A warning to Polish Jewry to beware of “spies” among the Jewish population was voiced on a Yiddish language broadcast from Warsaw heard here last night. The broadcast was made in connection with a week-end conference of delegates from all Jewish communities in Poland.
The address was made by Joel Lazebnik, secretary-general of the Jewish Central Committee of Poland, which is now under government control. Mr. Lazebnik, referring to a recent decision of the United Polish Workers Party (Communist) warning the Polish people against spies, said that the decision had significance for the Jewish population, too.
Assailing the “Jewish nationalists,” the Committee official stated that whatever had been achieved by Polish Jewry during the past year had resulted from the struggle against the “Jewish nationalists” who, he said, had tried to “weaken the work of the Central Committee,” He reiterated the Committee’s charges that the World Jewish Congress in an “agent of Anglo-American imperialism.” He included the Poale Zion and the Hashomer Hatzair in his blast, insisting that they had formed a united front with the Zionists.
He labelled as a “lie” allegations that the Polish Government had agreed to the emigration of Polish Jews bound for Israel because it desired to be rid of the Jews. Referring to the government’s decision to take over responsibility for all Jewish organizations in the country by the end of the year, Mr. Lazebnik said that the move will open “new possibilities for the further development of Jewish life and culture, national in form and socialist in content.” The week-end parley adopted a resolution welcoming the government’s action.
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.
