U.S. Communists Condemn Soviet Anti-semitic Pamphlet

Gus Hall, leader of the Communist Party of the United States, and an editorial in the Morning Freiheit, pro-Communist Yiddish daily newspaper, today condemned as “anti-Semitism” the notorious pamphlet “Judaism Without Embellishment” published recently by the Ukrainian Academy of Science at Kiev. The Freiheit editorial called upon Soviet authorities to “punish” those who resort to anti-Semitism in the course of the Soviet Union’s campaign against all religions.

Mr. Hall issued the following statement: “I have not read the pamphlet. I have only seen reproductions of parts of the pamphlet, and I don’t know whether the copies circulated in this country are forgeries. There is no doubt in my mind, however, about the anti-Semitic character of what I have seen. Such stereotyped, libelous caricatures of the Jewish people must be clearly condemned without ambiguity–no matter where they come from. Certainly they can have no place in Communist or progressive literature.”

Referring to the anti-Semitic caricatures in the Ukrainian pamphlet, Mr. Hall said: “Whatever the intention might be of the artist who drew those cartoons, such stereotypes have a specific, outspoken, anti-Semitic meaning, and their use has precisely the same effect that they would have if used by those who are permeated with the grossest anti-Semitism.” The Communist leader declared that, regardless of what may be learned about the origin of the pamphlet, the existence of the booklet must not be used as a “smoke screen” for anti-Soviet attacks.

MOSCOW MUM ON THE ANTI-SEMITIC CARICATURES; IGNORES INQUIRY

The Freiheit revealed, in its editorial, that it had queried its correspondent I. Moscow, who is on the staff of Novosti, an official Soviet Government news agency, asking whether such a pamphlet had indeed been issued in Kiev, and about details in connection with the booklet. The inquiry, stated the newspaper, was cabled three weeks ago and, to date, no reply has been received.

Noting that the existence of the pamphlet had been acknowledged in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights a week ago by the Ukrainian representative to that body, Prof, Peter E. Nedbailo, the Freiheit declared: “It must be stated openly that the caricatures in that book remind one of the well-known caricatures of Jews in anti-Semitic publications. These are caricatures of an anti-Semitic ‘style.’ This must be stated openly and clearly.”

Asserting that publication of a pamphlet like “Judaism Without Embelliehment” cannot be excused on the grounds that it was part of an over-all Soviet campaign against all religions, the editorial asked: “How is it possible that such a booklet against religion, in this case against the Jewish religion, should contain such caricatures?”

Those who perpetrated this act, stated the Freiheit, “made a very serious error. Believers have the same rights as non-believers. The caricatures are very harmful and must be sharply condemned. They play into the hands of anti-Semites generally, also in America, and–in the hands of the anti-Semitic remnants of the Czarist days and of those who were left over from the Nazi occupation (of the Soviet Union).”

JEWISH COMMUNISTS IN U.S. FURIOUS; DEMAND PROBE AND PUNISHMENT

Insisting that the Soviet authorities should start an official investigation into the publication by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences of such a malicious and inciting anti-Semitic book, the Freiheit, reflecting the sentiments of Jewish Communists in the United States, said in its editorial:

“There must be, in our opinion, an investigation to find out whether some persons among those remnants did not have a hand in the making of those caricatures and in the publication of ‘Judaism Without Embellishment.’ Here, an anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet act was performed. It is possible that, under the cloak of a campaign against the Jewish religion, anti-Soviet elements are hiding.

“It is no excuse–as reported in certain circles here–that the general anti-religious campaign is being carried out badly, with bad caricatures. Then the entire drive is not being carried on properly. But one must not forget what the Jews have suffered during the Second World War; they (the Jews) lost a third of their people in the ghettoes and in the gas chambers–in addition to their losses on the battlefields–suffering as Jews as a result of anti-Semitic propaganda.”

The editorial also criticized the Soviet Government’s campaign for denying USSR Jews to have matzoth for Passover. Regarding the pamphlet, the statement continued by asking: “What means will be taken against the caricaturist, author and publishers of the book, ‘Judaism Without Embellishment?”

“The masses,” the editorial continued, “especially the Jewish masses, were rightfully excited over the caricatures, and the matzoth situation has also given no satisfaction. And it would be a serious mistake to write all of this off as cold-war propaganda. The errors of the anti-religious campaign, and furthermore the serious errors of the re-establishment of the Stalinist errors against the liquidated, Jewish cultural institutions, or rather the failure to revive those institutions, are subjects that disturb many honest people, many of them friends of the Soviet Union.”