Russia Still Anti-jewish, American Jewish Committee Charges

The American Jewish Committee today adopted a resolution emphasizing that it “will continue unabated its efforts to expose the striking variance between the Soviet Union’s professed opposition to racial and religious discrimination and its actual practices.”

The resolution, which was adopted at the closing session of the two-day meeting of the AJC executive, said that the campaign of anti-Semitism in Russia and its satellites has not stopped even after Russia’s “open confession of guilt” in the case of the 15 physicians.

“There is no evidence of the abandonment of the discriminatory and repressive policies pursued for many years by the Soviet Union and its satellites against Jews and other religious and ethnic groups,” the resolution said. “The fundamental policies and attitudes of the Soviet Union and the satellite countries towards Jews and Judaism have not changed.”

The session, attended by about 100 leaders from all parts of the country, called upon the U.S. to support the United Nations human rights program. In a resolution it strongly denied that this program is a threat to American institutions.

“Actually, it would strengthen the United States by enlarging the area of a freedom throughout the world, which is a basic objective of American foreign policy,” the resolution pointed out. “It would be a most potent weapon against Communism. This is demonstrated by the fact that the Soviet Union and its satellites have refused to approve the declaration of human rights, which the free nations have overwhelmingly accepted.”

Deploring the failure of Congress to respond to widespread public appeals for revision of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Law, the executive committee, in another resolution, said that the Administration’s request for legislation to admit 120,000 non-quota immigrants a year for the next two years was “only a first step” in liberalizing immigration policies.

LISTS OBJECTIONS TO MCCARRAN-WALTER IMMIGRATION LAW

The AJC executive group reaffirmed the organization’s opposition to the McCarran-Walter immigration law on the grounds that: “1. It is a law of exclusion rather than a law of immigration, and continues special national preferences inconsistent with traditional American concepts of democracy; 2. It creates invidious distinctions between native born and naturalized citizens; and 3. It establishes unnecessarily harsh rules for deportation without recognized procedural safeguards.”

Irving M. Engel, chairman of the AJC executive committee, told the session that the present immigration laws of the United States are “loaded” against certain nationality groups. He urged that President Eisenhower ask Congress to substitute “a sound, American method of selecting immigrants, instead of the outmoded national origins system.”

“It is to be regretted,” Mr. Engel said, “that when President Eisenhower recommended passage of emergency legislation for the admission of 240,000 refugees over a two-year period and proposed study of the administrative provisions of the McCarran-Walter Act, he did not, at the same time, ask for the elimination of the national origins method of selecting immigrants.”

Jacob Blaustein, president of the AJC, who spoke last night, said that there has been no evidence of any improvement of conditions for Jews or other religious and ethnic minorities inside Russia and its satellites despite official Soviet disavowal of an open policy of anti-Semitism. He said that “the world is still waiting for Russia to bolster with some honest action its professions of innocence of anti-Semitic charges.”

“There has been an increase of anti-Semitism over the satellite radio broadcasts,” he stated. “While Russian and satellite publications have switched from open to subtle anti-Semitism, Russian officials have publicly reviled Israel. Anti-Semitism continues to rage in satellite East Germany, along with a violent campaign against Protestant church groups.”