Nikita Khrushchev, head of the Soviet Communist Party, defended a curb on the number of Jews in the Soviet professions in a conversation with a French Socialist delegation in Moscow last month, the Jewish Daily Forward reported here this week-end in a cable from Paris.
The dispatch said that Mr. Khrushchev admitted that the number of Jews in the professions had been restricted to the relative proportion of Jews to the general population between one and one and a half percent. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Mr. Khrushchev reportedly told the French group, Jews occupied a disproportionately large number of such positions because relatively few trained people were available. Now, he continued, there are many more trained Russians and the high proportion of Jews in responsible positions is no longer needed.
The Communist leader is reported as having stated to the French delegation that the Soviet Government and received frequent protests from various Soviet republics that too many Jews held “desirable” posts. He pressed Lazar M. Kaganovich, then the only Jew in the Cabinet– Mr. Kaganovich resigned yesterday–to confirm his statements to the French delegation Mr. Kaganovich said only “correct,” the French delegates reported.
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