A publication bearing the official imprimatur of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which attacks Jews and the Jewish religion by using Nazi-like caricatures and an extensive glossary of crude anti-Semitic diatribes, was shown at a press conference here today by Morris B. Abram, president of the American Jewish Committee. Mr. Abram is also the United States representative at the United Nations Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
The 190-page, paper-back book, entitled “Judaism Without Embellishment,” was reported by Mr. Abram to have been published in 12, 000 copies. He said two copies were available in the Western world. The publication bears the imprint of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The author of the book is M. K. Kychko. It carries the imprint “Kiev, 1963.”
Mr. Abram charged that the book is a “hodgepodge of misinformation, distortion, malicious gossip and insulting references to Jews and Judaism,” He said the book “venomously attacks Jewish holidays and the ethics of Judaism as well as age-old Jewish traditions and practices.”
One cartoon in the book, shown by Mr. Abram, displays a hook nosed character wearing phylacteries and dipping into a plateful of money, and is captioned “All Sorts of Swindlers and Cheats Find Refuge in the Synagogue.” Another caricature shows three men lighting under a Star of David and is captioned “The Swindlers in Religious Articles Sometimes Wage Battles Among Themselves Over the Division of the Spoils.” A Third illustration shows a hook-nosed man licking a boot embellished with the swastika and is captioned “During the Years of Hitlerite Occupation, the Zionist Leaders Served the Fascists.”
The book declares that the Talmud denigrates work, advocates business, morally degrades man. It adds that the Talmud also scorns labor and the laborer, and divides people into masters and servants. A foreword to the book, written by a Professor A. Vedensky, states that the reader “will learn a great deal of the subtleties of insidious Jewish morals.”
Mr. Abram, who said he will pass on the book to the State Department, declared he would also take up the matter with Boris Ivanov, Soviet member of the U. N. Subcommission. He noted that the book was obtained from a traveler in the Ukraine who brought it to the American Jewish Committee.
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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.
