A meeting to combat anti-Semitism in the ranks of the Communist party was held here, with Anatole Lunacharsky, Commissar of Education, and Semashko, Commissar of Health, as the chief speakers.
The “Tribuna,” organ of the Ozet, gives a detailed account of the proceedings of the meeting. Lunacharsky, in a two-hour address, argued with the Communist anti-Semites in an attempt to convince them of the impossibility of their position. He could understand those who oppose the Soviet government, he said, but cannot see how the followers of Communism can maintain the claim that “Jews govern us.” The speaker quoted at length facts and figures concerning the number of Jews in the Red Army and in government offices and stated that whereas in Czarist times the Jews formed 4 per cent of the population and only 3 per cent in the army, now they form only 2¼ per cent in the army.
Semashke in his address pointed to the very difficult economic situation in which the Jewish population in Soviet Russia finds itself.
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.
