A sharp protest against anti-Jewish persecutions in Rumania, and against anti-Semitism elsewhere behind the Iron Curtain, particularly in Hungary and Slovakia, was issued here today by the “Free Trade Unionists in Exile.”
The organization, composed of trade union leaders from Soviet and Soviet-satellite countries, recounted the results of three secret trials of Jewish leaders in Rumania this year. Pointing out that the free world has already protested vigorously against renewed Communist persecution of Jews, the statement declares: “The free workers of the world join in these protests against a new racism which is coming from behind the Iron Curtain.”
The statement traces the rise of anti-Semitism in Rumania, ascribing the renewed persecutions to the fact that Rumanian Jews, robbed of their livelihood by discriminatory laws, had begun organizing emigration, many of them turning their eyes toward Israel. The government-dominated “Jewish Democratic Committee,” led by Jewish Communists, tried to “organize” this emigration effort. But, when the Jews rejected this Communist effort, recognizing it as a ruse, the persecutions, secret trials, and imprisonments resulted, the statement says.
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.
