A sharp protest against pro-Soviet propaganda relating to the treatment of Jews in the USSR, being disseminated here by Aaron Vergelis, editor of the Moscow Yiddish monthly magazine, Sovietisch Heimland, was issued here today by the central committee of the Jewish Community of Uruguay.
Mr. Vergelis, currently on a visit to Latin America, came here last week and has been issuing statements, declaring that there were no anti-Semitic persecutions in the Soviet Union and that there are no denials of cultural and religious rights for Soviet Jewry. In Montevideo, he is the guest of “Our Friend,” a Yiddish daily newspaper published here by pro-Communists.
The Jewish Community of Uruguay is the central body of all Jewry here, including the four main branches — Ashkenazic, Sephardic, German and Hungarian. In its statement, the Jewish Community noted that Mr. Vergelis is not a representative of Soviet Jewry, and denied categorically his contentions about the supposed absence of a “Jewish problem” in the USSR. (In Buenos Aires, it was announced today that Mr. Vergelis had been denied a visa for entry into Argentina.)
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