The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has protested “the blatant attack on Jews” made by Yakov A. Malik, Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, during the Security Council debate on Jerusalem on Sept. 25. In a letter to Toru Nakagawa, president of the Security Council, Seymour Graubard, national chairman of the League, charged Malik with distorting the meaning of the Chosen People belief and “resurrecting the malevolent interpretation of Third Reich propagandists during the 1930’s”
Malik’s statement at the meeting likened Zionism with fascism and called both “racist ideologies.” The Soviet delegate went on to say that “the Chosen People, people elected by God in the 20th Century… is a criminal and absurd theory. The true meaning of the Jews as “Chosen People,” Graubard said, “is a religious precept which refers only to the concept that Jews are charged with bearing witness to God’s existence by walking a difficult path in leading an exemplary life.”
At the same time, B’nai B’rith president William A. Wexler denounced as “blatant and vulgar anti-Semitism” the attacks of Malik on Zionism and Israel during the Council debate on Jerusalem. “Ambassador Malik’s lumping together of Zionism and fascism was a gratuitous insult and provocation to millions of Jews all over the world who support Israel.” Wexler said. He added that it was “further evidence that many purported attacks on Zionism are simply a clumsy cloak for anti-Semitism.” Wexler said that Malik’s statements “are the latest in a series by Soviet delegates to the UN who have tried to exploit anti-Semitism and who have attempted to portray the martyrs of Hitlerism as its followers.”
Graubard, in his protest, also assailed Malik’s personal attack on Yosef Tekoah, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN. Referring to Malik’s “Don’t stick your long nose into our garden” statement, Graubard asserted that it was a “snide use of a stereotype from the arsenal of all anti-Semites.” Calling Malik’s “anti-Semitic slurs” a violation of “both the spirit of the United Nations …and the letter of its many declarations of human dignity.” Graubard said, “they must not be allowed to go unchallenged.” Graubard urged the Security Council president to lead the Council into taking appropriate action.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
