Suppression of Judaism and Zionism in Russia Condemned and Plea Made to End Policy of Silence About

Condemnation of the persecution of Judaism and Zionism in Soviet Russia and a plea to end the policy of silence by American Jews on the sufferings to which the Jews in Russia are subject, was voiced in an address at a conference on the suppression of Judaism, held Sunday under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress, which was attended by about 100 delegates, representing 23 organizations.

Dr. Stephen Wise, whose speech came after a number of attacks had been made on Russian Jewish colonization, declared that “even if the exponents of Russian Jewish colonization would claim that a half of the Jews in Russia are being settled on the lands, and although their claims are wild enough, they have never made such a wild claim, I would refuse to bargain away the moral and spiritual rights of the remaining million and a half.” Deploring the failure of American Jews, who knew the facts about the terrible sufferings of the Russian Jews, to speak out, Dr. Wise said, “against no religious group in Russia is there the merciless ferocity of attitude that there is against the Jews.” He added that the 3,000,000 Jews in Russia constituted the great reservoir of Jewish culture and learning and that they should be protected against persecution.

Reports of the conditions faced by the Jews in Russia were presented in papers by Leo Glassman and Prof. M. Kroll of Paris, the latter being read by Congressman Nathan Perlman. In both papers were recited facts about the conversions of synagogues, uprooting of Jewish cemeteries, hounding of rabbis and scholars, persecutions of teachers, and the exile and imprisonment of Zionists. The campaign against schechita, the oppression of Jews who would practice circumcision and other traditional Jewish customs, were all portrayed in the two reports.

Glassman declared that the “Soviet government is guided purely by politi-

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cal expediency in its treatment of various religious groups.”

Deploring the “war on God that the Soviet government has declared Congressman Hamilton Fish declared that American Jews should make known the facts which even the Communists do not deny. The teaching of atheism, the campaign for religious extermination, should not be kept hidden, he said. The American people should be informed and when they know, they will no longer keep silent, said Congressman Fish who promised that so long as the Soviet regime persists in its terroristic policy against religion and against religious teaching and teachers, he will oppose American recognition of Russia. Mr. Fish felt that the matter was one not only for the Jew but for the Christians as well.

Congressman Perlman declared that the situation of the Jews in Russia today was on a par with that existing during the Czarist days. “The restrictions may be of a different type but their sum and substance are as baneful if not more so, than those which prevailed in the pre-Bolshevik era.”

The conference adopted the following statement as the basis for a resolution:

“This conference of representatives of Jewish organizations convened by the American Jewish Congress, is for the purpose of calling public attention to the grievous wrongs from which the Jews in Russia are suffering, and which a wall of official restrictions has thus far kept from the outer world. Especially during the past two years, reports of the hardships and tribulations overwehlming the millions of Jews in Soviet Russia have come with such frequency and from such authentic sources that the thinking and informed Jews of America are beginning to fear for everything hallowed in Jewish life and tradition, whether of a religious, cultural, or moral character. In the face of such conditions, unprecedented even in Russia, we cannot remain passive or silent without violating every sense of loyalty and devotion, alike to our people and to our sacred heritage.

“The extreme and ubiquitous suffering brought about by political and economic changes in Russia have sufficiently taxed the fortitude and endurance of its Jewish population. When, however, the Jewish fate takes on the intolerable aspect of crushing everything that appeals to the Jewish soul, we are overwhelmed with despair.

“We must promptly and unremittingly proceed to bring to an end methods and practices calculated to make spiritual orphans of the Jewish children in Russia. There must be no further converting of synagogues and religious schools into warehouses and clubs. We can no longer tolerate the profane uprooting of Jewish cemeteries, the hounding of rabbis and scholars, and the exile and imprisonment of Zionists. The horror of all this is not mitigated by its perpetuation in the name of freedom and of high humanity. And the one way that lies open to us is the way to the court of public opinion. The facts must be made available to the larger masses of our people and must be circulated beyond the mere confines of the Jewish community, so that all right-thinking men and women of every race and faith may join hands with us.

“The Jewish contribution to civilization is in the realm of the spirit and we must defend that realm with all our strength and against all odds.”

Following that the committee on resolutions adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, that the President of the American Jewish Congress be authorized to creat a committee to consist of representatives of the American Jewish Congress and other organizations, with power to cooperate. The function of the committee shall be to further investigate and consider all facts relative to the persecution of Zionists, the proscriptions of the Hebrew tongue and the suppression of Jewish religious and cultural activities in Soviet Russia.

The committee is hereby empowered to call the facts to the attention of the government of Soveit Russia and to the attention of all peoples, and either independently or in cooperation with other bodies, to take such action as it may deem necessary.”