Jews Voice Sharp Protests at U.N. Parley Against Soviet Discriminations

Sharpest criticisms of the Soviet Union’s anti-Semitic policies, running the gamut from the ban on the baking of matzoth for Passover to closure of synagogues and imposition of death sentences on Jews convicted of so-called economic crimes, were voiced here today by Jewish representatives at United Nations Headquarters at an open meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

The accusations of official USSR anti-Semitism, including charges of anti-Jewish hate propaganda in the controlled Communist press and of violation of basic rights by the ban against Soviet Jewish religious leaders from meeting with co-religionists either inside the USSR or abroad, were detailed by Moshe Bartur, Israel’s Ambassador to the European headquarters of the United Nations, and by Dr. G.O. Warburg, speaking on behalf of the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations which has consultative status before the Human Rights Commission. The CBJO is comprised of B’nai B’rith, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.

Other Jewish and non-Jewish representatives of non-governmental organizations, including the World Jewish Congress and Agudath Israel, scheduled also to speak at least in part on Soviet suppression of Jewish religion, were denied the floor by Dr. Zvigniewc, chairman of the Human Rights Commission, who represents Poland. He did give the floor, however, to the Ukrainian delegate. The latter, without replying directly to the charges voiced by Ambassador Bartur and Dr. Warburg, reiterated the old Soviet claim that the USSR Constitution “guarantees” freedom to all religious believers as well as to atheists.

All indications today pointed to the fact that the Human Rights Commission, which is scheduled to close its meeting on Friday, will adopt a draft declaration against religious intolerance in a general form without going into details. The drafting of such a declaration started yesterday after the Commission approved a draft declaration expressing “serious concern” over the existence of discrimination based on race and ethnic origin. This draft was endorsed by the Soviet bloc as part of its drive against “colonialism.”

SOVIET BAN ON MATZOTH CITED; ANTI-JEWISH INCITEMENT STRESSED

Ambassador Bartur told the Commission that religious discrimination is now being practiced “within the boundaries of a powerful state.” Without mentioning Soviet Russia by name, he cited the ban of matzoth baking. He pointed out that the matzoth ban constituted “only one incident among many worrisome incidents on the borderline between religious and ethnical discrimination, not to use harsher words.”

The Israel representative said he also wanted to mention the convictions of Russian Jews for alleged economic crimes. “One can possibly hold different opinions about capital punishment being applied to certain offenses, for example, economic contraventions,” he declared. “But I believe all can agree that when in press reports on trials of this kind, time and again care is taken by a press generally not irresponsible, to identify the religious community to which the offender belongs by pointing out that evidence was found in his prayerbook or other evidence hidden in the synagogue, or other not very subtle allusions of this kind, then one’s deep worry and concern is not out of place.”

Dr. Warburg voiced sharp criticism at plans to pass a declaration by the UN concerned only with religious rights and practices. Such a declaration, while a good start, would fall far short of the aims, he said, since even Hitler could have boasted, until Crystal night of 1938, that he permitted Jews to practice their religion–while discriminating against them in every other field of activity, social, cultural, economic and humanitarian.

“It is perhaps singularly appropriate to note,” he said, “that just a few days after this Commission completes its deliberations next Friday, Jews the world over will rejoice in celebrating a Holiday, The Passover, which symbolizes their fight against precisely religious intolerance and their age-old struggle for freedom and human dignity. Tragically, a sizable segment of the world Jewish community–some 2,500,000 to 3,000,000–will be unable to participate fully in this inspiring traditional observance simply because in consequence of–precisely religious intolerance, they are deprived of one of the dietary essentials and great symbols of the religious observance, the matzoth.”

“This is not the only expression of religious intolerance in that part of the world,” Dr. Warburg emphasized. “When in any country the Jewish community is not granted opportunities and means enjoyed by other major religious bodies, we are confronted with a clear example of religious intolerance leading to open discrimination. When, for instance, the Jewish religious community, alone of all major religions, is not authorized to form a central countrywide religious organization or to have formal contacts with its co-religionists in other countries, or to enjoy equal facilities of training its religious teachers and rabbis–that fact constitutes undoubtedly discrimination on religious grounds.

“Such disabilities suffered by one religious group surely show the urgency not only of the early adoption of a declaration on the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance, but also the need for its implementation in practice by all member-states and non-members of the United Nations,” Dr. Warburg stressed.