The first conference in Belgium representing the entire range of organized Jewish life met today to discuss the situation of Soviet Jewry.
Representatives of more than 50 organizations and communities adopted a resolution urging the Soviet Government to grant Russian Jews the same religious and cultural rights enjoyed by other national and religious minorities. The delegates also called on the Soviet Government to “put an end to the defamatory campaign against Judaism and Jews in the press and various Soviet publications.”
The conference stressed the “disproportionate number” of Jews among Soviet citizens sentenced to death for alleged economic offenses. The delegates also noted the anti-Semitic insinuations in Soviet press reporting on the economic crimes trials.
The conference appealed to the Soviet authorities on purely humanitarian grounds and in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to allow Soviet Jews, wishing to do so, to rejoin relatives in Israel. The conference also decided to bring the resolutions to the attention of the Belgian Government, to ask the Government to intervene with the Soviet authorities and also to bring the problem of anti-Jewish discrimination in the Soviet Union before appropriate international organizations.
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