Powerful pleas to the Soviet Government to permit the emigration from the Soviet Union of Jews who may wish to leave the country to join relatives in Israel and in other countries were voiced here today by Label A. Katz, international president of B’nai B’rith, and Dr, Meir Rosenne, representative of the Israel Government. Both spoke at the United Nations Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
The two speakers addressed the Subcommission in connection with the debate now going on there on a UN study recommending that anyone should have the right to leave his country. The report has been submitted to the Subcommission by Judge Jose D, Ingles, Philippine delegate, after two years of study ininated by a 12-man UN group.
In accordance with the Subcommission’s rules, both speakers did not mention the Soviet Union by name. However, Dr. Rosenne stated: “I refer specifically to a segment
of a great and ancient Jewish community resident in one of the world’s mightiest lands. It is a large community–indeed, larger than that of my own country.”
Vital information on the subject, much of it criticizing the Soviet Union for its anti-Jewish policies, was incorporated by Judge Ingles from sources supplied by the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations, a group which has consultative status with the UN as the representative of B’nai B’rith and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
B’NAI B’RITH PRESIDENT REPLIES TO SOVIET THREATS TO JEWS
Mr, Katz, speaking on behalf of the CBJO, also replied to Soviet threats, voiced by Boris Ivanov, the Soviet representative, who had indicated that the CBJO’s strictures against the Soviet regime would not be helpful to the situation of the Jews in the USSR. He denied, as Mr, Ivanov had implied, that the CBJO was injecting itself into cold war politics, and stressed that the CBJO had not entered “the political arena at all.”
“We are concerned only with moral and social issues–the rights of Jews and of all racial, religious and national minorities whose destinies are so intertwined with ours, ” Mr. Katz said. He asserted that contrary to feelings expressed before the Subcommission previously by the Polish representative, the CBJO had no intention of assailing Poland “precisely because we have only the highest regard and the warmest respect for this country’s attitude toward the Jewish question.”
He added, however, that the CBJO did include Hungary in its criticisms on the basis of authentic information showing that Hungary, as recently as a month ago, was refusing to permit Jews to leave “so that they may be re-united with their families in Israel.”
Coming then to Mr. Ivanov’s implied threats, Mr, Katz said: “There was a particularly disquieting note that entered the debate when it was suggested that our information may prove harmful or have unfortunate repercussions for Jews. If this was intended to intimidate us or any segment of Jewry may I state most emphatically that we will not be intimidated; we Jews have suffered persecution and discrimination and will not capitulate to threats of this type.”
QUOTES GROMYKO’S 1947 SPEECH AT U.N. ADVOCATING EMIGRATION
Mr. Katz quoted a lengthy address delivered to the General Assembly in 1947, by Andre Gromyko, now Soviet Foreign Minister. In that 1947 address, Mr. Gromyko requested that the United Nations facilitate the emigration of victims of Nazism, declaring “the time has come to help these people not by words but by deeds.”
The B’nai B’rith president noted that the principle of “non-separation of families” was recognized by both the United States and the Soviet Union in 1959 in an exchange of letters between Richard M. Nixon, then Vice President of the United States, and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev, Mr. Katz also noted that Mr. Khrushchev had since asserted that the Soviet leader “is not disposed” to permit Jewish immigration for the purposes of family re-unification.
The B’nai B’rith leader made a concrete proposal in regard to one of Judge Ingles’ recommendations which now reads “due regard should be given to facilitate the re-union of families. ” He proposed that instead the recommendation be changed to read; “Particular regard should be given to facilitate the re-union of families in keeping with moral and humanitarian principles that are related to the fact that the family is the fundamental basis of society.”
ISRAELI REPRESENTATIVE STRESSES FAMILY TIES WITH SOVIET JEWS
Dr, Rossene told the Subcommission that Israel has brought together hundreds of thousands of human beings, many of whom were Nazi victims. He emphasized that “the Jewish people know, from its own past history and from its recent experience, the meaning of reuniting the remnants of families. ” Continuing his reference to the Soviet Union, he said:
“This great Jewish community represents the last large residue of European Jewry remaining from the eastward push of the Nazi barbarians. It contains literally hundreds of thousands of individuals who were battered, beaten and torn apart from their kin in the unique Jewish tragedy of the war years. There is hardly a family in my country and in most other Jewish communities throughout the world that does not have, or did not have before the holocaust, a member in that country. Jews every where are immemorably bound to that community by ties of tradition, culture, religion and family.
“Within that community are many thousands who seek to leave the country in order to be reunited with brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren and other close relatives elsewhere. The people of Israel pray that the principle of reunion of families may be heeded also with respect to them.”
Concluding his statement, the Israel representative assured the Subcommission that his government was not engaging in cold war tactics by pleading the principle of family reunification. “I make this plea, ” he said, “not for any political reasons, but purely on humanitarian grounds, as a representative of a people torn apart, dispersed and separated as a result of Nazi aggression and persecution, which have made the problem of reunion of families so acute for us.”
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.
