2 Friday, May 18, 1919 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Would That Time Could Speed a Solution to the Horrors Confronting Iran Jews, as History Repeats Itself ... Communist Roguery in Novosti Human Rights Abomination By Philip Slomovitz Iran Jewry: History Repeats Itself in 'Too Little, Too Late' Realization of Nearing Terror Whoever ridicules the contention that "history repeats itself' finds the dictum fulfilled in the Jewish experience in Iran. Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, German and other Jewries had been warned of impending crises in the years preceding the terrors that befell them. They trusted to luck and said they had faith the governments under which they lived would overcome dangers from the threatening mobs. They lost. Iranian Jews were warned. Many could have been rescued. Their children might have had the security they now crave for. They had faith. Many even clung to faith in Novosti's Role as Perpetrator of Political, Social Chicanery Human rights are not an issue to be used as a football and to permit villainy to distort reality. This is what official Communist propaganda apparently aims at. While increasing the number of visas issued to dissi- dents for emigration, vicious references to those desiring to leave the Soviet Union mark the "news release" accredited to Novosti News Agency, the officially endorsed press serv- ice of the USSR, under the title "A White Paper on Human Rights." It quotes what it calls a "white paper" issued by the Soviet Lawyers Association, claiming to contain tes- timonies and facts about the fate of people who have left the Soviet Union to live in the West. Here is the contention: "This mass of evidence shows that, for these former Soviet citizens, Western freedoms have turned out to be unemployment, social inequality, humiliation and family tragedies." It is useless to attempt to counteract such an effort to confuse the minds of the Russian people about the actual state of affairs related to the emigration processes. Novosti undoubtedly seeks a platform for the distortion of the ac- tual facts. Yet one must sit in amazement at reading such tripe. The United States has allocated sizable sums to assist emigres from Russia, to provide for their housing and the education of their children, to assure protection of their health, to encourage them in choice of jobs. But for Novosti there is only darkness on the road of those who ask the right to leave the land of oppression! The Soviet agents probably know, with tongue in cheek as they pen their propaganda, that they can't fool everybody. They apparently know that there is no mislead- ing the West on the truth, but hope that the Russians can be led to believe that emigration, and therefore human rights, are the aims of dissidents, protesters against the Soviet Union, who are building up an espionage system. The political and social chicanery imbedded in the latest Soviet actions are an amusing -portrayal of the art of propaganda which could be viewed as addressed mainly for home consumption. But the roguery is so apparent that the source needs to be exposed. The Novosti "news" release credits the permeators of the latest villainy as follows: The president of the Soviet Lawyers Associa- tion, Lev Smirnov, who holds the post of president of the USSR Supreme Court, headed the editorial board of highly-qualified specialists who col- lected in the "white paper" the testimonies of more than 1,000 people, plus more than 100 docu- ments and photographs. The irrefutable facts in the book expose the hypocritical nature of the campaign which the Carter Administration is conducting under the slogan of human rights de- fense. "The rights of a citizen are the rights to exist- ence worthy of human dignity," Lev Smirnov em- phasized in an interview with a Novosti Press Agency commentator. "The right to work, the right to maintenance in old age, in case of sickness and in the event of complete or partial disability or loss of the breadwinner, the right to housing, the right to education, the right to enjoy cultural benefits — this is the set of human rights effecting the very foundation of people's lives. All these rights are ensured in the Soviet Union."' This is how Soviet roguery is treated: the perpetrators of lies are given a platform, as in this instance, and it is in order that the sources of the evils stemming from Russian Communism should be known. The Novosti release makes much of the new Russian settlers in Israel. Of course, Israel persecutes them. Of course, there is racism there. Of course, Israel holds them as captives. This is the Russian Communist way of trying to save face for the protests expressed in the USSR against the indecencies and oppressions of the Communist regime. Meanwhile, Russian Jews are free to settle wherever they choose and those who come to Israel or the United States or Canada or Australia kiss the ground that gives them haven. What about the Russians who bring reports of racism in Israel and oppressive persecutions in the U.S.? There have been, admittedly, and they have been quoted, a hand- ful of Russian Jews who expressed dissatisfaction with the new homes provided for them after they asked for visas to Khomeini. Who is to judge them? How would those who are now in the position of judges react if they were in the position of the Iranian Jews? There is only one subject on the agenda: how can the endangered be rescued? Israel offers help. If necessary, all Iranian Jews would be welcomed to the Jewish state. Could they retain even a portion of their possessions? They can't take their properties with them, but they can take their children. Perhaps they won't even concede to emigration opportunities. Perhaps they are waiting for the miracle of tolerance permitting them to remain under a Khomeini edict. The tragedy is at hand. Would that time could speed a solution. leave the land that "branded" them as "Jews" on passposts and identity cards. But they were so few that only their Russian propaganda registered their voices. Granted, 1,000 defected from the ranks of the emigres, that 100 statements are the basis for the Novosti and the Soviet Lawyers Association. If true, what is this number contrasted with 150,000 or more who have left Russia in the last few years to bless their rescuers in Israel and elsewhere? There is no debating with moral knavery and political chicanery. Novosti policies are not a secret to anyone who • has an understanding of truth in news. How can misrep- resentations be avoided? They really have no effect on