U.S. Protests to Soviet over Anti-semitic Aspersions of Russian Delegate

The United States has made a formal complaint to the Soviet Mission to the United Nations over the “anti-Semitic aspersions” by a Soviet delegate against Morris B. Abram, the United States representative to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the National Community Relations Advisory Council reported today.

The action was disclosed in a letter from Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Aaron Goldman, chairman of the NCRAC, a coordinating agency of nine national Jewish organizations — including the American Jewish Committee — and 79 local Jewish community councils. Secretary Rusk said in his April 3 letter:

“The United States Mission to the United Nations, under instructions from the Department of State, made formal representations to the Soviet Mission in New York, at a high level, to make it absolutely clear that Mr. Yakub Ostrovski’s conduct was considered to be a regrettable departure from the standards which should prevail — and which normally have prevailed — in United Nations bodies.”

Mr. Goldman, in making public the letter, said he had protested to the State Department as soon as he had learned of the incident at the meeting of the U.N. Commission, which was held in Geneva. He said he had written to Mr. Rusk that “any slur upon the integrity of an American representative because of his religious association is obnoxious to the American tradition, which makes and recognizes no distinction among American citizens on the basis of faith or creed.”

Mr. Goldman wrote that “on three different occasions,” the head of the Soviet delegation referred to Mr. Abram, who is also president of the American Jewish Committee, “in terms that imputed to Mr. Abram a religious bias in his presentation of the United States position. On the most recent of the three occasions, the Soviet representative openly charged Mr. Abram with ‘serving two masters’.” That was on March 23 when the commission discussed a recommendation for creation of a U.N. Commissioner of Human Rights. The Soviet delegate then accused Mr. Abram of “obeying the orders of the Zionists and Jews of America” and with “serving two masters.”

STATE DEPARTMENT TO REACT VIGOROUSLY ALSO IN THE FUTURE

In an earlier exchange on March 21 in the same debate, Mr. Abram raised a point of order and was attacked by Mr. Ostrovski who said: “You may interrupt people at the American Jewish Committee but this is not a meeting of the American Jewish Committee.” Mr. Abram replied that the Soviet delegate had “bias” that was “barely concealed” in conduct that was “in keeping with the policy, which has become infamous in all the world, of claiming non-discrimination while practicing discrimination and repression.”

Mr. Goldman, in his letter to Mr. Rusk, urged the United States to find “suitable means” to protest the Soviet delegate’s “vicious attempt to raise the specter of a religious test for representation on U.N. bodies.” In the absence of a protest, Mr. Goldman added, Mr. Abram’s rebuke to the Soviet delegate could be misinterpreted as a personal defense “whereas it was not he, but the integrity of the United States representation that was being besmirched.”

Mr. Rusk said that the State Department had been equally concerned, adding that “we fully supported the eloquent and telling response Mr. Abram made. That response was made on behalf of the United States Government, in Mr. Abram’s capacity as United States representative. We believe that it disposes very effectively of the anti-Semitic aspersions made by the Soviet representative.” Mr. Rusk added that the State Department would “continue to react vigorously to such unfounded attacks on American representatives if they should recur.”