Sen. Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania Republican, said today in a Senate speech that a shift away from “anti-Semitic prejudices” at the 23rd congress of the Soviet Communist Party, now in session at Moscow, would be the first signal to the world of a major change in Russian policy. He also called on the Soviet Union to permit emigration of Jews to rejoin families separated during the upheavals of the 20th Century, by allowing departure for Israel, America, or elsewhere.
Sen. Scott said: “One great area of Soviet life has been left virtually unaffected by the gradual departure from Stalinist policy — and that is the continuing Soviet policy of repressing the Jewish community, of destroying its spirit, of preventing a revival of Jewish cultural and religious institutions.” He asserted that “the Jews remain a pointed exception to a noticeable process of liberalization occurring inside the USSR today. Of all the ethnic, religious and cultural groups in that country, the Jews are the only ones that are denied their natural right to group existence.”
The Senator said “the irony of it all is that the Soviet Union is unique even among Communist countries for its repressive discrimination against the Jews. In Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and other East European countries, the Jewish communities are not only permitted to exist; their communal, cultural and even religious institutions are supported and encouraged by the State.”
He stressed that “this Soviet Party congress has a historic opportunity to redress this wrong. Let it take decisions to restore and enhance Jewish religious and cultural institutions. Let this congress undertake a major nationwide educational campaign to eradicate anti-Semitism in all walks of Soviet life, so that the Soviet atmosphere may be freed of this poison.”
The Senator urged: “Above all, let this Soviet Communist conclave take a decision to permit free emigration for the many tens of thousands of Soviet Jews whose families were shattered by the traumatic events of the 20th Century war and holocaust, and who ardently seek to rejoin their remaining kin in the United States, Israel, and other countries. This would be an act of justice and of mercy.”
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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.
