The Assembly of the World Jewish Congress today adopted a resolution calling upon the Soviet Union to permit Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel. The resolution also expressed “regret” that Soviet Jews are “denied the opportunity to participate in Jewish life in cooperation with other Jewish communities.”
The resolution deplored “deeply” the denial to Soviet Jews of the “basic rights of every Jewish community to preserve its spiritual and cultural traditions” and “to make its distinct contribution to the life of its country and the country’s citizenship.”
Urging the Soviet Government to “secure for all of its citizens the full opportunity of collective religious and cultural self-expression,” the resolution further called on the Kremlin “to take the necessary legislative and administrative measures to facilitate and to safeguard the exercise of this fundamental right.”
The Assembly resolution stressed that the World Jewish Congress deems it its duty to draw the attention of the Soviet authorities to the fact that the Jews of the Soviet Union do not have the possibilities, such as are available to other nationalities and ethnic groups in the USSR, of “forming publishing houses, issuing publications and periodicals, conducting theatres, and pursue other cultural and educational activities through institutions that would maintain and develop spiritual heritage through the Hebrew and Yiddish languages.”
“Unlike other religious communities,” the resolution stated, “Jewish religious congregations in the Soviet Union have no central organization for serving the common objectives and for taking care of the spiritual services and similar activities that are indispensable for the maintenance of religious life.”
In conclusion, the resolution urged the Soviet Government, together with the governments of all other countries, to “translate the ideals of human rights into living reality for all men.”
APPEALS TO RUMANIA TO RESUME REUNION OF BROKEN JEWISH FAMILIES
Parallel with the resolution appealing to the Soviet Government to permit emigration to Israel of Soviet Jews “who may wish to do so,” the Assembly also adopted a resolution affirming the right of any person to leave and return to any country, including his own. The resolution directs the WJC executive to continue to provide “all available means” to Jews in all lands “to avail themselves of the rights of freedom of emigration, if they desire to emigrate.”
The resolution included a clause directed particularly at Rumania, appealing to the Bucharest Government to resume the humanitarian action, unfortunately interrupted in recent months, of granting facilities for reuniting broken families.” The interruption of the older policy by Rumania had “resulted in a sad situation,” the resolution pointed out.
Another resolution, calling upon Austria to “recognize the wrongs inflicted against victims of Nazism” by satisfying the “legitimate claims” of those victims to compensation “without delay,” was adopted by the Assembly late in the evening. The resolution also voiced protest against Austrian governmental reprieves of the sentences of “Nazi criminals who have been justly convicted and sentenced to long terms for the mass murder of Jews.”
This clause of the resolution declared that the mitigation of the sentences handed out against the Nazi criminals “has diminished confidence” in the Austrian authorities who took the actions. Further, the resolution noted that “a number of Austrian Nazis guilty of crimes against Jews have, thus far, gone unpunished.”
A further resolution urged the World Jewish Congress to take all measures to protect the mass graves of victims of Nazism at the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and demanded that the graves be kept from neglect.
The Assembly called for world-wide elimination of racial discrimination in employment. All WJC affiliates were urged to do all in their power to get their governments to ratify United Nations conventions outlawing such discrimination.
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