Soviet Embassy Publication on Trial in Paris for Spreading Anti-semitism

The Soviet propaganda services were accused before a French court today of practicing “gross and old fashioned” anti-Semitism and “spreading racial hatred.” The charges were levelled by a score of experts and witnesses, including a Nobel Prize winner, Rene Cassin, at the opening session of a suit brought by the International League Against Anti-Semitism (LICA) against a Soviet Embassy publication.

The official “Review of Soviet Information Services” wrote last Sept. that “According to the fundamental conception (of the Bible) the world should belong to the followers of the powerful God Johovah.” The article added that “According to the rules (of the Talmud and Torah) entire generations of Israelis have been inculcated from the cradle with the hatred of other nations.” LICA, basing itself on French law, sued the publication for “incitement to racial hatred and anti-Semitism.”

Former Senate President Gaston Monerville who introduced the anti-racist legislation in parliament testified that the law “applies in both spirit and letter” to this case. “It was for cases such as this that I introduced the law,” he said. Another witness, French Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan, told the court “never since Nazi days has such hate propaganda been published in France.” He called the case “very serious” and asked the court “to see that justice is done.”

Prof. Cassin told the court that as a man familiar with Jewish teachings and traditions, he found the Soviet Embassy charges “without the slightest foundation.” An expert on Soviet history, Gregory Svirtsky, said that the same accusation exists in a book “on the Jews and on the necessity to eliminate them from public life” published in St. Petersburg in 1906. Svirtsky indicated that the phrase was probably “lifted” by the Soviet propaganda straight out of the Tzarist publication. Among the witnesses were two Catholic priests, Father Rimet and the Rev. J.P. Braun. Both said they were “shocked and surprised” at the accusations levelled by the Soviet at the Jewish people as a whole.

A verdict is expected early next month. The court refused to declare itself incompetent as the defense requested. Presiding Judge Simone Rozes refused to consider the bulletin covered by the Embassy’s diplomatic immunity and claimed the argument advanced by the defense of possible harm to Franco-Soviet relations was not pertinent to the case.