World Youth Parley Appeals to Thant, Khrushchev on Soviet Jews

Urgent appeals to Soviet authorities to grant Russian Jews spiritual and cultural freedoms marked the closing session today of the week-long Second Conference of World Jewish Youth. The 400 delegates from 39 countries decided to submit a request to United Nations Secretary General U Thant and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to exercise their good offices on behalf of Soviet Jews.

A related resolution included a message of fraternity and encouragement to Jewish youth in the Soviet Union and an expression of a conviction that the day was not distant when Jewish youth in all countries would be permitted to join the ranks of organized Jewish youth.

The resolution expressed concern over the recrudescence of “rabid anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism” and called on Jewish youth to react resolutely in defense of the Jewish people’s honor. The delegates expressed pride over the “courageous stand” taken by Jewish youth against physical attacks by anti-Semitic organizations in “certain countries.”

The delegates also urged Israeli students abroad to acquaint themselves with local Jewish communities and to participate in their activities. The resolution noted that the interest “currently shown by Israel youth” in the activities of Jewries of other countries was “inadequate,” The delegates said that it was of the “utmost importance that every effort be made to stimulate such interest and give it more active and tangible form.”

The only other resolution adopted by the conference was one calling for the establishment of a continuing consultative committee for cooperation among world Jewish youth. This was approved, however, only after it was changed from a steering committee version calling for the setting up of a “coordinating council.” The change was insisted on by some of the delegates to assure that the new body would have no power to legislate or issue directives between conferences.

FORCE OF MEASURES TONED DOWN AS AMERICANS THREATEN TO WITHDRAW

A series of drafts calling for education in Jewish communities outside Israel to encourage Zionism and immigration to Israel were adopted as “recommendations” and not as resolutions. That formula was used to end the threat of withdrawal from the conference of American youth organizations. Delegates of four American non-Zionist groups strongly objected to resolutions of Zionist content. They declared their participation in the conference was on condition that all resolutions be adopted unanimously. They were B’nai B’rith, Hillel, United Synagogue Youth and the National Federation of Temple Youth with a total membership of 250,000.

One of the most disputed proposed resolutions called on Jewish educators to recognize that “a full independent Jewish life” was possible only in Israel, where pioneering also offered the possibility of creating a new Jewish society based on social justice.

Among the recommendations which will be submitted by the delegates to their respective organizations were appeals to Jews who have left Cuba and Algeria and Jews of the “disintegrating” communities of Latin America, as well as Jews who returned to Germany, to immigrate to Israel, and an appeal to Jewish organizations and movements to recognize that conditions in many countries were conducive to assimilation. The recommendation stated that assimilation was threatened in those countries and that, to ward off this danger, efforts should be made to strengthen Jewish life in various fields and through stronger ties to Israel.

Another recommendation called on the Jewish Agency to increase emissaries for education and guidance, and urged that such emissaries to non-Israel Jewries be oriented in “knowledge and love” for Jewish culture, religion and general Jewish values. The proposal also called on youth organizations to include at least one year’s stay in Israel in educational programs for members.

The Israeli delegation, which initially had sided with the Zionist-oriented Latin American and European organizations for adoption of the disputed proposals as resolutions, decided at the last minute to support the four American youth group delegations. The Americans also objected to the exclusion of religious, cultural and other values as an objective of Jewish education in communities outside Israel from resolutions which set down Zionism and immigration to Israel as specific objectives.

Benzion Shalom, chairman of the conference organization committee, said in a summary statement that, despite all “procedural and other errors,” the conference had proved worth while.

The closing session also heard an address by Moshe Sharett, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive, who said that, while it was harder to be a Jew today than it was for many centuries before, “there has never been a period in which it was more worthwhile to be one.” He told the delegates that they faced a constant struggle against “indifference, shallowness and apathy” and that it was the destiny of Jewish life everywhere to be “a life of high tension, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually.”