British Jewry Appeals Directly to Kosygin on Behalf of USSR Jewry

Representatives of the British Jewish community, who had sought unsuccessfully for a meeting with Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin during his current visit here to discuss the plight of the Soviet Union’s 3, 000, 000 Jews, have submitted a memorandum to the Soviet leader urging full implementation of his pledge to permit Jews to leave the Soviet Union to be reunited with their families abroad, to give the Jews in the Soviet Union Jewish educational facilities and to permit them to establish a central Jewish religious body similar to those which exist for other religious groups.

The memorandum was signed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Chief Rabbinate, the office of the Haham, who is the leader of the Sephardic community, and by all other major Jewish organizations of the country.

The memorandum noted appreciatively Mr. Kosygin’s declaration in Paris on Dec. 3 that Jewish families wanting to leave Russia to be reunited with relatives abroad could do so. It “fervently hoped” that “administrative difficulties or discouragement, on either national or local levels, will be removed for those Jews wishing to apply for family reunion in Russia and elsewhere.” The memorandum declared that “the full implementation of such an humanitarian policy towards families who, as a result of Nazi war and oppression, have been torn asunder, would be greatly appreciated, not only by British Jewry, but, we feel sure, by British public opinion in general.”

In dealing with the question of facilities for cultural and religious development, the memorandum reminded Mr. Kosygin that “in the earlier years of Communism, before the last war, and in other Socialist countries of Eastern Europe after the war, facilities were made available for Jews to transmit knowledge of their cultural and religious tradition, history, language and literature to their children.”

British Jews, it went on, “are distressed that, today in the USSR, the essential means for maintaining their existence as a community — granted to other nationalities and groups in accordance with the Constitution of the USSR — are, in practice, available to the Jewish community in far lesser degree. “We appeal, therefore, respectfully,” it continued, “but with the deepest anxiety, that there be proper provision for Jewish educational and cultural facilities in Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian.”

LACK OF RELIGIOUS FACILITIES, ISOLATION FROM WORLD, STRESSED IN BRIEF

The memorandum pointed out to the Soviet Premier that “in some cities with a Jewish population, there are no synagogues and no adequate facilities to meet essential religious requirements. There is a serious shortage of prayer books, the publication of which, although promised on several occasions, has unfortunately still not taken place. There is no central Jewish religious body similar to those which exist for other religious groups.”

The memorandum deplored “the non-existence of a Jewish communal organization in the USSR.” It regretted also “the inability of Soviet Jewry to maintain contact with Jewish communities in other parts of the world, and the absence of representatives of Soviet Jewry at international Jewish gatherings dealing with cultural and religious problems.”

The document concluded with an appeal in the name of British Jewry for the Jews of the Soviet Union, declaring: “Speaking on behalf of the Jewish community of the United Kingdom, numbering half a million, we appeal to the Soviet Government to enable the reunion of families and to give to their Jewish community the same facilities for cultural and religious self-expression as are available to other nationalities and religions in the USSR.”

265 MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT SIGN PLEA FOR BRITAIN’S INTERVENTION

Meanwhile, an unprecedented total of 265 members of Parliament has signed the motion pending in the House of Commons requesting the British Government to use its “good offices” with the Soviet Government to secure equality of treatment for the Jews in the Soviet Union. Sir Barnett Janner, veteran Laborite and a moving figure in organization of support for the petition, pointed out today that this was the largest number of signatures to appear on any motion in the life of this Parliament.

Sir Barnett was one of the leaders of a parliamentary delegation which visited the Soviet Embassy yesterday to submit the memorandum to Premier Kosygin.

“I hope our visitor will realize how much people are concerned about this problem,” Sir Barnett said. “We would like the Soviet Prime Minister to know the strength of feeling in Parliament about it which, of course, reflects the feeling in the country as a whole.”

Writing in the Guardian today, that newspaper’s well-known diplomatic correspondent, Terence Prittie, voiced the belief that the letter to Premier Kosygin from members of Parliament might have some effect. He noted that Mr. Kosygin “has the reputation of being liberal-minded toward minority groups in the Soviet Union, and has already done much since Khrushchev vanished from the political stage to make things easier for some of them.”

Describing the lack of cultural and religious facilities for the Jews in the Soviet Union, the correspondent noted that “Soviet policy in the past has been directed to achieving the cultural genocide of the Jewish community and to forcing it to assimilate.”