Sen. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota raised the question of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union during his recent eight-hour talk with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev and the Premier denied its existence, David Lawrence, publisher of the magazine U.S. News and World Report, reported today in his nationally syndicated newspaper column.
Mr. Lawrence quoted a recorded transcript of a telephone conversation he had with Sen. Humphrey in London yesterday, in which the Senator made the disclosure to him. Mr. Lawrence said he had asked Sen. Humphrey if he had raised the religious question during the Khrushchev interview and Sen. Humphrey replied:
“I asked about anti-Semitism, for example, in the Soviet Union and about the whole question of religious freedom there. Mr. Khrushchev denied the existence of anti-Semitism and said there was a degree of religious freedom–in other words that people could go to their churches. Of course I pointed out that there were very few of them to go to. He was not responsive, I might say, in this.”
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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.