A delegation of 24 leaders of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) left tonight for Poland after receiving assurances that there was no truth to news reports that a representative of the PLO would place a memorial wreath at the Warsaw Ghetto monument at ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the ghetto uprising next Tuesday.
Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the UAHC and leader of the delegation, said he had cabled the organizers of the commemoration that “the participation of those who murder Jewish women and children and who celebrate the slaughter of innocents would make a hideous mockery of everything for which this commemoration stands.” He asked for assurances that Fuad Yassim, chief of the PLO mission in Warsaw, who had said he would place a wreath at the monument, would not be permitted to do so.
In reply, Schindler said today, he received a telephone call from Szymon Szurmiej, director of the Jewish State Theatre in Poland and a member of the organizing committee, “categorically denying” the report and calling it “a provocation.” Szurmiej said that only Jewish organizations and Polish groups that had fought against the Nazis would be permitted to lay wreaths at the monument.
“Based upon these assurances, ” Schindler said, “we decided to go ahead with our mission.”
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