Ewing Charges Soviet with Obliterating Jewish Life in Address to Histadrut Convention

Federal Security Administrator Oscar R. Ewing today charged the Soviet Union with “ruthlessly obliterating every facet of Jewish life in Russia” because of fears of a “freedom movement.” Addressing the closing session of the 27th annual national convention of the National Committee for Labor Israel, attended by more than 5,000 delegates from 250 cities across the country, Mr. Ewing said:

“For the past year or more, there have been constant reports of a gradual extermination of the spiritual, cultural and religious life of Russian Jewry. Soviet leaders are ruthlessly obliterating every facet of Jewish life in Russia. While there is no physical extermination of Jews in the Hitler fashion, the Soviet treatment of the Jews has all the characteristics of traditional anti-Semitism.

“Russian Jews are allowed no contact with Jews in other parts of the world. No Russian organizations or institutions function there. Jewish schools have been closed. Jewish intellectual life, and the Jewish press, have been liquidated. Religious worship is forbidden. Zionism and the Hebrew language are considered subversive. Jews cannot emigrate to Israel.” Although the Soviet Union has established diplomatic relations with Israel, the Russian leaders are determined to prevent Russian Jews from going there, and even from expressing their interest in the Jewish state, he added.

Praising the work of the Histadrut in the upbuilding of Israel, Mr. Kwing said that the United States has already been helpful to Israel in the field of education. He said in response to an Israel request, an education mission headed by Dr. Rarl J. McGrath, U.S. commissioner of education, recently went to Israel. “By the spring of 1951, we hope to send a larger mission to continue the work begun by Dr. McGrath,” he said. “We stand ready to do everything in our power to cement the bond of friendship between democratic America and democratic Israel. We look forward to increasingly strong and friendly ties between this little democracy and our own land.”

DELEGATES ADOPT $10,000,000 GOAL FOR 1950-51 HISTADRUT DRIVE

Delegates to the convention adopted a $10,000,000 goal for the 1950-51 Histadrut campaign to be conducted in 12 regions in the United States and Canada. Labor union delegates pledged to raise $2,000,000 towards the campaign goal. Joseph Schlossberg was elected to the post of general chairman of the National Committee for Labor Israel. The convention also elected Isaac Hamlin as national secretary, an office he has held for 26 years.

Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, addressing the convention yesterday, reviewed the difficulties now confronting the Jewish state. He appealed to American Jews to purchase Israel Government bonds, which he said will soon be sold in this country. Mr. Sharett also urged American Jewry to concentrate all efforts on strengthening the state of Israel.

Messages of greetings to the convention were received from Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of Israel, and from President Truman. Mr. Truman expressed his appreciation of the “earnest and conscientious labor which has gone into the building of the National Committee for Labor Israel” and voiced the hope that the organization’s convention will make a contribution to peace and stability.