Aron Vergelis, editor of the Sovietish Heimland published in Moscow, and Robert Rozhdestvensky, a prominent Soviet poet, asserted here today with great heat that there is no anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, the latter insisting “a Jewish problem does not exist in the Soviet Union” and those in this country who say so are interested only in “interfering with the relaxation of tensions” between the United States and the USSR.
Mr. Vergelis and the Russian poet were members of a three-man group of Russians who held a press conference today at the headquarters of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. Most of the questions directed at the group, which was headed by another well-known Russian writer, Boris Polovoi, concerned the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union.
Both Mr. Vergelis and Rozhdestvensky avoided direct answers in regard to closure of synagogues by Soviet authorities and denial to the Jews of the Soviet Union of cultural rights. However, Mr. Vergelis did produce for the television cameras and other photographers a large colorful poster announcing in Russian a performance by Yiddish artists and said that there are more Jewish theatrical performances in the Soviet Union than there are in the United States.
Challenged about the high percentage of Jews given the death sentence for alleged economic crimes in the Soviet Union, Mr. Vergelis said that the victims were sentenced merely as criminals and that no anti-Semitism was involved.
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