Soviet leaders and the press “have been stung by criticism abroad into denying that anti-Semitism exists in the Soviet Union,” the New York Times reported today from Moscow.
The report noted that the change in policy resulted from foreign complaints about the high percentage of Jews among those accused publicly of economic crimes with an estimated 60 percent of those executed for these crimes reported to have been Jews.
The paper said that observers in Moscow doubt that the fundamental position of the Jews in the Soviet Union has been improved. It is believed, however, that Premier Khrushchev’s statements and articles in the provincial press have inhibited local manifestations of anti-Semitism.
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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.
