There will be no revival of Yiddish-language schools in the Soviet Union, Soviet Minister of Education V. P. Yelyutin told a New York Times correspondent prior to his departure with the Khrushchev party to Moscow. At the same time he denied that the Soviet Government discriminates against Jews in educational opportunity.
Mr. Yelyuth said Jews constitute 10 percent of the students in Soviet institutions of higher education although they are only two percent of the Soviet population. He claimed there are no quotas limiting the admission of Jews to any educational institutions. He said there is no point reviving Yiddish-language schools because Jews are widely dispersed among Russians, Ukrainian and other non-Jewish peoples. If Jews were to be taught in Yiddish, they would not be able to work effectively with their non-Jewish fellow-citizens.
The minister did not reply when asked why recent Soviet listings of scientists by ethnic groups had omitted Jews though a 1955 listing showed Jewish scientists to be about 10 percent of the total. A Soviet Embassy attache commented that omission of the Jews had been a “mistake,” the Times reported.
The Premier’s son, Sergei, denied reports that his wife Galina was Jewish. He said the Premier’s past references to having half-Jewish grandchildren reflected the fact that his first son, Leonid, a fighter pilot who died during World War II, was married to a Jewish girl.
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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.
