Anti-semitism Still Exists in Soviet Union, Ilya Ehrenburg Reports

Ilya Ehrenburg, well-known Soviet novelist who is now visiting Paris, was reported here today as admitting that anti-Semitism still exists in the Soviet Union. He said that he considers himself a Jew only because there is still anti-Semitism in his country. Once anti-Jewish feelings disappeared in the USSR, he would see no reason to call himself a Jew, he stated.

Discussing the possibility of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union, Mr. Ehrenburg is reported to have said that the USSR will not allow its citizens to depart for countries with capitalist regimes. He expressed the belief that the great masses of Russian Jews had no wish to emigrate, and estimated that of the more than two million Jews in the Soviet Union, only 100, 000 would be willing to emigrate if permitted to do so.

The 100, 000 Russian Jews who do not want to stay, according to Mr. Ehrenburg, would emigrate to Israel only as a pretext, having the United States, France or other countries as their ultimate goal. Departure from the Soviet Union of 100, 000 Jews, Mr. Ehrenburg contended, would prove harmful to Soviet Jewry because it would contribute to the growth of anti-Semitism in the USSR.