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38

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1988

Russian Jewry

Continued from Page 34

Polish territories, it im-
mediately started remodel-
ing the local population, in-
cluding Jews in order to in-
tegrate them into the
Soviet system. Here the
racial aspect also played a
considerable role. The new
masters tried to convert
Jews, Germans, and others
to the Slavic culture by en-
trusting the administration
, to either Russians, Ukrai-
nians, or Belo-Russians.
One could not evaluate
the success of that brief ex-
periment, since it was
brought to an abrupt end
with the German invasion
of 1941. However, when the
Russians returned during
and after the war, their
policy of assimilating Jews
to Soviet culture continued
unabated. It was inten-
sified under the Stalinist
Terror of the late 1940s and
early 1950s, which easily
suppressed all overt
opposition.
At the same time, anti-
Semitism, which had for-
mally been condemned in
the early years of the
Soviet Union as a crime
against the state, had
already become an accep-
table weapon in assimi-
lating Jews and in gaining
approval from the anti-
Jewish population by
allowing the publication of
anti-Semitic books and
pamphlets and cultivating
anti-Jewish policies in
practice.
The government did not
discourage the populace
from treating its Jewish
neighbors as scapegoats
for the spreading black
markets or from frequent-
ly complaining about the
numerically dispropor-
tionate Jewish participa-
tion in higher occupations.
On their part, the
authorities gradually
eliminated Jews from
government posts .. .
' For example, the number
of Jews in the USSR
Supreme Soviet was reduc-
ed from 47 in 1937 to five in
1950 and three in 1958,
though before long Brezh-
nev raised the total to six.
Membership in the enor-
mous Communist Party,
generally needed for jobs
above the lowest
categories, at first included
disproportionately many
Jews. But the growing
availability of educated
non-Jews with good train-
ing in special occupations
reduced Jewish member-
ship from 294,724 in
January 1976, to less than
260,000 in 1982, or only 1.9
and 1.4 percent of the
population respectively.

This was less than the
Jewish ratio in the
population.
Simultaneously, the op-
ponents to admitting Jews
to higher education,
higher-ranking jobs, and
particularly to positions of
power forgot that they
were thereby counterac-
ting the regime's primary
objective of assimilating
the Jews away from the
Jewish heritage. For this
objective, during the entire
postwar period, a
literature debasing Jewish
virtues from antiquity to
the present was allowed to
sprout not only in the
Ukraine, but also in the
central Great -Russian
areas,_ including Moscow.
At the same time, the Jews
were deprived of all their
schools, press, and
literature, except for the
Yiddish journal Sovetish
Haimland, which printed
only materials agreeable to
the authorities. Even
private instruction in
Hebrew was forbidden and
could only be obtained
surreptitiously .

This is an immensely
valuable commentary on the
historic experiences defining
the regulations from the op-
pressive Tsarist regimes
leading to the ongoing pre-
judicial legacies of hatred re-
tained by the present rulers of
the USSR.
The indebtedness to Dr.
Baron for a lifetime of notable
literary gifts is an indelible
record. The 93-year-old
scholar continues his scholar-
ly labors to a degree that
earns for him everlasting
gratitude. The new edition of
his great work on the
numerous centuries of the
history and experiences of
Russian Jewry multiplies the
appreciation and gratitude. It
is accompanied by the hope
that there will be more to
thank him for in the years
ahead and that those creative
labors will continue and will
be endless.

'"•••""1 N EWS t"'""'"'

Israel Grows
Mexican Cukes

Rehovot — Israel's Weiz-
mann Institute of Science will
develop new varieties of
cucumbers suitable for
cultivation in northern Mex-
ico, according to a recent
agreement between the
Vegetable Growers Associa-
tion of Mexico and the Yeda
Research and Development
Co. Yeda promotes the com-
mercial exploitation of Weiz-
mann Institute research.