The Soviet Government was charged today with deliberately concealing the part played by Soviet Jews in the fields of science, agriculture and industry. The charge was substantiated by data showing that there were 24,620 Jewish scientific workers in the Soviet Union in 1955 –surpassed only by the Russian group, with 144,285–while not a single Jew figures in the Soviet statistics published in 1957 in the volume “The Achievements of the Soviet Regime in 40 years in Figures.”
The charge was made in a report on the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union published by the Christian Science Monitor. The leading American newspaper pointed out that the statistical tables on the number of scientific workers according to nationality published in the 1957 volume listed 300 Turkmenians, 100 Tazhiks, and 300 Moldavians in the total of 223,893 scientists, but omitted to mention them number of Jewish scientists.
The fact that there were 24,620 Jewish scientific workers in the Soviet Union in 1955 was indicated in the Soviet periodical Voprosy Filosofii (Problems of Philosophy), the Christian Science Monitor stressed. It also pointed out that the 1957 volume on the Soviet achievements during 40 years of existence carried no designation “Jew” or “Jewish” in; its 358 pages.
“Although specifically recognized as a religious and national entity, Soviet Jews are prevented from fulfilling their cultural and religious aspirations or being treated as equals with the Russians or Ukrainians or any of the other 120-odd nationalities of the Soviet Union,” the study establishes. “They are suspected of an ‘antistate’ or ‘antisocial’ attitude if they declare themselves as Jews, and they are rejected it they declare themselves as Russians, Moldavians, Ukrainians, and so on.
“They are living in a state of permanent double jeopardy, as it were, a fact that has led to a constantly deteriorating relationship with tragic personal consequences,” the Christian Science Monitor emphasizes.
The paper pointed out that in the official Soviet census of last February 2,268,000 persons declared themselves as Jewish–roughly 1.1 percent of the Soviet population. In addition, some 800,000 Jews arc believed to have registered as Russians or Ukrainians, raising the ratio to just below 1.5 percent.
“Yet,” the paper emphasized, “among the some 1,300 deputies of the two houses of the Supreme Soviet there are only three Jews–not quite 25 percent–and among the some 250 members and candidate members of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist. Party there are only two Jews–less than. 8 percent. There also has been a drastic decline in the number of Jewish students in Soviet universities–from 13 percent, in 1935, to between two and three percent today.
“As individuals, Jews have been removed in large numbers from responsible positions in the military and diplomatic service. Unlike other indigenous cults–Pravoslavs, Baptists, and Moslems–Jews are not allowed to have a nationwide federation of their religious communities,” the report stressed.
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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.
