Jewish Students Seek Closer Ties with French Trotskyists

The Paris Jewish Students Union last night elected a new “Revolutionary” Committee which violently opposes established Jewish communal organizations, accuses the French Jewish community of being racist and reactionary and advocates a form of “revolutionary Zionism” for Israel. The new eleven-man committee, elected by a large majority, has already announced that it will seek closer ties with the Trotskyist faction–“AJS” of the French National Federation of Students, the “UNEF.”

Typical of the new atmosphere now reigning in the Paris Jewish Students Union was the fact that, for the first time in its history, the meeting concluded not with the singing of the Israeli national anthem “Hatikva,” but with the “Internationale.” During the long, stormy discussions which preceded the actual vote, members favoring the new tendency accused the French Jewish community and Israel, of practicing “certain forms of anti-Arab racism” and of favoring “capitalism and a reactionary form of society.” The speakers also called upon the local Jewish community to refuse contributions to Jewish funds “until we know what is done with the money and where it goes to.”

A member of the National Bureau of the Jewish Students Union, Alain Nudkowicz, who chaired last night’s meeting, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency “the committee’s entire outlook has now been dramatically changed. Though the change affects only the Paris branch of the Union (for which elections were held) we in the National Bureau can do nothing to alter the results of the vote.”

The JTA understands that for some time the relations between the Paris branch of the Union and local Jewish bodies including the Jewish Agency have been strained. These bodies have cut off their financial support to the Union to show their displeasure with the new political line advocated by the students.