Senator Jacob K. Javits today called upon the President of the United States to instruct the State Department to make a direct protest to the Soviet Government on the discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union.
The Senator told a packed B’nai B’rith audience here that precedent for such action was established in 1890 when the United States lodged a formal protest with the Czarist regime against mistreatment of Jews. In addition, the New York lawmaker declared: “Enough evidence is piling up against the Soviet position so that government to government protest is in order.”
In place of direct intervention, Sen. Javits complained, the State Department has suggested protests by private organizations without reference to the U.S. Government and has said that it will continue to raise the question “from time to time” in the United Nations. “I feel that all this is completely inadequate considering the experiences of the world with the critical dangers of anti-Semism to humanity, peace and justice, ” the Senator charged.
The New York lawmaker said that the last direct protest from this Government against recent Soviet mistreatment of Jews came in September 1959 when former President Eisenhower expressed “our concern” to Soviet Premier Khrushchev during the latter’s Washington visit. Since that time, charged Javits, “we have apparently made no direct effort to get the facts nor have we made any direct protest on Soviet persecution of Jews to the Soviet Government. ” Sen. Javits was presented with a plaque honoring him as Brooklyn B’nai B’rith Man of the Year.
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