The Jewish Agency today issued a statement charging the Soviet Government with “entering the path of official anti-Semitism” and demanding that the gates of the Soviet Union and the satellite countries be opened for those Jews who are willing to leave the Communist countries.
“Let the millions of Jews not be hostages without letting them out of the trap. Permit them to leave for the land which is waiting for them,” the statement said. It called upon the Jews the world over to face the Soviet anti-Jewish attacks “in closed ranks, without fear and without compromise.”
The statement condemned the “vicious attacks” by the Soviet Government on the Zionist movement as well as on the Joint Distribution Committee “which during a generation accomplished very much in saving Jews and alleviating their sufferings within Russia itself with the consent of the Soviet Government. ” It termed the Soviet recent anti-Jewish libels as “poisonous anti-Semitic propaganda” and emphasized that the Jewish Agency is anxious over the fate of the Jews in Soviet Russia and in the countries dominated by Russia.
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.
