Dr. Harry Shaffer's 'Soviet Treatment of Jews'

Scholar Foresees USSR Jew's Assimilation Into Non -Jewish Ranks

Dr. Harry G. Shaffer, pro-
fessor of economics and Sla-
vic and Soviet area studies at
the University of Kansas, has
compiled data on Russian
Jewry that includes the views
of protesters against Russian
persecutions as well as the
defensive statements by Com-
munist spokesmen. Both, with
"equal space" for the Rus-
sian views, are in his volume,
"The Soviet Treatment of
Jews," published by Praeger.
As a reference work, for
those seeking data about the
attitudes of Russian apolo-
gists for the suppression of
Jewish rights, this volume
serves an especially good
purpose.

tains not only the statements
of Jewish leaders and their
organizations and those who
have joined in condemning
the USSR tactics but also all
of the Soviet declarations de-
nying anti-Semitism and af-
firming that Jews have full
rights in the Soviet Union.
It is in Prof. Shaffer's sum-
mation that the current situa-
tion is provided with a de-
finitive status in explanations
that assert that while there
is no anti-Semitism as such,
officially, in the USSR, there
are discriminations to be
taken into serious account.
On the question of religion,
Dr. Shaffer explains the es-
tablished facts by stating:
Even at the outset, the
"Attacks on the Jewish re-
"prologue" introducing "a ligion may be partially ex-
wide diversity of views," con- plicable in terms of the offi-

cial Soviet policy of promot-formances are few and far
ing atheism. They may not between. But in the Soviet
be as vehement as those Union, the right to public ed-
launched against some other ucation in one's native tongue
religious groups . . . but there is guarantee, to all nationali-
appears to be evidence of dis- ties in the constitution and
criminatory treatment, es- the party program; other na-
pecially as compared with tionalities do have schools
the major religious denomi- and courses in their own lan-
nations."
guage while Soviet Jews do
With regard to 'curbs on not, and these other nationals
Jewish cultural activities, Dr. enjoy more cultural privi-
Shaffer points to discrimi- leges and command more re-
nations and responds to spect for their cultures than
claims that conditions similar their Jewish fellow citizens."
to Russia's exist in the U.S.
The discrimination against
and other countries. He Zionism •also is outlined as
points out in his reply to an indication of the existence
Russian accusations:
of anti-Jewish practices in
' "It is true that in the Unit- the USSR and the roles that
ed States there are no pub- were played by Stalin and his
licly-supported Yiddish-lan- cohorts. He explains how the
guage schools either, and Yid- situation improved under
dish-language theater per- Khrushchev and Brezhnev,
and he :develops the evolu-
tionary steps which led Jews,
out of their loyalty to reli-
gion and culture, to take a
deep interest in Zionism,
many seeking to emigrate;
and how the latter became
suspect under the Russian
local community resorted to scheme of things.
various means of communi-
Dr. Shaffer sees a mass
cation which were technically
assimilation
of Russian Jews.
illegal, since they infringed
the postal monopoly of the He describes the avenues
mandatory government. Bus- open to them, and involve-
es and taxis, hitherto licensed ments for the entire Jewish
only to carry parcels in addi- population in the USSR, and
tion to passengers, now ac- his conclusions on that score
cepted letters as well." It are significant. They are:
was not a 'reliable service
"In the final analysis, So-
and the emendations came
viet
Jews have three choices.
with statehood firmly estab-
lished after the defeat of the They can try to maintain
massed Arab troops from all their Jewish traditions and
surrounding nations. Interim
services also were estab-
lished at Safed, Nahariya
and other centers until in-
dependence created firm
government 'controls.

live as best they can a Jew-
ish life in the USSR; they
can attempt to leave the
country; or they can aband-
on their Jewish heritage and
in a sense their Jewish
identity as well in an en-
deavor to blend into Soviet
society. The first, to cling to
the Jewish cultural, ethnic,
and religious background and
try to raise children in the
Jewish tradition in the So-
viet Union, is likely to prove
increasingly frustrating; the
second, emigration, primarily
to Israel, is a path likely to
be chosen by many, assum-
ing that the situation in the
Middle East does not de-
teriorate appreciably and
that Soviet leadership con-
tinues to relax its emigra-
tion policies; but the third,
assimilation, can be expect-
ed to be the choice of the
majority of Soviet Jews. As
a matter of fact, the largest
part of Soviet Jewry, and es-
pecially of Jewish youth, is
apparently well on its way
toward rapid assimilation.
Intermarriage is very fre-
quent, increasingly large
numbers have renounced the
Jewish faith in favor of state-
endorsed atheism (in a re-
cent survey of different reli-
gions in Byelorussia, an in-
credible 98.5 per cent of
Jews said they were atheists
as compared with an aver-
age of 65.1 per cent of 10
other faiths), and the 1970
Soviet census showed an ac-

