Like Brezhnev, too, the new General Secretary, chose in his “human rights” work, to denounce anti-Semitism as a “nationalistic aberration” which is “alien to socialism.” Brezhnev had condemned anti-Semitism in this manner, extremely rare for a Party leader, at the 26th Party Congress in February, 1981. The condemnation had no doubt been a response to the sharp criticism to which the USSR had been subjected in the area of anti-Semitism at the Madrid Conference of Helsinki signatories.
Brezhnev may also have been fearful about the upsurge of especially virulent anti-Jewish propaganda and activity within the USSR which could produce unmanageable and dangerous consequences. On the other hand, Chemenko coupled Zionism with anti-Semitism as a “nationalistic aberration” (as Brezhnev had also done), which only serves to encourage the bigot who masquerades his Jew-baiting within an anti-Zionist framework. Nonetheless, the overall intent of the Chemenko warning is to discourage particularly virulent or poisonous outbursts of anti-Semitism.
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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.
