Hadassah Urges Moscow to Fulfill Three Promises Given to Jews

Mrs. Mortimer Jacobson, national president of Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization of America, today urged the Soviet Union to “demonstrate its good intentions towards its Jewish citizens” by fulfilling three promises. These promises, she said, are to permit the printing of a new Hebrew prayer book, reopen the rabbinical seminary in Moscow, and provide matzohs for Soviet Jewry for Passover, 1966.

Mrs. Jacobson spoke at a special session this afternoon welcoming 200 Hadassah leaders to the organization’s annual midwinter conference. The conference participants will concern themselves with evaluating Hadassah’s programs in Israel and in the U.S. They will also make decisions that will affect the organization’s activities in the U.S.

In her address, Mrs. Jacobson said that six months ago, acting on behalf of Hadassah, she had sent an appeal to the Soviet Union, urging that authorities there permit Jewish education inside the USSR. “My letter remains unanswered, ” she reported. “The other 103 nationalities in the USSR are permitted to provide the necessary instruments for the perpetuation of their national traditions and heritages, ” she pointed out. The 3, 000, 000 Jews in the USSR constitute the only group to be denied this right that is guaranteed by the Soviet Constitution.”

“Liberal public opinion in the Western world has voiced the demand for the restoration of the rights of the Jews of the USSR, including their rights to be reunited with their families abroad. No power can remain insensitive to world public opinion. We shall continue to help mobilize all the resources of that public opinion until Justice is done to the Jews of the USSR, ” Mrs. Jacobson stated.