired is
culture "common to all mankind." Naturally! That's what Jews were
fighting for under the Czars. But now there is a new type of Czarism
1 that suppresses the Jewish aspects which were thriving in the Pale
of Settlement.
The Soviet's defenders keep showing that Jews are dominating
in the professions out of their proportion in the population, yet they
do not respond to proof that there is a new anti-Semitism in the schools,
there are few Jews left in the Russian government. When a Jew re-
turned the medals he had won in the World War out of protest
against discriminations, he was sent to an insane asylum. True: he was
released, he was granted a visa to go to Israel. But that occurred after
an upsurge of defiance of Russian bias against Jews.
There are Communists in many lands who disapprove of what
Russia is doing. The prejudices have met with resentment in socialist
ranks. But it is so easy to say that Zionism fights socialism! Just as
it is considered proper by the USSR to call Zionism its enemy, since
officially the Kremlin must stick to the claim that anti-Semitism is
outlawed in the Soviet Union. Why speak of ant-Semitism when use
of the euphemism Zionism serves its purpose?
It's a pity: there could be friendship between East and West,
Jews and Russians, Israel and the USSR. But there is an inherited
hatred for Jews, without rhyme or reason, and the Jewish court Jew
ing so easily to distortion of fact.
Perhaps the Lyuba Bershadskaya expose of anti-Semitism in Rus-
Rus-
sia, published in the New York Times 'Magazine Section, and the reveal-
ing statements by other emigres from Russia, will serve to disillusion
those who are misled by false propaganda.
1
I
The Birobidjan Scheme and Its Aftermath
But it is not all that simple. The Soviet information bureaus now
are flooding the market with news about Birdbidjan, claiming great
progress, as if there actually had been established a homeland for
Jews. If such a homeland is needful for Soviet citizens, doesn't that in
itself prove the insecurity for such citizens elsewhere? We have just
resurrected the text of a speech that was delivered on March 2, 1953,
by George Weller, before the Detroit Economic Club. Eighteen years
ago Weller, correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, revealed the
commencement of an anti-Zionist policy in Russia. He then indicated
that it was anti-Semitic—and he emphasized that Russian Jews resented
the introduction of a Birobidjan plan for Jews. Today it is claimed
that there are some 15,000 Jews there out of a total population of more
than 70,000, but the name Jewish Autonomous Region still is applied
to the territory—farcically. True, there is a Yiddish newspaper in
Birobidjan, the Birobidjaner Shtern. It is not an unimpressive news-
paper, published three times a week. But these factors do not create
a state, and the anti-Zionist competition thus established does not
negate the anti-Semitic.
There is nothing surprising about Jews gathering to defend the
Soviets. The meeting held last week by 60 Russian Jews who were said
to represent 60 congregations, their purpose having been to condemn
Zionism and to accuse those seeking to leave the USSR as being
induced to do so by Israel, merely confirmed the accusations against
the Kremlin. It became necessary for the USSR rulers to seek defense
for atrocious acts against the Jewish citizens, and those who had the
courage to speak let themselves be heard again. While the 60 defenders
were delivering speeches in the synagogue of Moscow, another group
of Jews was protesting the injustices. Seventeen Jews added their
requests to those of many, others for permission to go to Israel and 46
others signed a petition endorsing the request of these 17 who were
acting in behalf of an ideal while the apologists were appealing.
Among those who asked for the right to emigrate were young people.
The sentiments of many in Russia are a matter of record and are
undeniable, no matter how many emerge to defend the government.
In view of newly developing situations and the threats that con-
front Russian Jews, there is the prediction of a new move to press
for Jewish settlement in Birobidjan. A study of the question made by
the American Jewish Committee contends that:
"It is unlikely that large-scale emigration to Birobidjan would
now take place, even if "the Jewish question" will be explored at
the next party congress. Given the history of the region, few Jews
would volunteer to settle there, and those who seek emigration to
Israel clearly reject any substitute "Soviet Zionism." In any event,
Jews could no longer be certain that within a short period of time
they, too, would not be accused of espionage—perhaps this time
for China. Furthermore, since the border with the Chinese must be
defended, it is doubtful that Soviet authorities would place Jews
in this strategic area. With the present mood of dissent among young
2—Friday, April 9, 1971 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Passover Traditions Imbedded in Age-Old
Hagada . Russian Apologists, the F-acts
That Are Overlooked in Struggle With USSR
By Philip
Slornovitz
Hagada as Story and Constantly Implemented Wstory
In hundreds of thousands of Jewish homes everywhere, an ancient Hagada will be recited
tonight. A special place has been reserved for youth to ask questions and the elders will be
expected to provide answers.
