U.S. Labor Groups Condemn Soviet Oppression of Jewish Culture

The American Newspaper Guild was on record today with a resolution condemning Soviet oppression of Jewish religion and culture. The resolution assailed the “vicious, inhuman practices of the Soviet Union which are threatening to put an end to Judaism and Jewish culture in Russia.”

The two-million member New York State AFL-CIO adopted a similar resolution at its annual convention, charging that authorities in the Soviet Union “have been engaged in suppressing Jewish culture and singling out Jews as scapegoats for failures in the Soviet economy and in fostering anti-Semitic sentiment.”

The Guild resolution declared that the plight of Soviet Jewry was becoming “ever more desperate” and listed such acts as the ban on baking of matzoth, removal of synagogue leaders and arrest and trial of lay religious leaders “on spurious charges of espionage.”

The New York AFL-CIO noted that the national AFL-CIO and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions had denounced Soviet restrictions against Jews. It said the labor group wished to “add its voice to those condemning the Soviet Union’s violations of the human rights of its Jewish minority” and to “call upon the Government of the United States to use every means available to it in the United Nations and elsewhere to vigorously protest official Soviet anti-Semitism.”