Soviet Arrest of Rabbis Seen As Official Anti-jewish Campaign

R.N. Carvalho, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, declared here tonight that the bringing of criminal charges “against distinguished rabbis and leading members of the Jewish communities” by the Soviet Union and Bulgarian Governments was evidence “of an official anti-Jewish campaign.”

Speaking at a meeting of the Association, the Jewish leader said it would be “dangerous” because of “scant knowledge” to describe the campaign as “ordinary” anti-Semitism. “We must pray and hope that it will not lead to excesses against Jews such as those which took place during the Stalinist period,” he declared.

“These further attempts to undermine the leadership of the Jewish communities” in Eastern Europe,” he said, seemed to indicate another official effort to assimilate those communities; “Ever so often the Communist authorities plunge into a series of mysterious accusations and arrests which are probably designed to make clear their objection to Jewish aspirations and their determination not to allow their Jewish citizens any outlets for those aspirations,” he stated.

He expressed “alarm” over reports from Algeria and said that the situation currently both in the French colony and in France provided little hope for any early settlement of the Algerian conflict. While that situation remains unresolved, the Jewish community in Algeria will continue to be in peril, he told the meeting.