Officials of the Ontario Science Center have demanded that the Soviet space exhibit at the Center stop distributing all literature after discovering that the Soviets were handing out an anti-Semitic booklet entitled “The Sword of David.” The 78-page booklet states that the Torah and Talmud contain advice to Jews recommending deception of non-Jews and taking their property and money. Soviet officials claimed that the booklet, published in 1977 by Novosti, was not anti-Semitic but anti-Zionist.
Immediately upon discovering the distribution of this anti-Semitic booklet, Tuzo Wilson, director general of the Science Center, took immediate action to ### its further distribution. Rabbi Jordan Pearson, national chairman of the Joint Community Relations Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and B’nai B’rith, stated that the booklet was further evidence of Soviet movement from passive acceptance of anti-Semitism to active fomenting of anti-Jewish feelings.
Ben Kayfetz, director of the CJC, said the booklet abused Canadian hospitality and all rules of international scientific exchange. A Soviet space ship exhibit which has been in Toronto since February is ending this week and going to Australia.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.