Complete freedom for Jewish culture and Jewish education in the Soviet Union was demanded last night at a huge meeting of Jewish workers here addressed by Adolph Held, national chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee, under whose auspices the rally was held.
Mayor Robert Wagner of New York sent a message to the meeting declaring that he joined in “protesting the Soviet Union’s continuation of a complete shutdown of Jewish newspapers, publishing houses, schools and other institutions,” Speakers at the meeting included Raphael Abramovitch, prominent Socialist leader, Jacob Zukerman, Nathan Chanin and Jacob Pat, leaders of the Jewish Labor Committee, and others.
A resolution passed at the close of the meeting said: “The killing of Jewish cultural leaders by the Soviets was an act of bloody anti-Semitism. Nothing like it happened to any of the 70 nationalities comprising the Soviet Union. The present leaders of Russia throw the guilt on Stalin and Beria, but they cannot be freed of guilt. Goebbels, Goering and heir co-murderers were as guilty in the extermination of the 6,000,000 Jews as their Fuehrer Hitler. This was the verdict of the international court of free peoples.
“Our sentence today,” the resolution continued, “is that in the extermination of the Jewish writers are collectively responsible the comrades and servants of their dead leader. Stalin. Not only are the murderers guilty but their entire system, their entire movement are equally responsible. All those who knew the truth but kept silent, share the guilt. We condemn the attitude of the Communists in our own country. They only dared to confirm the committee murders of the Jewish writers and the anti-Semitic deeds of Stalin and his comrades after the Jewish Communists of Poland acknowledged it first.”
The resolution demanded that “an end be put to acts of liquidation. Those still suffering in the prisons and forced labor camps must be set free. There must be complete freedom for Jewish culture and Jewish education. The iron curtains must be lifted. Let a free contact be established between the 2,000,000 Jews in Soviet Russia and the Jews all over the world. Let those who wish to emigrate be allowed to do so. As long as this does not happen, the present rulers of Soviet Russia must be branded and condemned.”
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