any one, certainly not on the tens of thousands of Russian dissi- dents, most of them Jews, who wish to remain Jews in freedom but refuse to be "branded" by oppressors; and the many Christians who refuse to buckle under the whips of Communism While the Novosti spokesmen attack the human rights ideals promulgated by President Carter, they remain tools of a USSR effort to gain U.S. Most Favored Nation status and for that purpose yield to demands for visas to emi- grants. Perhaps there is new treachery in the offing, in the USSR quest for MFN status. That remains to be seen and judged. Internationally, in the human spirit, as a matter of right, people, regardless of origin, have the freedom to choose where they are to live. The Soviet spokesmen may not challenge this established United Nations principle, but they certainly abuse those who welcome new emigrants and are intolerant to those seeking visas for emigration. This, contrary to the untruths circulated by USSR spokesmen, is not the Israel rule. No matter what the cost of settling newcomers from Russia, those who are unhappy can leave if they wish; just as those who remain, as in the U.S., are provided with every opportunity for a good educa- tion, protected health, adequate housing, good jobs. It is the lie from the Kremlin via Novosti that makes the best human relations between the Soviet leaders and the world at large so difficult. It is not easy to believe that their actions would be approved by those over who they dominate if the Russian citizens understood the tactics of the dic- tators. The - Statute of Limitations: U.S. Congress and German Assertion A positive step taken by the U.S. House of Representa- tives, adding a powerful plea for abandonment of the Ger- man Statute of Limitations for the prosecution of Nazi criminals, adds invaluably towards the correction of an existing law which would end the punishments for the most vicious crimes in history. Now there also are being heard voices in West Ger- many and there is hope that the statute will be amended so that it does not go into effect by the end of this year. A most effective declaration on the subject appears in the German Tribune, a West German weekly newspaper published in Hamburg. Reprinting in English translation an article by Peter Bender which appeared in the German Vorwearts Feb. 15, the article declares, in the comments on the Statute of Limitations: A change of heart would not be a matter of opportunism. It would, perhaps, result from a realization that times have changed in West Ger- many. A single TV blockbuster cannot change a coun- try but it may give the last nudge to a change that was already in the offing, and that is what seems to have happened. Had Holocaust been screened 15 years ago on West German TV it would, of course, have created a stir but it might not have upset the entire view- ing public to the extent it did a few weeks ago. Fifteen years ago, we can but conclude, people in West Germany were just not ready for the Holocaust message. The German ability to conveniently forget about the past is a much-lamented fact. In retros- pect it is probably only natural, for most people, that is. Everyone needs time to come to terms with seri- ous damage, and a nation's traumatic experiences survive in the collective memory longer than might be imagined. This is no excuse, but it does help to explain the phenomenon. The ability to mourn would appear; always to be the exception, not the rule, just as heroes and martyrs are exceptional. A new generation and the passage of time have enabled the country to look its past straight in the face, or so it seems, and if this is true, the time has come to look at more of the past eyeball-to- eyeball. Members of the Bundestag must surely be able to count on public understanding and support for now changing their minds in relation to what they went on record as advocating 10 or 15 years ago. In the meantime something else has changed too: our relations with other countries. West Ger- many has grown much more powerful, with the result that neighbors are keeping an even closer eye on us. The other side of the coin is more satisfactory. We are now in a better position to take this anxiety into account because we are more powerful and self-assured. We no longer need submit to outside pressure. From inner conviction we can reach the same conclusion as our neighbors: that the unique na- ture of Nazi crimes calls for a unique gesture. Time is of the essence. Action on the existing statute must be taken very soon and a decision may be reached by next month. Therefore, the viewpoint of a German writer is impor- tant, and the action taken by the U.S. House of Representa- tives is significant. Those who act in the matter now are rendering an important service as an assurance of an urgency not to silence the crimes. `Biz H undert un Zwanzig: Sholem Aleichem Anniversary When Sholem Aleichem died 63 years ago, an interest- ing practice was established in adherence to his will. His friends and admirers were to get together on the anniver- sary of his death to read from his humorous stories. At the YIVO headquarters in New York, the 120th anniversary of the great humorist's birth was marked. Sholem Aleichem is a name per- . petuated in literary history and is a reminder of creativity in Yiddish. Now his stories lend equal effect upon readers in the many languages into which he was translated. While the very mention of his name recalls the repartee in a conversation he had with Mark Twain in 1912, when he arrived in this country, his humor, stemming from the Shtetl, has a universal tone. It was when Mark Twain complimented the Yid- dish writer by saying he was the SHOLEM "American Sholem Aleichem," the ALEICHEM Yiddish humorist-satirist responded with "I am the Yiddish Mark Twain." For • Yiddishists, the 120th anniversary of SholPm Aleichem's birth could be an occasion for revivalism. not fulfill the wishes of Shalom Rabinovitz, who beca.— famous under the pen name Sholem Aleichem, by gather- ing to read his stories — in Yiddish? Sholem Aleichem asked for it and he would have loved it even more than the knowledge that "Fiddler on the Roof' gave his name the distinction of having a play based on a theme from his writings having at- tained the longest run of any theater production in history. His granddaughter Bel Kaufman may have contrib- uted more than any other per- son in retaining glory for his writings and his personality. What an attraction she is for any gathering giving renewed stature to the Sholem Al zichem tradition! (7=-;