Rome Parley Appeals to Moscow to Revoke Ban on Jewish Culture

A resolution calling upon the Soviet Government to lift its prohibitions against Yiddish culture, to repress anti-Semitic articles in the Soviet press, and to permit the emigration of Jews, was adopted here last night at the conclusion of a conference of leading Italian intellectuals which was called to discuss the situation of the Jews in the USSR.

The conference, attended by many leading non-Jewish writers and other Italians concerned with freedom of religion, was characterized by Leopold Picardi, president of the Italian Association for Religious Freedom, as a continuation of the conference held by leading world intellectuals at Paris, last fall, when a similar resolution was adopted. The session here, Dr. Picardi said, was intended “not to criticize Soviet institutions, but to analyze Jewish problems within existing institutions, advocating respect for their cultural and religious aspirations.”

The resolution adopted by the session, to be presented to the Soviet Ambassador in Rome, “requests revocation of the Soviet ban against Jewish schools, theatres and newspapers; calls upon the Soviet central authorities to repress the publication of anti-Jewish attacks which have appeared recently in the Soviet press; and calls upon the Soviet Government to grant permission to emigrate to Jews desiring to do so, thus allowing the reunion of families disembered by Nazi persecutions, wherever they are, outside the USSR.”

The resolution was adopted following addresses by Prof. Arangio Ruiz, president of the Italian-Israel Friendship Association; Francois Feito, prominent Italian writer; Daniel Carpi, an Israeli writer; Sen. Umberto Terracini, and Dr. Picardi.

Mr. Feito told the session that, although the anti-Jewish terror of the Stalin regime has ended in Russia, “there is uneasiness among those in the Soviet Union seeking the preservation of their Jewish heritage.” Mr. Carpi stated that Jewish culture, which had blossomed in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, “suffered repressions under the Stalin regime, and those repressions are continued now so that Russian Jewry faces the danger of complete suffocation.”

Declaring that the problem of Russian Jewry is “not dramatic, but only difficult,” Sen. Terracini, a Communist, stated that “the only real problem raised by the speakers concerns discrimination against Yiddish culture–a problem which is gradually finding a solution.” In reply, Prof. Picardi said that Sen. Terracini’s defense of the Soviet attitude toward Russian Jews is “inadequate.”