Soviet Jews Contend There is No Anti-semitism, Denounce Zionism

A Jewish member of the Red Army Ensemble which is performing here, told a press conference that anti-Semitism does not exist in the Soviet Union. Sergeant Karl Kaplan, a singer in the troupe, told newsmen that he felt “no different from his non-Jewish colleagues of the ensemble.” His words were carefully noted by several youthful members of Herut-Hatzohar who attended the press conference. They reported that several other Jewish members of the troupe appeared at the conference mouthing the same denials, but all of the Soviet Jewish artists, the Herut members disclosed, had admitted that they were not “practising Jews.” Meanwhile, Jewish sources in Russia and abroad see the forthcoming World Communist Party congress in Moscow as an event that will determine the future course of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. Some believe that the recent easing of policy on the granting of exit visas to Jews stemmed from a desire to avoid embarrassing incidents when the Soviet Communist Party plays host to Communist delegations from all over the world next month. They fear that once the congress adjourns, Soviet authorities will revert to the old restrictive policies on emigration. One observer in Moscow told Western newsmen yesterday that the Soviets may “postpone” additional emigration to Israel until the furore created by Jewish emigration demands dies down in the West.

An attempt to advance the impression that a majority of Russian Jews do not want to emigrate was believed to be the purpose behind yesterday’s meeting in Moscow’s Great Synagogue. Some 60 rabbis, cantors and Jewish lay leaders from all over Russia asserted the well-being of Soviet Jewry and denounced Zionist interference and the dirty slander from abroad.” Aspects of the meeting indicated that it was “staged” for the benefit of Soviet domestic news media and the external propaganda agency, Novosti. Western newsmen were not informed of the meeting but were alerted to it by unofficial sources. When they arrived at the synagogue they found the doors closed but were eventually admitted after some deliberation. One observer described the gathering as a “mini-Brussels conference” in reverse. In addition to rabbis and religious functionaries from Moscow. Leningrad, Kiev, Odessa, and Daku, Jews attended from more than a dozen remote cities and provinces in the Ukraine, Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia. Newsmen reported that most speakers, including Moscow’s Chief Rabbi, Yehuda Leib Levin, read from prepared texts and that all but three of the delegates appeared to be over 50 years old. Outside the synagogue a group of 40 Jews who want to emigrate to Israel protested to newsmen that those inside did not speak for Soviet Jewry.