There were many emerg-
ing problems, such as a
fraud involving an attempt
to create an independent air
service, the so-called PATCO
— Palestine Air Transport
Company — attempt during
which a number of stamps
were issued. It fizzled.

himself with the Maccabees,
he nevertheless showed him-
self fearless in every encoun-
ter with the anti-Semites."
Prof. Brill had another im-
portant comment regarding
Freud's concerns when he
wrote:
"Long before the First
World War, Freud expressed
to me considerable concern.
about the future of the chil-
dren in Austria, and that
was at a time when Austria
was still a great nation and
seemed to offer many oppor-
tunities for young people.
When I expressed these last
(-views to him, he said pro-
phetically that everything
might look nice on the sur-
face, but the storm might
come at any time. He had in
Freud
at
82
Sigmund
mind the Jewish problem
fate of his people vividly be- which had haunted him
throughout his life, and
fore his eyes."
It is natural that Freud's struck him so hard tow
personal reactions to anti- the end of his days."
Semitism and his recollec-
In another essay, Dr. Brill
tions of a variety of experi- made the additional com-
ences should be recalled in ment: "The trials and tribula-
several of the essays. There tions which Freud had to en-
is this interesting note in dure as a Jew kept the fate
the essay by Stanley Edgar of his people vividly before
Hyman:
his eyes."
"What is remarkable about
Noted non-Jewish psychia-
this good Jewish bourgeois trists and psychological ex-
with his card games and his perts joined in evaluating
Bnai Brith, this ambitious Freud and in honoring him,
and erratic doctor with a hor- in the compendium in this
ror of blood, what distin- volume which will be valued
guishes him from the hun- as an outstanding work for
dreds we know just like him, bookshelves on psychiatry,
is the strength that came its history, its geniuses and
out of his weaknesses. If especially the founding father
Freud foolishly identified of the medical science.

Israel's Postal Service: Fascinating
History of State's Stamps Background

Israel's many progressive
and industrial attainments
provide fascination for the
researcher. Among the most
impressive is the rise of that
nation's postal system. It
needed stimulus from a vac-
uum. While it followed on
the heels of the vanishing
British mandatory activities,
the obstacles placed in the
path of the Jewish builders
of Zion by the British, and
the obstructions that ema-
nated from the Arabs who
were out to prevent Israel's
rebirth—just as they present-
ly seek Israel's destruction—
stood in the way of a normal
transformation. There was
need for determination, skill,
courage to establish a new
government system for mail-
ing and delivering letters
within the land and in estab-
lishing a foreign service.
Meir Persoff, a philatelist
and a journalist, is the pro-
ducer of a remarkably good
account about the Israel' post
office- and its background in
a book of great merit, "The
Running Stag: The Stamps
and Postal History of Israel,"
published by Robson Mowe
Ltd., 50 Pall Nall, London,
England.
Persoff is a genuine phila-
telist because he is also the
historian. He goes into detail
-- to describe how the new
country, Israel, had to adapt
to new conditions; how her
administrators were unable
to acquire the postal benefits
from her mandatory role in
the Middle East but refused
to grant to the successor,
Israel, even the minutest
benefits of an experience
vital to a nation's existence.
The result was that Israel
had to create from scratch,
to start out as a pioneer in
producing postage stamps, in
establishing transfer of let-
ters from city to city, from
country to country.
For a thorough apprecia-
tion of the collective efforts
that contributed to the emer-
gence of the Israel postal
system, it is necessary to
know the forerunners, the
Palestinian, the Turkish and
equally as much, the stamps

