Soviet Ambassador in London Refuses to Receive Jewish Delegation

Sir Barnett Janner, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, reported to the organization today that all efforts to meet with the Soviet Ambassador to London to discuss the situation of Jews in the USSR, “have proved unsuccessful.” He told the Board’s monthly meeting that the efforts centered on a proposed Jewish delegation that would have included Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie. The Jewish community here, he stated, “continues to be gravely disturbed about the present position of Soviet Jewry.”

Sir Barnett also hailed the proposed document on the Catholic attitude to the Jewish people, currently under debate by the Ecumenical Council in the Vatican, as “a momentous and highly significant statement.” The draft decree, he declared, represented “a profound step toward removing accusations which have helped in the past to recreate animosity against our people.” Catholics throughout the world, he said, should heed a guidance of this nature from the Vatican, and “nothing but good can come from it.”