A severe crisis has broken out among Jews in the French Communist Party and in Communist-led organizations following the return to this country of a delegation of three prominent Jewish Communists to the Soviet Union where they studied the position of Jews. The three were M. Wilner, editor of the Jewish Communist newspaper here “Neue Presse, ” Dr. J, Slages and A. Youdinn.
The present crisis has its roots in a report received here five months ago of anti-Semitic practices in the USSR, which resulted in a change in the editorial board of Neue Presse. Late last year, apparently at the insistence of French Communist leader Jacques Duclos, the three Jewish Communists were invited to Moscow to see for themselves the situation and thereby, it was hoped, quiet the uneasy Jews in the French Communist Party.
During their Moscow visit, the three met with Shmuel Halkin of the USSR Jewish Writers Committee and officials of the Soviet Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs. They asked for the publication of Yiddish books and newspapers in the Soviet Union and expansion of Jewish cultural activities, but were turned down.
These facts were included in the report of the delegation which was presented at a meeting of the French Communist Party central committee during which, it was reported, Dr. Shlages and M, Wilner, a Stalinist, came to blows. These differences are expected to explode shortly and cause a split among Jews in the Communist Party and affiliated groups.
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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.
