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Israel Expects U. N. Debate to Influence Russian Policy on Jews

March 26, 1953
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The Israel Government expects two developments to result from the discussions of the Communist anti-Jewish came paign at the present session of the United Nations, Mrs. Golda Myerson, Israel Labor Minister, who temporarily heads the Israel delegation at the UN during the debate on the Soviet anti-Jewish drive, declared here today. They are:

1. That the Communist governments, especially the Government of the Soviet Union, will take into consideration the international condemnation voiced at the current General Assembly session against their anti-Jewish policies, and will abandon them.

2. That the Soviet Government and the other Communist governments will comply with a plea to permit the emigration of Jews who want to leave these countries and will allow such Jews to proceed to Israel.

Mrs. Myerson. who is returning to Israel after the debate concludes, spoke at a luncheon tendered her by the UN Correspondents Association. She emphasized that athough Israel faces many problems at present the Jewish State will welcome Jews from the USSR and its allied countries. “No matter what our problems are the State of Israel has been established for the purpose that Jews who must leave the countries in which they reside should find a place to go,” she declared. “Our doors are open for any number of Jews from these countries.”

Mrs. Myerson reviewed the Soviet attacks on Israel and world Jewry, which started at the Slansky trial in Prague, continued during the arrests of the nine physicians in Moscow and culminated in the breaking off by Moscow of diplomatic relations with Israel. She emphasized the “terrifying aspects” of the Prague trial and said that the trial was conducted in such a way as to create the impression of the existence of an “international Jewish conspiracy” to overthrow the Czechoslovak Government. She charged that the Pague trial was a revival of the notorious “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” which long ago proved to be a forgery.

Pointing out that the anti-Jewish propaganda in the Soviet press and in the press of the satellite countries constituted a danger to the lives of 3,000,000 Jews there, Mrs. Myerson stated: “My government does not dare to wait now. We must alert the world to this danger. We dare not sit back.”

The Israel Minister quoted from official Soviet publications passages stating: “We hate the Greensteins, the Kaplans and the Cohens.” To these official Soviet utterances we say: we love the Greensteins, the Kaplans and the Cohens. Allow them to leave your countries and come to Israel,” Mrs. Myerson stated.

She expressed her belief that after the current UN Assembly speaks up the delegations of the Communist countries will convey to their governments the sentiments expressed in the international body and will seek to influence their governments to change their attitude on the treatment of Jews and on the question of permitting them to emigrate.

Mrs. Myerson, who was the first Israel Minister to Moscow, said that she had no contact whatsoever with Soviet Jews during her stay there, except for her visits to the Moscow Synagogue. Even during those visits, she only “saw” Jews, but did not conduct any conversations with any of them in view of the fact that such conversations are an impossibility for any diplomats under the Soviet regime.

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