Firm assurance that the Canadian Government would do all that it could to bring about alleviation of the continuing anti-Jewish discrimination in the Soviet Union was given here yesterday by External Affairs Minister Paul Martin.
The Minister spoke at an All-Canadian Rabbinic Conference sponsored by the Canadian Jewish Congress. “The treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union,” he said, “is but one example of the Communists’ failure to rid themselves of attitudes and actions with respect to the individual which can only be considered backward and wrong.”
“The Canadian Government is seriously concerned with this problem and will continue to make known its feelings on the subject,” the Minister told the conference. “Let us make clear that respect for the existence of fundamental rights and freedoms is essential to the consolidation of peace and harmony among the nations of the world.”
Stressing that Canada has expressed itself on discrimination “against any group, regardless of race, religion or color whenever that was considered useful,” Mr. Martin pictured Russia’s discriminatory policies on Jews as less an indication of anti-Semitism than of deep disorders in the Soviet economy.
Both he and Rabbi Stuart Rosenberg of Toronto described the pilgrimage of Pope Paul VI to Israel and Jordan last weekend as an historic event. The Canadian Minister said it would be a harbinger of peace for the world. Rabbi Rosenberg said the pilgrimage “showed the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church with humanity and with the destiny of the Jewish people.”
SOVIET AMBASSADOR REJECTS INVITATION TO ATTEND THE PARLEY
Rabbi S.M. Zambrowsky of Toronto, conference chairman, stressed that Canadian and American Jews were seeking only equality of treatment for Russian Jews with other nationalities in religious, cultural and educational freedom. He emphasized that “we Jews do not want any part of the Cold War,” and regretted that the Soviet Ambassador to Canada had declined an invitation to attend the conference and had refused to meet a CJC delegation.
Michael Gerber, CJC president, expressed satisfaction with the response to the Congress’ invitations to the conference. He said that “it is fitting that Jewish rabbinical leaders in Canada should raise their voices against the Jewish persecution in Russia.”
B.Z. Goldberg of New York, a noted Jewish journalist and author, said it was “nonsense” for Russia to portend that the treatment of Russian Jewry was an internal affair and added that “the conscience of the world will not be stilled by that attitude.” Blaming Jewish conditions in Russia today on Stalin and Premier Khrushchev, he said Soviet Government policy was contradictory in that it sought to assimilate Jews while simultaneously discriminating against them.
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR SOVIET JEWS TO BE HELD IN CANADA
Six approaches to the problem were approved at a closed session of the conference and committees named to deal with them.
Under the program, representations will be made by conference representatives to the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa to seek to ease existing discriminatory anti-Jewish conditions. In another move, a specific request will be made to the Canadian Government to bring the problem before the United Nations Human Rights Commission at its meeting in New York in March as an urgent matter.
A national day of prayer will be arranged for Russian Jews and efforts will be made to send a Canadian rabbinic mission to Russia to observe the conditions of Russian Jewry at first hand. Finally, the Rabbinic Conference will be kept in being until conditions for Jews in Russia are ameliorated.
Following the conference, a mass meeting was arranged by the Ottawa Jewish Community Council. An overflow crowd heard reports on the situation of Russian Jewry from a panel made up of Mr. Goldberg, Rabbi Rosenberg, Rabbi Walter S. Warzburger of Toronto, and Rabbi Zambrowski.
The importance of Ottawa as a nation’s capital was reflected in the recent selection by Soviet officials of the city for publication of a full-page advertisement in the Ottawa Citizen, under the heading “Is There A Jewish Problem?” which sought to refute widespread criticism of the Soviet Union on the issue.
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