Anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union has increased since the signing of the Helsinki Accords, instead of decreasing as was promised by the signatories, according to Max Kampelman, chairman of the U.S. delegation to the Madrid Conference of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Ambassador Kampelman addressed this problem at a recent CSCE plenary session in Madrid.
“We have noted on several occasions during the past year that harassment and mistreatment and repression have intensified in the Soviet Union,” he said. “There is persecution of individuals and persecution of groups. Many ethnic and religious minorities have been particular victims.”
Kampelman said that officially-sanctioned patterns of ethnic and religious oppression include repressive legal restrictions on Crimean Tatars prohibiting them from returning to their historic homeland; forced Russification of the Baltic States; biased employment practices against Evangelical Christians; and prohibition against manifestations of Ukrainian culture.
‘FEARSOME’ SOVIET ANTI-SEMITIC CAMPAIGN
The Soviet anti-Semitic campaign “has become more fearsome during our meeting here in Madrid,” Kampelman said. “This latest surge, I assert without hesitation, is an officially-sanctioned campaign, stimulated by state-controlled publication and exhibition of overtly anti-Semitic books, articles, cartoons and exhibitions.”
He provided details about a number of cases of blatant anti-Semitism selected from hundreds of recent examples — books, cartoons, paintings, television programs, and the Soviet press.
ANTI-SEMITISM IN OFFICIAL SOVIET PRESS
Instances of anti-Semitism abound in the official Soviet press, including derogatory references to persons with obvious Jewish names. There are frequent references to Jewish ownership of “death concerns”; “growing financial might”; the “Zionist Mafia of death”; and Jewish control of media and banks, crime, multilateral corporations, government, and the theater.”
Articles have appeared widely which even accuse Jews of collaborating with Hitler to destroy the European Jewish community, to destroy the Soviet Union, and to strengthen a Jewish state. The Soviet press has also accused Jews of stimulating anti-Semitism and setting fire to synagogues in order to settle in Israel.
In addition, anti-Jewish material has been distributed to recruits of the Red Army and published in official journals of the Soviet armed forces.
EXPORTING ANTI-SEMITISM ABROAD
The Soviets also export anti-Semitism to Arab, African and other Third World countries. Writings of outspoken Soviet anti-Semites have been widely distributed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, distributed in English throughout the English-speaking world.
“Jewish history is deleted from Soviet elementary and secondary schools,” Kampelman stated. Indeed, the Russian pogroms of the late 19th century against the Jews are justified in a Soviet publication as part of the class struggle.”
Kampelman stressed that “the Soviet Union — with the third largest Jewish population in the world–is the only country with a Jewish population in which there is not a single approved Jewish school and no means for teaching Jewish history and tradition.” In recent weeks, over 80 teachers of Hebrew in Moscow alone were threatened with prosecution and banishment if they continued teaching, he said.
EXAMPLES OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN LITERATURE
“Invasion Without Arms,” a book by Vladimir Begun published in 150,000 copies in 1977 and republished in 1979, characterizes the Torah as “an unsurpassed textbook (of) hypocrisy, treachery, perfidy and moral degeneracy — all the basest human qualities.” Begun writes, “Jewish and Christian hypocrites alike keep silent over this.”
Another book, “Judaism and Zionism, ” by Trofim Kichko, soon to be published, pretends to “unmask the criminal activities of various Zionist organizations and Zionist-oriented Judaism,” A previous Kichko book written in 1964 was so virulently anti-Semitic it provoked international protests, including some from major Western Communist parties. The Soviets were forced to withdraw it for “erroneous statements.”
Kampelman also singled out the “White Book,” issued by Soviet authorities in 1979, subtitled, “Espionage and Deception in the Name of Defense for Human Rights.” This book is filled with preposterous accusations and anti-Semitic attacks on Soviet Jewish activities and Western correspondents of Jewish origin. “Even after this despicable work received worldwide condemnation,” Kampelman said, “a second edition was released in December, 1979.”
Kampelman reported that cartoons depicting Jews in ugly stereotypes still appear frequently, and cited paintings and illustrations which depict Jews as criminals and gangsters.
In an article by A. Filipenko titled “Zionism and Crime,” the illustration states that although “the myth has become established that gangster bands consist exclusively of Italians, the facts prove that an active role is played in the U.S. criminal syndicates by persons of Jewish origin.”
“Traders of the Souls,” a prime-time television documentary viewed throughout the Soviet Union, portrayed the Jew as money-changer, “a trader of souls.”
Kampelman concluded his detailed presentation by saying: “The world, and certainly my government, would welcome a Soviet decision to mobilize its resources and its people constructively to help meet its internal problems without the use of diversionary hate tactics. This is the only way we can ever hope to achieve the spirit of understanding mandated by the Helsinki Final Act that we all seek and eludes 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.
