The Soviet Government stood accused today before the United Nations of charges that it has done nothing to suppress the anti-Jewish acts outlined in memoranda submitted by Jewish organizations to the UN Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. The group adopted a resolution this morning condemning “manifestations of anti-Semitism and other forms of racial and religious intolerance of a similar nature.”
The resolution urged the Subcommission’s parent body, the Human Rights Commission, to call for “specific measures” to combat such manifestations through legislative enactments by member-governments of the United Nations. The Subcommission’s resolution also leaves the door open to further study of the general topic, “should circumstances” render such further debate necessary.
The resolution requested the Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization “to emphasize the importance of drawing attention in educational programs of member countries to the dangers and evils of racial, national and religious hatred, including anti-Semitism.” It recommended that a resolution be placed ultimately before the UN General Assembly which would call for “specific measures to forestall and eliminate manifestations of racial, national and religious hatred in different parts of the world.”
The charge that the Soviet Government has done nothing so far about the accusations leveled by Jewish organizations in their memoranda to the United Nations was voiced in the Subcommission by Col. John M. Raymond, United States delegate. The American representative also noted that Soviet delegate V. I. Sapozhnikov had been silent in his speeches in the Subcommission on the specific charges against the Soviet Government contained in the statement submitted by the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations dealing with Anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. Col. Raymond pointed out that the Russian made no reply to the charge by Dr. Isaac Lewin, of the Agudas Israel World Organization, concerning the publication in the Communist press of the Daghestan Soviet Republic of the blood libel against Jews there.
“It leaves us wondering what the situation is” in the Soviet Union, the U.S. delegate stated. The Soviet delegate replied that he regrets that Col. Raymond referred to “slanderous and provocative” material, but refrained from making any specific reply to the facts presented in the documents submitted by the Jewish groups.
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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.
