The sixth World Congress for Jewish Studies closed here yesterday with a call to scientists all over the world to help secure freedom of movement for scientists and researchers everywhere. The call was a protest against the refusal of Soviet authorities to allow Russian scientists to attend the Congress in which 1400 delegates from 24 countries and Israel participated.
Prof. Ephraim E. Urbach of the Hebrew University, president of the Congress, disclosed at the opening session a week ago that 27 researchers in Jewish studies from the USSR had been invited. He said some of them wrote to him stating that they wanted to attend but were prevented. But delegates from three Communist bloc countries–Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Rumania–did attend. There was an 11-member delegation from Spain but only one member was a Jew.
Another resolution adopted at the closing session called for an intensification of Jewish studies all over the world. Prof. Urbach said the status of Jewish studies has risen everywhere, both in research and teaching. He indirectly criticized Israel’s news media which showed little interest in the Congress.
President Ephraim Katzir, an eminent biophysicist, was guest of honor at the opening last Monday. He expressed hope that researchers of Judaism would see the whole picture of the Jewish people through the narrow framework of their individual fields.
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