World Jewish Congress Appeals to Moscow for Talks on Soviet Jewry

A resolution calling on the Government of the USSR to grant to Soviet Jews “the same rights and facilities for the peaceful pursuit of their national and religious life as is enjoyed by other national, ethnic and religious groups” in the USSR was adopted here today by the British section of the World Jewish Congress. The resolution was passed unanimously at the closing session of a two-day conference.

The session adopted the resolution after a review of the situation of Soviet Jewry had been presented by A. L. Easterman, director of the WJC’s international affairs department. He appealed for talks on the plight of Russian Jewry between Jewish spokesmen from the West and Moscow authorities, “World Jewry,” he said, “is ready and eager to assist the Soviet Government by explanation, discussion and removal of misunderstandings toward finding a solution which will be to the advantage of the USSR no less than to the 3, 000, 000 Jewish citizens in the USSR.”

On another topic, Dr. Gerhart M. Riegner, of Geneva, director of coordination for the the World Jewish Congress, told the meeting last night that, if the next session of the Ecumenical Council, at the Vatican, fails to adopt a proposed statement on improvement of Catholic-Jewish relations, such a failure “will create deep and wide disappointment among Jews” and among other peoples around the world,”

Jacob Halevy, chairman of the section, told the conference in another address that the WJC must still continue to fight anti-Semitism which, he stated, “is still alive.” Among such manifestations, he said, is a textbook for school children recently circulated in schools in Spain which “poisons children’s minds with anti-Semitic propaganda.” The textbook, he reported, contains stories against the Jews.