A demand that all governments in all countries recognize the right of Jews to maintain their communal life and institutions was voiced at the Assembly of the World Jewish Congress here in a report on the situation of Jews in various lands presented to the more than 300 delegates attending the parley.
The report cited official efforts made by the World Jewish Congress to contact Soviet Jewry. “We are unhappily not in a position to report any progress in the attempts to establish such contact,” the document said. It revealed that a sustained effort was made to secure the interest of the Soviet authorities to permit a number of Jewish congregations in the Soviet Union to send observers to the Stockholm conference.
“We were assured repeatedly and emphatically by Soviet representatives that the congregations and individuals we had in mind were free to accept our invitation if they wished, and that the Soviet Government as a matter of policy did not intervene in such matters,” the report stated, adding that after many months of silence, the Soviet Jewish congregations have declined the WJC invitation just on the eve of the Assembly’s opening here this week.
JEWISH LEADER FROM POLAND ADDRESSES W. J.C. ASSEMBLY; ATTACKS ISRAEL
Active Jewish support in favor of a summit conference which would resolve world problems was urged here today by Hersh Smoliar, chairman of the five-man team of observers which the Communist-controlled Union of Jewish Cultural Organizations in Poland sent to the Assembly of the World Jewish Congress, now in session here. At the same time, he also attacked Israel for its “link-up with the Western world.”
Delivering his first address at the WJC Assembly, the leader of the observer group from Poland said that a summit conference would relax world tension and possibly bring about a settlement between Israel and its neighboring Arab countries. He strongly criticized Israel’s arms deal with Western Germany. “What is Israel, what is the World Jewish Congress, doing to help put an end to world tensions which have become a special tragedy for the Jewish people?” he asked.
“Some members of our small Jewish community,” he continued, “have left our country for what they thought to be a better life. Many have gone to Israel. Now they bitterly regret it.” By contrast, he pointed out that “despite their small numbers and lack of material facilities, the Jews in Poland strive with all their hearts and souls for the fulfillment of Judaism within the framework of the political and social structure of their country.”
UNITED NATIONS, NEHRU, PRESIDENT OF GERMANY GREET W. J. C. ASSEMBLY
Many world leaders, including West German President Theodor Heuss, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and an Undersecretary of the United Nations representing Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold today greeted the Assembly of the World Jewish Congress here by cable or in person.
U.N. Undersecretary Philippe de Seynes, bringing greetings from Mr. Hammarskjold, praised the World Jewish Congress, which has full non-governmental status at the United Nations, for “interpreting its relations with the United Nations in the true spirit of the United Nations character.”
Mr. Nehru pointed out in his message that it was “not usual” for him to send greetings to congresses held outside his own country. “Nevertheless,” he declared, “I must send my best wishes to this all-Jewish Assembly.”
Dr. Heuss, recalling “the tragic fate of European Jewry under Nazi domination,” asked Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, “not to let this unhappy shadow cast gloom among the two nations.” He expressed the hope that there will be a continuance of “the will to love which characterizes” the present relations between Jews and West Germany.
Just before the opening of the session last night, a number of Israeli delegates, as well as some from Latin America, notified Dr. Goldmann that they would not attend the session in protest against the attendance of the German Ambassador. They also objected to the fact that the German flag, among the flags of other nations, flew in front of the building where the session was held.
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.
