Philip M. Klutznick, chairman of the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress, called today on the leaders of the Soviet Union “to fulfill the obligations they have undertaken in the field of human rights and to restore these words to their full significance for the Jews of that country.”
Klutznick, a former United States envoy to the United Nations, issued his call in an address to the second World Conference on Soviet Jewry which opened here yesterday, attended by more than 1000 delegates from 30 countries. He is a member of the 350-member delegation from the United States.
Declaring that the problem of Jews in the Soviet Union “fundamentally…is the problem of humanity as a whole.” Klutznick quoted “intentionally” from sources “outside our own Jewish history and experience” to emphasize both the antiquity and universality of the quest for human freedom. He quoted Plato’s dialogue, the Crito; the American Declaration of Independence; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948; and the Helsinki Declaration of Human Rights that closed the European Security Conference last August.
“My words are those of an American who believes in the philosophy, concepts and values that his country is celebrating this bicentennial year,” the WJCongress official declared.
REALITY MUST GUIDE PASSIONS
He said that “As one who has accepted the idea of detente with the hope that it may usher in a better day, I do not feel inhibited by that acceptance from looking at the Soviet Union, not in terms of nomenclature or labels, but in terms of its policy toward its Jewish minority and particularly in terms of the extent to which it has carried out the promises and commitments it made when it ratified the convention and covenants and those made in Helsinki only a few months ago.”
Klutznick observed: “It is human, and not unreasonable, to be passionate about Issues of this kind. But our passions need to be governed and guided by the awareness of reality. To protest for the sake of protest, to shout accusations compounded more of anger than of fact, can be an exercise in futility. Or worse, it can obscure what is genuine and defeat the purpose of valid protest. The case against the Soviet Union for its failure to accord equality to its Jewish citizens is strong enough; it should not be distorted by those who condemn without knowledge or speak without understanding.”
USSR NOT AKIN TO NAZI GERMANY
In that connection, Klutznick warned that in considering a situation involving the lives of millions “it is imperative that we use a sense of true perspective, and not inject false and fierce emotions or act on unreliable premises.”
The Communists of the Soviet Union, he said, “did not originate anti-Semitism; they found it full-grown, deep-rooted and tough to eradicate–even had they boldly and actively addressed themselves to that task…Let us not undermine our credibility with absurd and unfounded charges that the Soviet Union is akin to Nazi Germany.
“Those who encourage that comparison do a disservice to the cause of human rights….Nazi Germany did not want Jews at any price; Soviet Russia seems to want them no matter what the price. We do not urge the Kremlin to change its commitments to itself and to the world. All we seek is that they keep them–that they give the Jewish national who seeks them the rights enjoyed by a Russian Orthodox, a Baptist or a Moslem in the Soviet Union.”
URGES REJECTION OF NUMBERS GAME
Klutznick said that the question of “how many Soviet Jews want to be Jewish, freely and creatively, beclouds the issue” and is a question “oftimes raised by Soviet leaders and apologists.” He said he doubted “if anyone knows the precise number of Soviet nationals who would meet a reasonably acceptable definition of being a Jew. But what difference does it make if the statistics are two-and-a-half million or three million. What difference does it make if a ‘considerable number is content to flee its past….This numbers game can be played with any religion or ethnic group. Suppose there were only ten, the minyan of Jewish tradition, who wanted freedom to practice Judaism and to sustain it? Should a great state deny this to them?”
He stated that the “essence of what we ask of the Soviet Union is that she accord no less to all of her nationals–Jew as well as all others–than what she claims to seek for peoples elsewhere in the world….I believe the Soviet Union will not remain impervious to reasoned pleas of the world.”
The statements by Klutznick were contained in an advance text provided to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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.