56 Friday, June 7, 1974

—

that were issued as symbols
of the Jewish National Fund.
While the latter were used in
fund - raising, they neverthe-
less were in effect as evi-
dences of the fast-developing
Jewish influences.
Insofar as the British as-
pects are concerned, they are
in part defined as follows by
the author of this interesting
book:
"Britain's postal legacy, a
relic from her mandate over
Palestine, comprised little
more than half a dozen well-
worn stamp designs, • unima-
ginative and dull. The new
state demanded new ideas—
a spirit of vitality, an image
of the future with a more
than fleeting recognition of
its epachal past."
The manner in which both
were accomplished is the
task undertaken and accom-
plished in the Persoff step-
by-step analysis of the devel-
oped system that is now one
of the most progressive in
the world, represented in the
highly acclaimed Israel post-
age stamps. _
Among the forerunners
traced by Persoff are the
postal services that were pro:-
videcl for Palestine's resi-
dents in the 1850s . through
the Austrian postal 'agency
and in the beginning of this
century by the German con-
sular post office, as well as
by the Italian post office.
Reproduced is a stamp is-
sued in 1853 by the French
consular post office to Sir
Moses Montefiore.
Under Britain's mandatory
government, the stamps used
appeared with Hebrew and
Arabic as well as the English
inscriptions. With the end of
British rule in Palestine
came a period of many dif-
ficulties. The War of Inde-
pendence, the Arab attacks
which obstructed the roads
between settlements, the in-
evitable interference with
media in general created dif-
ficulty in the prompt creation
of a postal system.
One.of the interim means of
delivering mail is described
in reference to Rishon le-
Zion: "As in Jerusalem the

"There is, then, no ram-
pant anti-Sem•tism in the So-
viet Union today, but neither
can one truly speak of com-
plete equality in all respects.
It has been shown that since
Jews are considered general-
ly poor security risks their
chances of being appointed
to high-level, sensitive
teal, positions are small
compared to other grou-
and Jews appear to be w
off than other ethnic mini—,
ties in regard to facilities
to express their culture and
live in the traditions of their
forefathers. But there ap-
pears to have been no de-
cline in opportunities open to
Soviet Jews to attain well-
paid positions of responsi-
bility and respect in the So-
viet economy; on the con-
trary, both in absolute and
relative terms they rank re-
markably high in -education
and economic status.
"Barring unforeseen cir-
cumstances and assuming no
material change in Soviet
policy, whatever discrimina-
tion remains is likely to di-
minish and gradually fade
away as more and more of
those Jews who do not wish
to surrender their Jewishness
depart while the rest become
increasingly assimilated into
non-Jewish Soviet society
and life."

Sigmund Freud's Deep Concern With Fate
of Jewry Related in New WSU Press Volume

The emergence of Photo-
gravure, the designs for
Gravure, form interesting
portions of the thorough de-
scriptions of the Israel postal
system and the hi st oric
stamps that had been devel-
oped as part of art and his-
tory.
The author, while descr_D-
ing the successes, does not
overlook the errors. He de-
scribes the famous philatelic
faux pas, when a stamp con-
taining a cross aroused con-
sternation and protests, with
the result that the stamp,
after millions had been sold,
was withdrawn.
The history of the Israeli
stamps reads like., a history
of the country itself — with
the accompanying experi-
ences dating back more than
a century. The reproduced
stamps, many in color, add
to an understanding of the
fascinating story and an ap-
preciation of the serious ef-
fort made by Meir Persoff to
define and elaborate upon an
interesting aspect of Israeli
statehood. The marked suc-
cess of the Persoff effort
results from his keen sense
of history and his research
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS abilities.

:

tual decline of the Jewish
population, due to a consider-
able extent to assimilation.

"Freud as We Knew Him,"
the Wayne State University
volume edited -by Dr. Hen-
drik M. Ruitenbeek, is an
anthology, and the authors
include many of the most
distinguished' writers of this
century.
Members of the Freud fam-
ily are among them. Thomas
Mann wrote about Sigmund
Freud's position in the his-
tory of modern culture. Stef-
an Zweig's "Portrait" is im-
pressive.
Sigmund Freud's son, Mar-
tin Freud, and his nephew,
Harry Freud, are represent-
ed in the array of notables
who recalled their
relation-
,
ships with the great man.
Some of the world's famous
psychoanalysts are partici-
pants in this collective task.

Freudian views on Jews,
Judaism and anti-Semitism
are interspersed in many of
the essays. An example: Jos-
eph Wortis, a New York psy-
choanalyst, recalled that, on
the question of anti-Semitism,
Freud agreed that "Jews
were forced into. closer rela-
tions to each other by pres-
sure from the outside," and
that in the free democratic
countries where Jews are
freely recognized "they are
all strongly patriotic."
Dr. Abraham Arden Brill
(1874-1948) who knew Freud
for 30 years, stated in his
essay: "The trials and tribu-
lations which Freud had to
endure as a Jew kept the