The Israeli expert on the United Nations Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, said today that the Soviet Union which had helped its Armenian minority fight assimilation on the principle that “assimilation means annihilation,” followed a contrary policy with regard to its Jewish minority.
Judge Zeev W. Zeltner, in disregard of protocol, specifically named the Soviet Union as the country in which he charged discrimination. When he completed his indictment, Yevgeny Nassinovsky, the Soviet expert, took the floor to denounce him for having “slandered” the USSR in order to “cover up” Israel’s “aggression” against the Arabs.
Judge Zeltner told the commission that assimilation of the Armenians had been described in the Soviet Union as “a white massacre.” However, when it came to the Jewish minority, he pointed out, the assimilation of Soviet Jews was described officially as an “absolutely normal” development because in the Soviet Union, “where the Jews enjoy full equality, both legally and factually, their natural assimilation should be a permanent process taking place most intensively.”
He asked “why was the assimilation of Armenians a crime whereas the assimilation of Jews is lauded as ‘normal’ and ‘natural’? Why is not the possibility of Jewish assimilation described ominously as ‘a white massacre’ as is Armenian assimilation?”
Judge Zeltner said that Jews could attain high place in the Soviet Union, “provided they are willing to forego their national culture” and he noted a “slight improvement” regarding the Yiddish language but Jewish education, he stressed “whether in Yiddish, Hebrew or Russian, is still non-existent and without education, a whole civilization, the future of an entire people, threatened with extinction.”
The Israeli jurist cited the promise made by Premier Kosygin, in Paris on December 3, that the Soviet Union would not interfere with emigration of Russian Jews who wished to be reunited, with family members in other countries. The jurist expressed the hope that “this statement will be implemented.”
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.
