An international conference against anti-Semitism broadcast an appeal to the people and governments of the world today to banish everything conflicting with the spirit of brotherhood and human dignity from their laws and educational systems. It called for measures to outlaw propaganda creating hatred and racial discrimination and to prevent those “who once covered the world with blood, from again threatening the peace.”
The resolution was adopted last night at the closing session of the two-day parley, held in the Palazzo Venezia, once Benito Mussolini’s residence. It was attended by delegates of 13 countries. Despite earlier reports. East Germany was not represented at the assembly.
The delegates condemned the recent swastika epidemic, which they blamed on neo-Nazi elements in West Germany, and warned that Nazi anti-Semitic and racist propaganda “constitutes a threat to all peace-loving peoples.” The conference expressed concern at the extent of the swastika outbreaks in countries where organizations with Nazi tendencies exist and have been strengthened by collaboration with Hitlerite refugees.
The session last night was enlivened by a clash between Guido Lopez, representative of the Milan Jewish Community, and Vassily Kozlov, a member of the five-man delegation from the Soviet Union, when the latter construed remarks by the former as an attack on the Soviet Union.
The Italian communal leader recalled that both Poles and Russians had failed to help the Warsaw Ghetto resistance against the Nazis and the endemic anti-Semitism which existed in Eastern European countries before the Nazis and which the new governments have not succeeded in stamping out. He paid tribute to Russia for its role in crushing Hitler and for being among the first to recognize Israel, but he said the Jews could not forget the anti-Semitic wave that started in Czechoslovakia with the Slansky trial and the Jewish doctors’ trial in Moscow.
Signor Lopez expressed his belief in the sincerity of the Soviet delegates in opposing anti-Semitism but said there was the question whether the present anti-Zionist stand by the Soviet Union could not also be a form of anti-Semitism. The Russian delegate leaped to his feet to deny this. He reminded the assembly that Soviet laws “severely punish” anti-Semitism and he said the trial of the Moscow doctors was not solely anti-Semitic since many non-Jewish doctors were involved as well. He accused Signor Lopez of attempting to provoke quarrels among the delegates.
The Israel delegate Ada Sereni, addressing the conference, expressed hope that the Soviet Government would soon grant to Jews in the Soviet Union the same cultural and linguistic rights as other nationalities enjoy there.
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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.
