Leading U.S. Newspapers Condemn Soviet Charges Against Jews

Leading American newspapers were unanimous today in condemning the Soviet anti-Jewish crusade and in pointing out that the arrest of the nine doctors in Moscow, six of whom are Jews, fits the pattern of the policy of open anti-Semitism started by the Kremlin in 1949 when Jews were branded as “cosmopolites.”

The New York Times said in an editorial that “taking one more leaf out of Hitler’s book, the Stalin regime has now openly and unmistakably adopted anti-Semitism as a weapon in its internal dissensions and as an instrument of both Communist tyranny and Soviet imperialism. ” The editorial points out that “undeterred by worldwide revulsion against a revival of the Nazi madness, the Soviet rulers have put their stamp of approval on it, and neither their disclaimers of prejudice nor their differentiations between Jews and Zionists can disguise their adoption of the Hitler technique.”

The New York Post stated editorially: “Humanity has learned a lot about anti-Semitism. It will be more difficult for Stalin than it was for Hitler to mask the meaning of his program. As we read of the Russian-invented Jewish ‘plot,’ we are reminded that Stalin has simply edited Hitler’s lines. The Nazis cried that the Jews were behind the Soviet conspiracy. Now Stalin says the Jews are running the anti-Soviet conspiracy.”

The Herald Tribune asserted today that “a wide new purge may be opening up, political rather than anti-Semitic in its basic motivations.” The World Telegram and Sun said that the Moscow charges are an “old, old story” of the rulers of a country attempting to divert attention from troubles on the home front.