Prime Minister Harold Wilson told the House of Commons today that he did not “think there would be any advantage in making further representations at present” to Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin on the treatment of Jews in Russia.” The Prime Minister spoke in reply to a question by Laborite MP Arnold Shaw, who asked what further representations were to be made following Mr. Wilson’s discussions with the Soviet leader in January. Mr. Wilson noted that his discussions on the subject of the treatment of Soviet Jews were informal.
On Feb. 4, the Prime Minister made public his correspondence with Sir Barnett Janner on the subject of his talks with Mr. Kosygin. The letters indicated that the Soviet leaders remain adamant in their refusal to permit Jews to emigrate.
BRITISH COMMUNIST ADMITS MOSCOW PRESS EXCERPTS REPRESENT ‘SHOCKING ANTI-SEMITISM’
A member of the British Communist Party who tried to defend the Soviet Union against charges of anti-Semitism, was forced to admit at a meeting here last night, that excerpts from the official Soviet press read to him were indeed “shocking anti-Semitism” reminiscent of “the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The meeting was a “teach in” on the plight of Soviet Jewry sponsored by the London Region of the Inter-University Jewish Federation and the youth section of the Jewish National Fund. An audience of more than 500, mostly students and including a number of Communists, was addressed by Prof. Leonard Schapiro, Dr. Solomon Gaon, Chief Rabbi of the Associated Sephardic Congregations of Britain, Sir John Lawrence and Gordon Hausmann, of the London University’s committee for Soviet Jewry and Bert Ramelson of the British Communist Party.
Prof. Schapiro said that his research on the situation of Jews in the USSR demonstrated that they were a “culturally deprived” group in contradiction to the general Soviet policy toward ethnic minorities. Dr. Gaon appealed for the rights of Soviet Jews to remain Jews and preserve their Jewish traditions Just as other minority groups in Russia. Mr. Hausmann said that he and his committee had been careful about applying the term “anti-Semitic” to the Soviet Union but since last June’s Arab-Israel war, “there is no doubt that an anti-Semitic campaign has been unleashed in the Soviet press and other media.”
Mr. Ramelson took exception, declaring that a distinction must be made between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments. He contended that there was little or no anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union today. He averred that to demand the right of Jews to emigrate in order to re-unite with their families abroad was to ask for “special privileges” for Soviet Jewry. A member of the audience confronted Mr. Ramelson with a number of anti-Semitic excerpts from the Soviet press but did not tell him their source. When Ramelson admitted that these were “shocking anti-Semitism,” he was informed of where they originated.
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