Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, addressed himself today to the problem of Jewish survival in a world in which the power and influence of the West is on the decline, the influence of the East–the Communist bloc–is ascendant and in which the Third World forces represented by developing nations of Africa and Asia may prove decisive. Dr. Goldmann spoke before the Board of Deputies of British Jews and guests who gave him a standing ovation at the conclusion of his remarks.
Dr. Goldmann stated that planning for the future can only be effective if there is international Jewish cooperation and diaspora-Israel cooperation in such planning. There is no time to lose, he warned. “Some three million Jews live in the Soviet Union. It would be an untenable proposition that we should give up the fight for the rights of Soviet Jews to live as Jews.”
Continuing, he observed: “Protests alone–and sometimes it is necessary to protest–will not do it. We must plan ahead, and one day we may yet talk to the Soviet leaders, together with Soviet Jews as to how Jewish rights could be safeguarded within the Soviet Union.”
Dr. Goldmann noted that there was no Jewish problem within the Third World but that those nations know little or nothing about Jews, past and present. At the same time, they are a decisive power in the United Nations whose future may yet be more effective than its past and present. “We must establish contacts with them and enlighten them as to what we are and what we represent as a Jewish people.” Dr. Goldmann said.
Finally, he referred to the deterioration of Jewish prospects in Latin America. “Latin America hovers between the West and the Third (World) force. It is a continent in turmoil and revolution. There is some anti-Semitism there, but this is not the main danger to Jews,” the WJCongress leader said. “The main danger is inherent in the revolutionary situation within Latin American society. We can learn something from Cuba. Castro is friendly to Israel and Jews. But a community of ten thousand souls has been ruined because it did not fit into the new pattern,” he said.
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.
