Soviet Premier Khrushchev’s denial of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union “has not disposed of the well-substantiated fact that, by all sorts of devices, Jews are made to appear primarily responsible for economic offenses” in Russia, Sir Barnett Janner, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said here today.
The Jewish leader also said that the Soviet Prime Minister’s statement, made last Saturday in reply to an appeal from Bertrand Russell, did not “dispose of the general charge that sentences of death for alleged economic offenses are a retrogression from civilized standards of Justice. ” Scores of Russian Jews have been convicted during the past two years in trials for speculation and profiteering. The Jewish defendants have frequently been sentenced to death and executed for alleged offenses for which non-Jewish defendants have received only prison terms. Sir Barnett also said that in spite of protests to the contrary by Soviet authorities, Jews were deliberately being made scapegoats for the Soviets’ “present harsh policy.”
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.
