Khrushchev Exit Doubted As Cue to Early Change on U.S.S.R. Jews

Students of the Soviet scene saw no indication here tonight pointing to any immediate change in the Kremlin’s policies affecting Jews in the USSR, as a result of the removal of Nikita S. Khrushchev from his twin posts of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the USSR Communist Party.

It was pointed out that, whatever overall changes might follow Mr. Khrushchev’s retirement in other fields, there is little likelihood of any early shift in regard to the situation of Soviet Jewry. Little was known here thus far about the attitude toward Jews on the part of the new Soviet leadership that has emerged in the persons of Acting Premier Alexei Kosygin, First Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, or Mihkail Suslov, the Communist leader who delivered the report to the Central Committee, recommending Mr. Khrushchev’s retirement due to “old age and disability.”

Suslov has been Khrushchev’s top protege, and Brezhnev and Kosygin have been members of his innermost circle. But, while it is held certain that they have agreed with Khrushchev’s anti-Jewish policies, there is no proof that they were personally anti-Semitic as Khrushchev has been for years. On the other hand, there was no reason to foresee any moves toward a more liberal Jewish policy on the part of the new leadership, which may find itself much too busy with other world affairs to involve itself immediately in the “Jewish problem.”