Much if not most of the reading will be in the traditional. Hebrew, and for the benefit of
those who either do not understand the ancient tongue that has been modernized by the re-
birth of Israel or who can not read it, there will be English readings.
It won't be entirely an ancient document. As in the provisions we made last week, there
will be special readings for Russian Jewry. There will be the remembrance ritual for those
who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
In the social collective settlements in Israel it was traditional to introduce extra recita-
tions acclaiming the coming of a day when all men will be free, everywhere, when there will
be an end to speculative trends that oppress people. Such trends were part of the impas-
sioned hopes of an idealistic people to see an end to economic slavery as well as to the
tyranies that have subjected peoples to enslavement.
indeed, there remain the tendencies among our people to strive for that universal freedom
which spells Passover in our traditions.
Yes, as we prepare for the seder, as we continue to urge remembering the martyrs and
striving for the liberation of those who suffer from new oppressions, we plead for the tradi-
tional values.
Of course, every manifestation of humanism is to our credit. Every new prayer for the
underprivileged is an adherence to our basic ideals as Jews.
Nevertheless, we hold fast to the view that adherence to the needs of the present is rooted
in the teachings of the past. The Hagada of old remains our guide to freedom and the love for
liberty: And our affirmation of faith in a sacred heritage must be rooted in the history that is
recounted in the seder formula.
Many of us will be cutting and reducing the readings. Some will omit. portions while
adding new ones. But if there is to be a Passover linked to the past, based on the historic
lessons of the great Festival of Freedom, there must remain that tradition which makes the
Hagada the link of generations and communities.
What we read in Detroit will be read in Moscow and in Teheran and in London and in
Paris and in Berlin'.
That's a unity that must be retained, and for that purpose we feel strongly in favor of
the traditional. It is the established Hagada that must predominate. Anything that denudes and
deflates and reduces the old values must not be tolerated.
This is far from chauvinism. It is a plea for retention of those practices which made us
an am ehad, one people, with American Jews joining hands with those of Russia and Israel
and the entire Diaspora emerging in unity as a hopeful folk striving for the sense of libertar-
ianism that asserts rejection of slavery in those terms which glorified our history.
May all the sedorim, tonight and tomorrow night, in Israel and the Diaspora, be marked
by the hemshekh—the continuity—that has contributed toward the indestructibiliy of Israel.
Jews, the government would not rest easy with such an arrange-
its protagonists in high places in
ment. Thus, there are strong doubts about any move to "encourage"
government. We must unceas-
Jewish emigration.
ingly engage in educational pro-
"What may be revived, if rumors about Birobidjan are to be
grams and political effort which
taken seriously, is an artificial concept to represent a Jewish cul-
will keep our country from re-
tural alternate, useful for internal and external propaganda, but
peating the costly errors of the
without substance. Soviet Jews will not buy it. Will other Soviet
recent past.
citizens? Will the rest of the world?"
We, the Jews of America, must
Russia as the new Amalek is the most serious threat to Jewry.
intensify
our assistance to Is-
Upon the end of Czarist rule it was hoped that a new era of justice
would commence in Russia. , There was no reason for the renewal of rael. Our normal and perfectly
Czarist anti-Semitism by a regime in which Jews originally played proper interest in the- new state
an important role. There were many among the early Jewish Com-
and the society it is building,
munist rulers who may have been responsible for the negation of
must
now be reenforced by the
whatever cultural rights existed for Jews, just as the 60 apologists
knowledge
that the severance of
for the Kremlin had just spoken out against their fellow Jews in the
Moscow synagogue. It is not to be forgotten that as against the 369 diplomatic relations by the So-
Jewish periodicals that were published in Russia 55 years ago, only viets, makes of Israel a crucial
the Sovietish Heimland and the Birobidjaner Shtern survive today. Yet, battlefront in the global struggle:
for a small nationality group of some 250,000 like the Yakuts,
there are 27 newspapers, besides other periodicals. The anti-Jewish" Its preservation and growth are-
discrimination is so flagrant under communism that no apologetics the best answers to Russia, its
satellites and fellow travelers,
will erase the wrongs.
