U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council Urges Action Against Anti-semitism

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, at an emergency session yesterday, called on political, religious and industrial leaders as well as all citizens of the United States to speak out against the resurgence of anti-Semitism and Nazism in the wake of the bombing of a Paris synagogue Oct. 3.

Noting that the 1930s and 1940s demonstrated that the “distance between words and deeds are very small, ” the writer Elie Wiesel, chairman of the Memorial Council, said he would send a delegation from the Council to Europe to meet with French President Volery Giscard d’Estaing and other European leaders to discuss the situation. He said there are also plans to hold an international conference against anti-Semitism either in the U.S. or Europe.

President Carter sent a telegram to the meeting yesterday in which he said the session is an indication that the Memorial, which we conceived and planned together, must serve not only as an ever-present reminder of the Holocaust, but as a challenge to people everywhere to meet the continuing threat to human decency.” The Council was established by Carter to recommend a suitable memorial to the Holocaust.

In his telegram, Carter noted that “I spoke out immediately after the Paris synagogue attacks stating that such violence was ‘abhorrent to me and the American people and to the entire civilized world.’ I added later: ‘Terrorism is a crime against decency and humanity, whether it occurs on the streets of Paris or on the streets of Jerusalem, whether those responsible in Paris are neo-Nazis, or in Jerusalem members of the PLO’.”

Carter stressed that there can be “no doubt about our nation’s resolve. We cannot appear to condone such terrorism through inaction. Condemnation alone does not suffice. We must demonstrate our unity with the victims of terror.” Rep. Bill Green (R.NY), a member of the Holocaust Memorial Council, said the Paris bombing is not an isolated case and “we must organize” to combat the rise of anti-Semitism and racism.

SITES CAUSES FOR RISE OF ANTI-SEMITISM

A resolution considered by the Council blamed the rise of anti-Semitism on the United Nations General Assembly’s “Zionism is Racism” resolution “which has given permission for the anti-Semite to speak and act with impunity”; on the Soviet Union which, it said, was “the most virulent source of anti-Semitism in the world” and which is “a full-time exporter of racial hatred,” and on “unsettled world conditions which always breed the extremist carrying simplistic and false solutions to social problems.”

In its call for all persons to condemn the resurgence of anti-Semitism, the Council noted that “not to speak at this moment is not only the sin of silence, but may result in a catastrophe engulfing all of mankind. We ask that community leaders address the issue head on publicly. We ask that sermons be preached condemning hatred. We ask that communities organize rallies, meetings and other appropriate forums to express condemnation and indignation at the rise of anti-Semitism and other forms of racism not only all over the world, but particularly in our own beloved democracy.”