B’nai B’rith Study Shows Soviet Union Excising Jews from History

An exhaustive study of Soviet history textbooks, prepared by B’nai B’rith researchers, charges the Soviet Union with employing “the strategy of 1984” to obliterate the cultural heritage and identity of Jews not only in Russia but all over the world. The survey, submitted today to the B’nai B’rith board of governors meeting here, claims that the Soviet Union is deliberately distorting history to make Jews into “non-persons.”

It was written by Dr. William Korey. director of the B’nai B’rith office at the United Nations and was researched and documented by Ina Schlesinger. The survey concentrated on 15 history textbooks currently in use throughout the Soviet Union, all of them published since 1966. The authors said the texts constitute the “sum total” of required history textbooks for all primary and secondary schools in the Russian Republic. “To the extent that they are used in translation in other Republics of the Soviet Union, they have an almost nationwide impact and provide the Soviet elementary and secondary school student with the principal source of information on the historic past.” the survey stated.

The study will be published by the International Council of B’nai B’rith. Among its conclusions are that: Jews are rarely mentioned and their culture is ignored. The contributions of Jews to civilization generally and Western culture specifically is completely disregarded; the distinctive role of anti-Semitism in Russian and world history is barely noted. Even the quintessence of genocidal anti-Semitism–the holocaust of the Nazi era–is slighted; ancient Jewish history is dismissed as a factor in world history and the State of Israel is scarcely noted.

REFERENCE TO DREYFUS ELIMINATED FROM TEXTBOOK

An example of the omissions cited by the study was the absence of any reference to the celebrated Dreyfus case in a chapter on France contained in a textbook of world history from the second half of the 19th century to 1917. A ninth grade high school textbook makes no mention of anti-Semitic persecution and concentration camps for Jews in its description of the Nazi regime. A chronology in a 10th grade high school textbook lists the establishment of new states without mentioning Israel. The latter is referred to only in connection with the 1956 Sinai campaign in which Israel is branded an “aggressor.”

In addition to the primary and secondary school texts, the survey examined a two volume history used in state universities. It also studied samplings of history textbooks written in the native language and used in the republics of the Ukraine, Latvia. Estonia and Lithuania. “The same conclusions apply to these as to the Russian textbooks,” the survey stated. “The inevitable result of Soviet policy is that students are denied a positive image of the Jew.” the study asserted. It noted moreover that “Jews today are the only Soviet ethnic group without their own school system taught in their native tongue.”

NUMBER OF AMERICAN JEWISH COLLEGE YOUTH EXCEED NATIONAL AVERAGE

Another B’nai B’rith study released yesterday indicated that the proportion of American Jewish youth who go to college may be as high as 95 percent, about twice the estimated national average. The study, conducted during the 1968-69 academic year, disclosed that 77 percent of Jewish youth attain college degrees.

The study was prepared by the B’nai B’rith Vocational Service as a follow-up to a sampling made eight years ago of 6000 high school sophomores juniors and seniors in 40 states and the District of Columbia to determine the career plans of Jewish youth. Findings showed that Jewish youth, almost without exception, went into the occupations they had planned for when in high school; about half were influenced “very little or not at all” by their parents in selecting a career. Thirty percent were “considerably or moderately influenced” in their choice of college by the number of Jewish students or Jewish organizations on the campus. About 10 percent said they had encountered “discrimination or unpleasantness” while in college because of their religious beliefs. The study was prepared by Dr. S. Norman Feingold, B’nai B’rith Vocational Service national director. Sol Swerdloff, director of programs, planning and evaluation of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Dr. Howard Rosen director of the Office of Manpower Research of the Department of Labor, and conducted in cooperation with B’nai B’rith women. The young people surveyed, now 23 to 25, were affiliated with Jewish youth organizations in high school.