= - that the purposes it seeks,
*
- through its assaults on ;Jews;
There Never Was Total Silence
There have been accusations that Jews outside Russia have been will not be achieved. We' have
silent on the question of USSR discriminations. That's not totally true. been generous in the past. -We
Perhaps the protests have not been as emphatic as they should have must rise to. new heights now.
Israel's growth will reveal to the
been. But proper voices were heard from time to time.
Arabs the strength of democracy
An important pamphlet published 18 years ago deserves atten-
and the hopelessness of their de-
tion. It is entitled "Yet Again . . . Reflections on the Recent Soviet sire to destroy the state which
Attacks on the. Jew." It was the text of a sermon by the late Rabbi
is democracy's frontier in the
Morris Adler, at Cong. Shaarey Zedek, Feb. '21, 1953. It was as if the Middle East.
events of today were anticipated 18 years ago. It was the same story—
No world-program will bring
of Russia flirting with the Arabs in a campaign that was marked by
peace to a harassed mankind,
temporary breaking of USSR relations with Israel, of threats to Israel's
which demands the surrender of
security, of a new war that was launched by the Kremlin upon Jewry.
Jewish group-life and traditions.
Rabbi Adler said at that time:
It is when the Jew is free to be
We must organize sensitive and liberal Americans to the danger
Jewish, that mankind is free to
of permitting a resurrection of the old, tragic, futile policy of
be. human. Out of our faith we
appeasement. Freedom will not come to the world by way of Munich.
shall draw inspiration and cour-
We recognized that when we took our stand in Korea. If one of the
age in these fateful days. We
motives of the Soviets in its present attack on Jews, is to win the
shall not despair or become dis-
support of the Arabs, there will be "practical" men in the State
organized. We have seen domin-
Department and elsewhere who, in the name of realism, will propose
ions of evil End terror rise be-,
the winning of the Arabs to our side by concession, aid and grant.
fore. Esaus of the past have fre-
They will be ready to sacrifice Israel, that brave outpost of democ-
quently sought to destroy Jacob.
racy, for the unreliable favor of the Arab nations. We will be pre-
They have failed for God has
pared to pay a higher bribe and emulating the Soviets, we will
implanted eternity within us. A
abandon the Jews of Israel, in favor of nations that have never
rabbinic parable compares the
evidenced any true interest in freedom. We will be saying, through
Jew to a precious jewel which is
such a policy, to all the uncertain and uncommitted people, "Flirt
being tested under a hammer.
with Russia and the wealthy West will raise its ante of support
The hammer broke, the anvil
to you." We will be saying to the Middle East, "We do not really
collapsed but the jewel, with-
care for democracy, see how quickly we forsook Israel. We need
standing the blows, remained un-
allies to -win the war, which is really a war of our awn particular
crushed.
kind of American imperialism as against Russian imperialism." We
will be saying to Russia, "You have hit upon an effective device to
What a powerful bit of evidence
diVide us. You would be foolish not to utilize it further. We will to disprove the charge that Jews
turn our backs on those upon whose support we can count and bribe
were silent! And how effective
those groups and peoples whose interest in democracy has to be this is to indicate to those who
purchased. You can throw into the mills of propaganda the new
have suddenly become adherents
grist we will be providing. You will be able to point out that our of 'Meyer Kahane's JDL that long
choicest favors we reserve for the feudal states of the Middle East,
before the Brooklyn rabbi emerged
the reactionaries of Germany, the hate-ridden enemies of liberty
on the scene with extremism there
everywhere."
were many among us who were
There are distressing signs that such "realism" is not without
never silent!