Citing restrictions imposed by the Soviet Union on Jewish burial in sanctified ground, Rep. Seymour Halpern, New York Republican, today asked President Kennedy to test the “thaw” in American-Soviet relations by intervening to relieve rising anti-Jewish pressures in the USSR.
Rep. Halpern made known in the House that he wrote to Mr. Kennedy today with reference to constantly mounting Soviet anti-Semitism and the opportunity to alleviate the situation because of the “nuclear test ban treaty atmosphere.”
Congressman Halpern made it clear that he thought not enough was being done in the free world to challenge anti Jewish developments in Russia. He said the denial of burial rights indicated “the Soviet authorities have refused to let people live as believers in Judaism; and now they have gone so far as to actually deny Jews the right even to a Jewish burial.”
Sen. Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, stated meanwhile in the Senate that the new discrimination in Russia denied a basic privilege granted Jews “in the darkest periods of the middle ages.” He termed the Soviet policy the “cruelest refinement of inhuman persecution that they could devise.” The Senator said developments indicated need for a renewal of protests and mustering of world public opinion.
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.
