Pleas that the United Nations stimulate the Soviet Union to permit Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel, and try to induce Egypt to stop forcing Jews leaving that country to give up their citizenship, were voiced here today by Dr. Maurice Perlzweig, representing the World Jewish Congress.
Dr. Perlzweig addressed the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, which is debating recommendations to governments to implement the rights of all citizens of all nations to leave their own country or to return to their own country. In accordance with the procedural rules of the subcommission, Dr. Perlzweig did not mention either Russia or Egypt. However, in the context of the subcommission’s debate, and because he represented a world Jewish organization, the 12 members of the subcommission indicated they understood Dr. Perlzweig’s references clearly.
In regard to Russian Jewry, the World Jewish Congress representative stated: “It is a fact of the contemporary world that many thousands of people belonging to special ethnic and religious groups are moving from countries of their residence to new places of settlement; This applies not only to Jewish communities. They are leaving under the impact of conditions which have made it impossible for them to maintain their cultural and religious traditions.”
Indicating he was directing his remarks toward the Communist countries, Dr. Perlz-weig named Poland which, he noted, has dealt with this problem “with great human insight.” Referring to the fact that Poland has permitted Jews to emigrate to Israel, he said Poland “has done everything possible to facilitate the re-establishment of the life of communities broken by war and massacre, realizing that often a new life was possible only in a new land.” He urged the subcommission to facilitate the emigration of persons wishing to reunite with their families, as Poland has done by allowing Jews to emigrate to Israel, “on purely humanitarian grounds.”
Concerning Egypt, the subcommission has among its “working papers” a report from the Cairo Government which admitted that persons emigrating from the UAR must give up their citizenship. Forcing citizens to pay such “a price for emigration,” said Dr. Perlz-weig, “not only creates great hardships but is in clear conflict with the repeatedly expressed views of the international community against the creation of statelessness.”
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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.
