Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, today warned Arab propagandists around the world, especially in Latin America, against making common cause with domestic anti-Semites; He also demanded that the Soviet Union halt its “clearly undeniable discriminations” against Jews; and requested the Federal Republic of Germany not to launch an “ungenerous, narrow-minded” attitude in regard to compensation of Jewish victims of Nazism heretofore excluded from receipt of such payments.
Dr. Goldmann was the principal speaker here as the World Jewish Congress opened a week-long session, the first plenary session ever held by the WJC in Israel; More than 100 delegates from nearly 30 countries around the world are attending the sessions. President Zalman Shazar and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, as well as Jerusalem’s Mayor Mordechai Ish-Shalom greeted the delegates.
Noting that the entire Jewish world has undergone tremendous changes since the WJC was founded due to the Nazi holocaust and the establishment of Israel, Premier Eshkol told the delegates that the “classical struggle confronting the Jewish people today,” including concern for the future of Soviet Jewry and Jewry in other countries, “are tasks that must not be overlooked.”
Dr. Goldmann warned the Arab world not to engage in an open fight with the entire Jewish people. Stressing the fact that, in many parts of the world, anti-Semitic movements “are beginning to develop, based on contacts between various neo-Nazis and Fascists, aided by the lack of political stability, especially in Latin America,” he underscored the “active participation of Arab propagandists,” In those places, he asserted, “Arab propaganda is not only anti-Zionist but anti-Jewish, and is supported and subsidized by Arab embassies.
“It would be a disastrous development,” he warned, “if the Jewish people were forced to regard the Arabs as enemies. In the long run, such a development would harm the Arabs more than it would harm the Jews.”
“It would be a disastrous development,” he warned, “if the Jewish people were forced to regard the Arabs as enemies. In the long run, such a development would harm the Arabs more than it would harm the Jews.”
CHARGES KREMLIN POLICY THREATENS ENTIRE SOVIET JEWISH COMMUNITY
Turning to the problem of Soviet Jewry, Dr. Goldmann said that, in the USSR, where the Jews are enjoying “formal equality, they are denied the opportunity to live their own lives, a policy which threatens this second largest community in the world.”
He noted that this Soviet phenomenon is not a product of Communist ideology since in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Yugoslavia “the Jews are not only allowed to lead a Jewish life, but are also given economic and moral assistance by their governments.”
As long as the situation of the Jewish people in the USSR prevails as it does at present, he said, it is the “duty of the Jewish people to insist that Soviet Jews are granted the same rights given to other minorities. The Soviet Jews are being clearly and undeniably discriminated against.” He expressed the hope that, with the strengthening of the policy of co-existence, the USSR will realize it is also against its own interests to continue the anti-Jewish discriminations.
SAYS U.S. JEWRY IS “BACKWARD” IN INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Turning to internal Jewish affairs, Dr. Goldmann warned the dangers of assimilation and disintegration facing the Jewish community. Asserting that the principle of Jewish unity had been weakened in recent years, he said: “While performing the brilliant task of philanthropic aid, American Jewry especially is far from the idea of international Jewish action and is backward in the assertion of leadership in international Jewish affairs. American Jewry has not even succeeded in organizing itself for joint action within the United States.”
Dealing with German-Jewish relations, Dr. Goldmann referred to the need for final German Parliamentary action on restitution and indemnification of the victims of Nazism. “The spirit of moral obligation which prevailed in West Germany hitherto,” he stated, “should not be replaced by a policy based on fiscal considerations, so as not to destroy by an ungenerous, narrow-minded attitude the tremendous effect” of the former German legislation, which was “beneficial to Germany and to Jewish victims of Nazism.”
The WJC leader also asked the German Government to take action against the continuation of work by German scientists aiding the Egyptian program of developing mass weapons of destruction aimed against Israel. Noting that Germany has been, recently, “dealing more energetically with Nazi war criminals,” he said that the existence of those criminals justified extension of the German statute of limitations, so that more of those criminals may be brought to justice.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
