Soviet Ambassador Georgi Zarubin was asked today to establish the fate of 450 Jewish writers, poets, artists and painters in the USSR about whom no news has been received since 1948. The inquiry to Mr. Zarubin was addressed by the Congress for Jewish Culture which insisted on information as to whether the Jewish intellectuals are still alive, their whereabouts, and whether they are permitted to go on with their literary and cultural activities in the Yiddish language.
“We must further dwell on the sad fact that while books appear in Russia in many languages of various nationalities, while theatre performances are rendered in these languages, Yiddish, the language of a people who paid the highest price in the struggle against the brutal Nazi regime, is excluded from public usage,” the memorandum to the Soviet ambassador states.
“Jewish public opinion has the right and the duty to demand official and concrete information as to the fate of the Jewish writers and their families, and especially as to what measures your government is taking to re-establish the right to exist of the Jewish press, Jewish theatre, the Jewish school, Yiddish literature and public assembly,” the memorandum concludes.
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