An appeal to the Communist governments to halt their present anti-Jewish policy in order “to avert a major catastrophe” was issued here today by the national executive committee and the national administrative council of the Zionist Organization of America following an all-day joint meeting. The appeal emphasized that the anti-Jewish propaganda, which is now being directed from Moscow, may lead to pogroms on Jews in all countries behind the Iron Curtain.
The statement, presented at the meeting by Dr. Irving Miller, Z.O.A. president, and adopted unanimously by the 200 Zionist leaders who attended the session, declared that the “Zionist Organization of America repudiates with contempt the fantastic charges against the Zionist Movement and Israel which are being fabricated by Communist propagandists in Eastern Europe. ” The statement voiced profound “alarm over the fate of millions of our fellow Jews in Eastern Europe who have been placed in jeopardy by the current Communist campaign of intimidation.”
Pointing out that the Communist governments “have assumed a fearful responsibility before history, ” the statement said: “Whether or not they deliberately seek to restore the pogrom as an instrument of national policy, they are unleashing forces of hatred which may soon be uncontrollable. We call upon them to halt their present policy, while there may still be time to avert a major catastrophe. Moreover, we declare that if the so-called Jewish “bourgeois elements” and “cosmopolitans” are undesirable to those who dictate the policies of the Soviet bloc, they should be permitted to emigrate to Israel. Indeed, the Zionist movement would gladly undertake to carry out such a transfer en masse, if only the countries within the Soviet orbit would agree to it. Let them go to Israel, where they will be warmly welcomed.”
COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA AGAINST JEWS LIKENED TO NAZISM
Dr. Miller, in addressing the session, stated that “whatever the objective of Moscow may be, we are forced to the conclusion that international Communism is deliberately turning its back on its past postures of democracy and liberalism. Like Nazism, it is adopting anti-Semitism as a weapon la the cold war – an instrument of terror at home, of propaganda abroad. It is the classic weapon of those whose orgies of hatred invariably herald their own imminent downfall.”
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, member of the Jewish Agency executive, warned of possibly greater shocks to come. “With profound shock,” he said, “we must face the horrifying troth: the Prague trial and Moscow accusations are of one piece heralding not only an anti-Zionist crusade but a new wave of anti-Semitism staged by Communist leaders in the classic Nazi tradition. The accusations against the Jewish physicians in Moscow are too monstrous and fantastic for refutation; they can only fill us with disgust against the authors of such vicious and revolting fabrications. We must brace ourselves against possibly greater shocks.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
