Latin American W. J. C. Parley Asks Moscow to Lift Ban on Jewish Culture

The Latin American conference of the World Jewish Congress closed here today after four days of deliberations with the adoption of a series of resolutions designed to place South and Central American Jewry in support of the aspirations for individual and cultural freedom of Jews living under restrictive circumstances in a number of countries. Delegates from the countries attended the parley.

Argentine Vice President Alejandro Gomez, who attended the last day’s session, told the delegates that Jews had made substantial contributions to Argentina’s progress. Underlining that Argentina would derive benefits from “conferences such as yours, ” Dr. Gomez expressed his support of the desires and hopes expressed in the conference resolutions. The Vice President made mention of the many persecutions suffered by Jews.

Taking note that the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union “constitutes the cultural problem of our generation, ” the WJC parley expressed concern over the restrictions on cultural and other freedoms of the Jewish citizens of the USSR and urged the Soviet authority to permit the Jews full range of cultural and spiritual expression. The delegates stressed that Jews in the USSR and other Communist countries were not allowed to emigrate to Israel, which they said violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and urged that they be given this right.

A special resolution drew the attention of the world to the problem of Rumanian Jewish families split between Israel and the Communist state when a policy allowing immigration to Israel was abruptly halted, leaving parents separated from children. The resolution, which took the Bucharest regime severely to task, noted that the victims of its anti-immigration policy had already suffered heavily at the hands of the Nazis.

The delegates underlined the persecutions suffered by the Jews in Nasser’s Egypt and expressed satisfaction with the work of the WJC in the direction of freedom of emigration from Tunisia and Morocco. Finally, the delegates urged world implementation and respect for the conventions outlawing genocide.