Andre Blumel, former president of the Zionist Organization in France and vice-president of the France-USSR Friendship League, who returned a few days ago from a mission to Moscow, declared at a public meeting here last night that “there is no doubt that anti-Semitism still exists in the Soviet Union. “
Mr. Blumel went to Moscow to plead with Ekaterina Furtzeva, Soviet Minister of Culture, for “the emancipation of Yiddish culture” in the Soviet Union where Jewish publications and cultural institutions have been liquidated. He returned with a report that Mrs. Furtzeva refused to give him any promises of immediate action except to say that his request “would be given consideration at some future date.”
The Soviet Minister of Culture, Mr. Blumel reported, argued that “the Jews in the Soviet Union do not want or need any Yiddish-language books or newspapers. ” Many of the Soviet Jews, she claimed, “would be embarrassed by having Yiddish publications, because they consider themselves completely assimilated in the Russian culture. “
M. Blumel reported he had also met in Moscow with members of the State Commission on Religious Problems, calling the attention of the members of the commission to the religious discriminations practiced in the Soviet Union against Jews. He said he pointed out, among other things, anti-Semitic cartoons that appeared recently in the Soviet satirical magazine, “Krokodil. ” The members of the commission assured him, . Blumel said, that the cartoons “were due to a technical incident” and would not be repeated.
The French proponent of friendship with the Soviet Union, M. Blumel told the packed ## here last night, attended by many Communists, that anti-Semitism still exists ## the Russian masses. However, he insisted “there is no anti-Semitism whatever ## circles.” The remainder of Russian anti-Semitism among “the masses,” he ## mainly an inheritance from Czarist days. “
In his conference with Madame Furtzeva, lasting almost two hours, M. Blumel spelled his request for “emancipation” of the Yiddish language. He asked for the formation of Yiddish theatrical troupe which would tour the Soviet Union, and for the establishment of a Yiddish weekly in the Soviet Union.
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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.
