The New York Times, in a dispatch from C. L. Suizberger, its chief European correspondent, from Paris, today denies reports that Moscow is preparing to offer free emigration to Israel for 2,000,000 Jews from the Communist satellite states or that secret talks have taken place in Switzerland between a Soviet “personage” and Dr. Walter Eytan, director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
“Yet, ” says the Times dispatch, “and on this point there is positive evidence the gathering ugliness of the anti-Semitic storm that lasted from the spring of last year to the spring of this year and that seemed to wane with the famous vindication of the Russian doctors accused of a plot to murder Soviet officials, has now ceased. For about six weeks relatives of Jews within the Soviet bloc have been receiving cautiously worded letters. For the first time in almost a year unsolicited messages have arrived in Israel from Rumania and Poland saying that Zionist families were preparing to emigrate – although no official advice has yet arrived in Tel Aviv through diplomatic channels. “
The Times report adds: “The change in policy on the Jews is a logical and expected facet of the laborious process, now encouraged by Moscow, of seeking to prove to the West that the change in Soviet policy as a whole is ‘real’ and aimed at a true relaxation of tension. So far, the only available trends that can be confirmed may be regarded as straws in the political wind. They are worth regarding – but not yet worth believing implicitly.”
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.
