U.S. Academicians Urge Soviet C.P. to Endorse Program to Relieve Plight of Jews

Leaders of American academic life today called upon the Soviet Communist Party to endorse a four-part program to relieve the plight of Soviet Jewish citizens. Prof. Hans J. Morgenthau, chairman of the 3,000 member Academic Committee on Soviet Jewry and professor of political science at City College of New York and Chicago University, made public the texts of letters addressed to Leonid I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and to Commnunist party leaders in twelve Western nations. In his letter to Brezhnev, sent on the eve of the Russian Communist Party’s 24th congress, which opens on March 30, Prof. Morgenthau stated that "justice for Soviet Jewry is a matter of historic moral and humanitarian priority." The equitable resolution of problems facing Russian Jews, he said, "will remove a serious moral, emotional and political obstacle to the relaxation of tensions between our two countries and peoples." The four-part program presented by the Committee calls for "the restoration of cultural, educational and communal rights and institutions for Soviet Jews; a systematic educational and propaganda campaign against anti-Semitism; the immediate release of all Jewish prisoners…whose only crime is their determination to settle in Israel; (and) the reunification of broken families, in Israel, the United States or elsewhere."

In a letter to Communist party leader Luigi Longo of Italy, Prof. Morgenthau pointed to Mr. Longo’s record "of opposition to anti-Semitism, the oppression of peoples and the suppression of human rights," asking him to "play an honorable role in persuading the Soviet leadership…to be decently responsive to these moral and humanitarian concerns." Prof. Morgenthau expressed his belief that Mr., Longo "must surely be alert to the profound concern felt about this problem in world public opinion, not least among leftist and progressive circles in the West who are devoted to the achievement of a just and durable peace in the world." In addition to his letter to Mr. Longo, secretary general of the largest Communist party in Western Europe, Prof. Morgenthau wrote to the party leaders in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.