Deny Allegation Soviet Anti-semitism Charges Are Only Zionist Propaganda

The American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry today emphatically refuted an allegation appearing in a publication of the American Council for Judaism, that its campaign “to expose the grievous plight of Jews in the Soviet Union” was a propaganda exercise that “originated with Zionist elements in the United States.” The allegation was contained in an article written for the AJC quarterly, “Issues,” by Peter Worthington, staff correspondent of The Toronto Telegram, who was stationed in Russia for two years. It is being widely circulated by the Council for Judaism.

Rabbi Israel Miller, chairman of the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, declared that “only wilful ignorance or deliberate malice can lie behind the charge.” He noted ‘hat the Conference, comprised of 25 major American Jewish philanthropic, religious, fraternal, service and Zionist organizations was brought together because of their “profound concern about the repression of Jewish life in the Soviet Union. That repression is real and serious, as evidence from many varied independent sources attest,” he said.

Mr. Worthington said in his article that he found Soviet Jewry to suffer from the same restrictions, repressions and pressures to conform that effect all minorities in the Soviet Union, and in fact, all Asians, but were no worse off than other groups in the USSR and in some instances lived better, more comfortable lives. He said that while the Soviet Government followed a virulently anti-Israel and pro-Arab policy especially since last June’s Six-Day War and sought to direct the attitudes of all Soviet citizens to conform with that policy, he found no evidence of official anti-Semitism. He said that while individual anti-Semitism exists in the Soviet Union — as it does elsewhere — the Government takes pains not to be identified with it. He warned, however, that “international Zionism” could aggravate the situation of Russian Jews. He alleged further that press reports which do not conform to Zionist policy rarely appear in North American newspapers and complained that this applied as well to his own newspaper. The contention that only the “Zionist line” receives a fair hearing in the American press has been a consistent allegation of the American Council for Judaism and of Arab propagandists in this country.

In refutation of Mr. Worthington’s assertion that Jews are no worse off than other national minorities in Russia, Rabbi Miller cited the fact that synagogues have been systematically closed there, fewer than 70 functioning today in contrast to 450 in 1956. There is one synagogue for every 44,000 Russian Jews compared to one church for every 1,800 adherants of the Russian Orthodox faith and for every 1,100 Baptists, he said. He noted further that there is only one yeshiva in the country and it is not functioning, which means that there can be no replacements for the handful of aging rabbis and other religious functionaries.