The entire Hebrew press today welcomed the Soviet exoneration of 15 Moscow doctors of charges of causing the death of top Soviet leaders. The arrest of nine of the doctors last January was the highpoint of the Soviet Anti-Jewish campaign.
In general the press utilized this incident to underline the Israeli request for the free emigration of Jews in the Communist countries who wish to come to Israel. The Malawi newspaper Davar and the General Zionist Haboker both regarded the Soviet action as a blow against Jewish leftists who supported the charges against the doctors, against Jews and against “themselves as Jews.”
The independent Haaretz saw in the move a desire on the part of the Malenkov government to win over public opinion at home and abroad. It also held forth the possibility that the freeing of the doctors resulted from an internal conflict among forces in the government resulting from Stalin’s death or that it could be a move designed to appease the Western powers and cause them to slow down their rearmament thus permitting the Soviet Union to become the strongest world power within a few years. The newspaper also endorsed the Israel Government’s bid for resumption of diplomatic relations between the Soviet and Israel.
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.
