A worldwide survey by the American Jewish Committee has established that attacks on Zionism and Israel have become code words for anti-Semitism, and that such attacks are being made by a broad range of groups, from the extreme right to the New left. But the survey also found that “there appears to be a waning of the strength of Fascists and other ultra Rightist movements around the world. Naked classical anti-Semitism is increasingly rare in most Western nations.”
A similar survey by the AJ Committee 10 years ago found that the ultra-Rightist movements constituted the main threat to Jews, along with Communist government policy in most of Eastern Europe. Today, in the Soviet Union, the report said, despite the easing of some restrictions on emigration and the departure of several thousands of Jews each year, conditions for the Jews there are worse than they have been in the two decades since the death of Joseph Stalin.
A comprehensive draft text of the report. “Anti-Semitism in the 1970’s: A Survey of the Foreign Scene.” produced with a grant of the Leonard and Rose Sperry International Center for the Resolution of Group Conflict, was made public here by Morris H. Bergreen, Chairman. Foreign Affairs Commission, at the AJ Committee’s 67th annual meeting. A companion report on the state of anti-Semitism in the United States is currently in preparation.
The report points out that a “highly sophisticated Arab propaganda apparatus has been developed, which “has reintroduced overt expression and occasional acts of open anti-Semitism cloaked in anti-Zionist and anti-Israel terms.” The Arab attacks, the survey explains, have attracted a “broad range of individuals and groups, ranging from the extreme right to the New Left financed by vast sums of money emanating from Arab sources, including oil revenues.”
The report details the extent of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world. In the Soviet Union, it says in part, overt and covert anti-Semitism abound, anti-Semitic publications are frequent, and anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic propaganda is blatant. Jews have been pushed out of most positions of importance in the government, and though the proportion of Jews with higher education is still large, Jewish students are finding it more difficult to get into better schools.
INCIDENTS IN EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA
In some moderate, pro-Western Arab countries such as Morocco and Tunisia, the security of Jews has been protected by the authorities, while in other countries, such as Syria and Iraq, persecution and murder of the tiny Jewish remnant continues.
An upsurge of anti-Semitic incidents in Italy, combined with the resurgence of the neo-Fascist movement, has shaken the Jewish community there. In France, strong Arab propaganda efforts and New Left hostility to Israel have tarnished the image of Jews among some young people. However, the country has a new, strong law against group defamation and group slander, which has already been applied against an editor who reprinted an anti-Semitic article.
In Germany, the far right anti-Semitic organizations that flourished a few years ago have disintegrated and New Left influence has also slipped, though Arab organizations are quite active. There is also an active pro-Arab propaganda effort in Great Britain, although most British Jews feel quite secure, as do most Dutch Jews. There are frequent reminders that anti-Semitism has a longer tradition than hospitality to Jews in South Africa. Jews are able to assert their Jewish identity without hindrance but they cannot, without serious risk, take an active part in the struggle against apartheid.
Jews in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, where the bulk of the continent’s Jews live, are concerned about a flood of anti-Israel propaganda, fomented by Arab League offices, that the Jews fear could stir a new wave of anti-Jewish feeling. Since 1964. there have been many synagogue bombings and other anti-Semitic acts in Argentina, coincidental with increased Arab propaganda activities. In Brazil, where there has been a remarkable economic upsurge, organized anti-Semitism is not a problem. In Chile, political unrest has led to the departure of about 20 percent of Chile’s Jews in the past two years but President Salvador Allende has spoken out strongly against anti-Semitic Arab propaganda. In Mexico, an intense Arab propaganda effort has been aided by the activities of both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
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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.
